From what we have seen, yes, there is. The Western conditioning has a lot of conditioning towards investigation into things in a scientific way. From the view of Vipassana practice, this is very helpful to us, in that we don't just believe easily but usually like to investigate and prove things for ourselves. So on the one side, it's very good for doing the reflective analytical type of investigation without just believing blindly. On the other side, there are also things that don't come so easily, that is, confidence, more of the inspirational side, the faith side, but balanced with this wisdom. Sometimes Westerners can get a bit dry in the practice because they analyze things to death without feeling that lightness and inspiration that comes from the faith side of the practice. So learning how to reflect on confidence-inspiring objects of meditation has been a major part of Steve and my teaching for Westerners, to help balance that other strong side of investigation which is very good for the wisdom development.
There's a Buddhist story in the scriptures about Sariputta. He was the chief disciple of the Buddha, and he was known to be the person who was highest in wisdom apart from the Buddha. He had a bit of this type of conditioning; he was very strong on the wisdom side but not so strong on the faith side, the joy side, because joy often comes from faith. He was friends with Mogallana, another disciple of the Buddha. Apparently Mogallana had the other side quite well so he didn't take so long to become enlightened, he only took a week. However, Sariputta took twice as long, two weeks. Of course you have to try to remember that since they were born in the times of the Buddha they had very high Paramis to begin with.
The story is about how Sariputta became enlightened, because it underlines this faith aspect. Sariputta couldn't understand why he wasn't becoming enlightened, because he was very high on the wisdom side. Then one day the Buddha was giving a discourse to some other followers. Apparently Sariputta was fanning the Buddha at this time while he was giving this discourse, and he became so inspired by the Buddha, a great well of faith arose for the Buddha. All the other factors of enlightenment were quite high, but he didn't have this joy factor of enlightenment. Then, in this moment, the joy factor of enlightenment started to balance the others and at that moment he became enlightened.
If Westerners are given the right techniques, they are strong in developing some wisdom. However they have to learn how to balance that with developing the joy factor of enlightenment coming from confidence and faith. Sometimes, because of their strength in analytical thought, they have difficulty in learning how to concentrate and get more calm. Fortunately, if we develop the confidence inspiring objects, confidence and calm can come from these types of reflections.
If Westerners have some religious teaching in the Christian tradition, then they will have little resistance to developing the unselfish emotions as these are encouraged in that tradition. So they see the benefit of developing these a great deal. And now the Buddhist path is giving them techniques to take them to a higher level.
Another thing that Westerners seem to be strong on, especially Western women compared to Asian women, is that they're used to being on their own, individuals, so they're not as fearful or dependent on other people. I remember being quite surprised when I was always put with all the other Thai women as though I needed them around. When I asked if I could have a nice hut away from them in the forest there was always a shock, because they didn't expect me to want to be on my own. So sometimes the Western conditioning towards self-reliance is also helpful.