(Minghui.org) Many Chinese people have grown up surrounded by the culture of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It's been so deeply ingrained that it's often hard for someone to realize its presence within their thoughts and actions.
I've found that this Party culture often manifests when we unknowingly make value judgments based on the Party's distorted standards.
I did not have a clear understanding of how the CCP misguides people in the past and also failed to recognize the influence of Party culture in myself. Therefore, I often used the bastardized moral standards from Party culture to handle issues in my own cultivation.
One day when I studied the Fa, I read this paragraph,
“Those bystanders even found it strange that the elderly woman did not exploit him and ask him for money. Nowadays, human moral values have been distorted. The driver indeed drove the car too fast, but how could he possibly hit someone on purpose? Didn’t he do it unintentionally?” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I suddenly came to see how the CCP culture’s distorted thinking has developed a mechanism within me and caused me to develop some degenerate notions.
According to traditional culture, if others harmed me, it would mean that I had just repaid a karmic debt which I owed the other party. I should be happy that I paid off the debt instead of being resentful.
However, the CCP destroyed the morality that we have from traditional culture. Under its influence, people stopped believing in karma. Nowadays, people's first reactions to getting wronged is to plot to take down the other party, regardless if the other party wronged them intentionally or not.
According to these twisted values, if someone was hit by a car, they must complain and blame the other party – something that's already deviated from traditional moral values. Furthermore, that someone might also think that they'll use this opportunity to get a big payout from the driver who hit them. This deviates even further from traditional morality.
As cultivators, our standard should be higher than that of everyday people. We should use Dafa's standards. When we face situations like this, we should not only withhold blame, but should also thank the other person for the opportunity to eliminating karma and raise our level.
We should also clarify the truth of Dafa to them and save them.
In addition to noticing Party culture within in myself, I also see traces of it in many fellow practitioners as well.
A few years ago, a fellow practitioner organized a group of practitioners to distribute Dafa materials in another city. Because of the loopholes in this practitioner’s cultivation, some members of the group were arrested. Many practitioners blamed the organizer. Later, with Master’s protection and the cooperation of fellow practitioners, the arrested practitioners were released.
However, some practitioners decided not to work with the organizer anymore.
Some practitioners originally held some negative thoughts about her already. Now with this incident, they seemed to have found an excuse to let them run free; they complained to others about her behind her back, causing disruptions to the local cultivation environment.
If we think about it, if the organizer knew that some practitioners would get arrested, would she have decided to have them go? Didn’t she do this because she wanted to save sentient beings? Just like that driver Master mentioned, would he hit someone on purpose? When we are holding that practitioner responsible for the arrests, aren’t we acting just like everyday people?
Some practitioners were even upset and claimed that they would never work with her again. Isn’t this deviant thinking? As practitioners, when facing issues, we should always search within and not go to extremes.
I also noticed that some practitioners wouldn’t open their hearts with one another. They always complained about others behind their backs. This CCP-style mode of operation blocks us from forming one-body and saving sentient beings.
I often saw a situation like this: two practitioners had a conflict with each other. One of them seemed to have controlled her temper at the time. However, later on, she would tell others, “If I wasn't a practitioner, I would not have let her get off so easily.”
She thought she had reached the standard and passed the test. But was that really the case?
Master says,
“He’s right,And I’m wrong,” (“Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong,” Hong Yin III)
I always thought that I did a good job of respecting Master and the Fa. This was because I always took great care of anything related to Dafa, and I never misplaced truth materials such as Minghui Weekly.
Once, the police broke into our Fa study site and took away everybody’s Dafa books. However, I was able to save mine. I thought that this was because I did well in respecting Master and the Fa. However, several days ago, while I was studying the Fa, I realized that my so-called respect was only superficial.
Master says,
“Many people think: “If I kowtow, burn incense, and worship Buddha with a sincere heart, my gong will increase.” I find this quite ridiculous. Genuine cultivation practice depends entirely upon a person him or herself, so it is useless to pray for something. You do not have to worship a Buddha or burn incense. As long as you really practice cultivation according to the standard of a practitioner, Buddha will be very pleased to see you.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I felt like Master was talking about me.
I realized that as a practitioner, truly “respecting Master and respecting the Fa” means following Dafa’s requirements when facing issues, searching within, and cultivating oneself. Otherwise, no matter how devout one’s behavior is, there probably is a selfish purpose hiding behind it. It, in fact, is not respecting Master and not respecting the Fa.
Only when we cultivate ourselves in Dafa and become purer and purer, would we be able to enlighten to the Fa, and respect Master and the Fa from the bottom of our hearts.
The distorted ways of thinking imparted to Chinese people by the CCP is very common in practitioners from mainland China. Master has talked about the issue many times in recent years. If we study the Fa with this kind of thinking, we won't be able to understand the Fa and improve our level. Similarly, if we clarify the truth with this type of thinking, we wouldn't be effective in persuading people to quit the CCP.
CCP culture can exist in all different aspects of our lives; it is what we need to rectify. This is my personal understanding. Please point out anything inappropriate.