As a Buddhist, are you really practicing Buddhism?

Many Buddhists today seem to be practicing Buddhism, but they are not really learning from Buddha. Here are several cases of Buddhists who are not truly practicing Buddhism.
1.Enjoy visiting Bodhimaṇḍas (a term used in Buddhism meaning the "place of awakening”). Some Buddhists enjoy visiting Bodhimandas very much. It is originally a good thing that we could visit virtuous people and learn from them. But these Buddhists are departing from this purpose. They often boast about how many famous temples they have visited and how many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas they have worshipped. They even regard these activities as great achievement they have attained in Buddhism, making no effort to improve their mindset. Master Huilv and other respected monks have spoken about this matter many times. Hopefully, these Buddhists go to Bodhimanda for answers to their questions, not for the purpose of travel, nor taking this as the practice of Buddhism or as something to show off to the new believers.
2. Keen on making friends with other Buddhists.
We love making friends in this world and consider it as a means of making a living and obtaining pleasure. Many Buddhists still have this habit and seem to believe that more friends bring them better achievement in the practice of Buddhism. In fact, what these Buddhists talk about are mostly worldly troubles, nothing to do with the practice of Buddhism. They only take it as an opportunity to make more friends, hoping these friends could offer them a hand when they are in trouble. Ancient eminent monks told us that we do not really need many Buddhist friends. Three or five are enough. We learn from each other, help each other, and achieve the common goal in Buddhism.
3. Repent all day long.
Middle-aged and elderly Buddhists are more commonly found to repent of their wrongdoings all the time. Being afraid of causality, they are busy with repentance all day, taking for granted that repentance can eliminate all the consequences. They fail to understand that upon returning to our self-nature, causality disappears immediately. The purpose of confession is to cultivate our soft heart and great compassion, which enable us to make progress in practicing Buddhism and reduce our karmic obstacles indirectly. For more discussion about this topic, please read my article “On Causality”.
4. Seek blessings.
These people are actually not practicing Buddhism for leaving this world, they practice Buddhism for the purpose of living a better life and having a more prosperous life in the next circle.
5. Engaged in factional struggles.
Many Buddhists try to ask which school they belong to secretly when they meet. If they are of the same school, everyone will be happy. If not, even a meal is not possible. This phenomenon is particularly found in the Dharma Ending Age, but never the case in Buddha's time. These Buddhists do not come together for the pursuit of truth. They gather in the jungle because they are of the same school.
6. Turn the practice of Buddhism into researches.
Empirical practice is the most important part of Buddhism. Some people are complacent with reading a lot of scriptures and doing researches on Buddhism for many years. They wrap themselves with Buddha’s words and doctrines which actually could not solve any basic problem.
7. Take doing good deeds as the whole of practicing Buddhism.
Non-Buddhism argues that conducting good deeds is basically important, because these good deeds enable us to ascend to the heaven. Buddhism considers doing good deeds as a means of cultivating great compassion, and the ultimate purpose is returning to Rulai Zang (Tathāgatagarbha, Buddha-nature), a state representing the essence of the world and empty of any form and idea. Therefore, a true Buddha must do great deeds on the one hand, and on the other hand, diligently conduct empirical research to achieve final success. The latter is the basic course, while the former only a contributing factor. Engaged in good deeds all day long, many Buddhism practitioners nowadays are doing exactly the opposite.
8. Present excessive self-blame and self-depreciation, lacking masculinity.
Some Buddhists are always repenting their own shortcomings and crushing their own confidence and courage, behaving like women, completely empty of the spirit of masculinity. Buddha set us a good example. He escaped into the forests and kept company with wolf, insect, tiger and leopard, never giving up until he reached his goal. Excessive self-blame could only disintegrate our spirit. We should understand that all mistakes are produced by a delusive mind. Since a delusive mind is empty, all mistakes are empty. So, don’t blame yourself all day long. If you want to be a real practitioner of Buddhism, you should make up your mind to conduct empirical study, never yielding to any difficulties and hardships.