Issues I Have Noticed Among Practitioners Living Outside China

(Minghui.org) The cultivation environment outside of China has changed a lot since the persecution started in 1999. This is reflected in the initiation and development of various projects, as well as the participation of practitioners who left China after the persecution started.

The Role of Local Coordinators

I noticed that practitioners in many projects have overlooked xinxing improvement and often act like everyday people. Over time, the interactions between projects went from cooperative to lacking communication and fighting each other over manpower. Coordinators often argue that their projects are the most important and then belittle other projects.

These issues, coupled with the CCP’s continued persecution and the influence of some practitioners who do not truly cultivate themselves and those who joined the practitioner community with malicious intentions, have led to incidents that undermined our efforts to save people and validate the Fa. Facing such incidents, every practitioner should look within and improve his moral character. When each of us improves in cultivation, the overall environment will naturally improve.

The coordinators of local Falun Dafa Associations are responsible for the cultivation environment in their areas. Some have made themselves project coordinators and focus more on project work than their primary responsibility. Meanwhile, we should be clear that Dafa Association coordinators are also regulator cultivators, not role models. We should all take the Fa as our teacher and improve as one body.

For those coordinators, it’s also a cultivation opportunity for them when they make mistakes or face criticism from practitioners. No matter what conflicts arise, they should bear in mind the bigger picture and work with everyone to do things better. They shouldn’t try to run away from problems or be attached to their own understandings. Nothing can be achieved easily in human society, much less the tremendous undertaking of Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings.

Issues Stemming from Communist Party Culture

I have seen many practitioners move out of China after 1999 to escape the persecution and seek a normal life or a better future for their children. Some of them suffered severe persecution in China and were forced to write statements to renounce Falun Dafa; others even assisted in persecuting other practitioners while they were incarcerated. Many such practitioners did not realize their mistake or issue a solemn statement after they left China.

There are also some who practice Dafa on and off, without treating cultivation with due seriousness. Many of them still have strong attachments that they aren’t aware of and traits of the Communist Party culture. When they join Dafa projects or become active members of the community, they often cause problems in the cultivation environment where they reside. Their influence have even led some local practitioners to gradually adopt the Communist Party culture.

Traits of Party culture exhibited by practitioners who came out of China in recent years include going against tradition, not using common sense, being highly competitive, casually issuing judgment on others, jealousy, and showing disrespect and contempt for people and things of normal societies outside of China. Their inability to follow social rules and norms make it hard for them to assimilate to local communities.

Practitioners who left China after the persecution began are still given opportunities to take part in Dafa initiatives so that they could fulfill their vows, clarify the truth, and validate the Fa in a positive way. Some have done well, while others have not. Practitioners who moved to CCP-aligned areas, such as Vietnam, Russia, and Hong Kong, need to be especially careful. However, some practitioners have acted like everyday people and either directly or indirectly caused problems in those environments.

For example, despite Master’s reminders on this subject, some practitioners in Vietnam still eagerly hold public Dafa activities to validate themselves and show off. They form cliques and refuse to listen when others point out their shortcomings.

The current president of the Falun Dafa Association in Hong Kong worked closely with a practitioner who once disrupted the Fa and interfered with other practitioners’ truth-clarification work and cultivation.

In the past few years, some practitioners in Russia and the Dafa initiatives they oversee have caused tremendous losses among practitioners. These practitioners consider themselves to be morally superior and refuse to listen to what others have to say. Gradually, other practitioners stopped pointing out their irrational behaviors.

In North America and Europe, many Dafa initiatives have accumulated a lot of resources over the years. Those who were originally in charge of the initiatives, out of friendship, allowed people who have not truly cultivated or those who recently came out of China with unverified backgrounds to take charge of or publicly represent those projects. However, those people may easily be interfered with, and they cannot represent the best interests of the project or practitioners who work for it.

Epilogue

For years, we have seen problems among practitioners that were caused by our karma and our not cultivating solidly. When we deviate from the Fa and Master’s arrangements, we follow the old forces’ arrangements. To have strong righteous thoughts that eliminate interference and make positive changes in our hearts and environment, we need to “... attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Facing such a complex cultivation environment, I hope practitioners will pay attention to these problems and sincerely work together so that we can speak our minds and improve by learning from one another.