A Practitioner Outside of China Expresses Concern – A Letter to the Minghui Editorial Board

(Minghui.org) Greetings to fellow practitioners at Minghui. I’d like to express my gratitude for the three recent articles published by the Minghui editorial board from July 3 to July 5, 2023. They are especially helpful for practitioners like me and answered many of the questions that had been bothering me.

When I became a Falun Dafa practitioner in 2011, a veteran practitioner shared many of his deviant understandings with me. I was new at the time and did not know whom to turn to with the questions I had. I knew that Master had approved Minghui, so I submitted an article to the website that Master Li later commented on: “If the Attachment to Showing Off Isn’t Eliminated, the Danger is Great (With a Comment from Master).”

From then until now, I have come across many veteran practitioners whose words and deeds do not conform to the Fa. I grew used to their behavior and became numb to it. I knew that Falun Dafa was the true Pure Land in the human world, but I couldn’t sense it anymore among practitioners, except with a few who had very good xinxing. Through my dealings with these few practitioners, I saw the demeanor and noble moral quality a genuine cultivator should have.

Some practitioners I knew behaved worse than ordinary people, and they never looked within. I once talked to a practitioner who ran a for-profit Dafa project and told me not to talk to him/her about cultivation when it came to running the project. I slowly distanced myself from that circle of practitioners. Two years ago I thought I would stop interacting with them, as I could not make sense of how they were cultivating.

It wasn’t until recently when I read the three Minghui editorial articles that I felt good about cultivating and knew that the path of cultivation was still righteous after all! Perhaps many practitioners who have cultivated for a long time have deviated from the Fa without realizing it.

That being said, it still upsets me terribly that they could deviate from the Fa so badly while Master is still with us and has occasionally written articles to correct our paths. I could not imagine what the future would be like for them. Perhaps I think too much with my human heart.

I’d like to share the things I’ve seen in the past few years that did not conform to the Fa. Please correct me if I am wrong. I hope that we can all learn from these examples.

1. Looking Down on Most Other Practitioners

Practitioners come from all walks of life, from farmers to businessmen, to high-level officials. Some of the practitioners outside of China that I’ve known who’ve had good educations and make good money look down on most practitioners. In their eyes, most of those practitioners cannot think independently, believe everything Master and Minghui say, and are easily be fooled.

This group of practitioners somehow came to the conclusion that the reason why so many of the richest people in the world have not learned the truth of Dafa was because they came from levels too high, higher than Master, and hence regular people could not clarify the truth to them.

I was more than shocked when I heard such talk from the veteran practitioner. He started practicing around 1999 and was well-known among his local practitioners. I wondered if they ever studied Master’s teachings from the different conferences around the world. If they had, they could not have misconstrued Master’s words so badly.

2. Equating a Person’s Diligence with the Amount of Dafa Work They Do

Some practitioners wrote statements to repent and renounce the practice, and some even smeared Dafa (against their will) on television or in newspapers. Perhaps they wanted to make up for such mistakes after leaving China and tried to work very hard in many Dafa projects.

When Shen Yun started touring, a practitioner did nothing but promoting the show and doing the three things, neglecting her child as a result. Many practitioners believed that she was very diligent. Those who were so busy with Dafa projects that they had no time for family responsibilities were also considered to be diligent. Practitioners who think this way were measuring people’s degree of diligence based on the number of lectures studied or the amount of Dafa work done each day. Few of them focused on improving their conduct and moral standards and eliminating their attachments, as these things seemed too minor and ordinary.

3. Inappropriate Relationships with Practitioners of the Opposite Sex

Improper relationships between men and women occur more often in circumstances where many practitioners work together on many Dafa projects. The more time practitioners spend together, the more likely they develop feelings for one another.

Two practitioners got married after they each divorced their respective spouses and abandoned their children. What confused me was that many practitioners still attended their wedding and gave their blessings. Neither of the new couple’s former spouses practiced Dafa. I worry that such behavior would lead them to develop a negative impression of Dafa. I also saw a practitioner who, after having an affair with another practitioner’s spouse, was called upon to assume an important position in the Falun Dafa Association.

4. Pursuing Fame and Gain Among Practitioners

Most of us would not have known each other had we not practiced Falun Dafa. This environment exists solely for our cultivation. Some practitioners wanted to become big shots in Dafa projects, while others, after meeting practitioners with better social standings, began to do business with them in their own self-interest.

Some practitioners got in touch with practitioners in other countries through Dafa projects. They admire practitioners in charge of large projects or who serve an important role in a project. When I mentioned that this train of thought did not conform to the Fa, they’d tell me not to bring up cultivation and that the projects had nothing to do with cultivation. Some local coordinators launched projects that deviated from the Fa, which pushed me further away from various projects.

Conclusion

I felt sad as I wrote this article, and I sincerely wish that everyone could try to remember how they felt when they started to practice Dafa. Why did we start to cultivate and what exactly did cultivation mean to us? Why do we continue to practice?

I’d like to conclude my thoughts with a quote from the Minghui editorial “Can We Distribute Master’s New Articles Among Non-Practitioners?”

“There is a large portion of practitioners who persist in Fa study and study a lot, but they haven’t truly put in the effort to improve their xinxing. But in Dafa cultivation, the key is to cultivate our hearts, as Dafa directly targets the human heart. We need to constantly improve our xinxing by comparing ourselves to Dafa’s standards, especially when we are in conflicts and tribulations or when our hearts are disturbed by something. We would truly improve our xinxing if we can calmly identify our shortcomings and overcome our notions by comparing ourselves against the Fa. When we know how to cultivate and constantly improve our xinxing, we will not be confused by various things, be at a loss for what to do, or follow other practitioners for guidance instead of following the Fa. It will also prevent us from becoming complacent, being led astray by our own attachments, or even going to the opposite side.”