By a Western practitioner in the U.S.　　　

　　I have been a Falun Gong practitioner for a little over one year. I feel as if I have been going through a threshing process. So many events have happened to separate the chaff from the pure essence of who I am.　　　

　　I first attended a practice site in November of 1999. At first I did not understand very much, but I kept reading and kept cultivating and some remarkable things have happened to me.　　　

　　I have changed so much. Before Falun Gong I suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because I had been the victim of a very violent crime. I had difficulty sleeping. I thought I needed alcohol to fall asleep at night. Even though the man who committed this crime was tried and put in jail for the rest of his life, I lived in constant fear of being attacked. I never wanted to go home and when I did go home, I locked myself in my bedroom.　　　

　　Within two months I stopped therapy, and eventually all my symptoms disappeared. I am calm and serene. My energy level has increased dramatically. I am highly focused on my work and I am very successful.　　

　　I am a real estate agent and property manager. I hired a roofer recommended by a friend of mine to install a new roof over a garage. I gave the roofer a deposit of half down and he started removing the old roof the next day. he only problem was that he removed the next-door neighbor's roof, not the one I had hired him to do.　　　

　　Needless to say the people storing things in the neighbor's garage were very angry. hey kept yelling at the roofer to stop and he kept telling them that they were not the owner and he did not work for them. Many of their things were damaged because old roofing material kept falling onto their things during the removal process. Finally someone called me and I told the roofer it was the wrong roof. He quit, leaving no covering at all on the neighbor's garage. he neighbor was very angry with me and insisted I fix the roof. Since the man I hired did not have a contractor's license, he could refuse me, knowing there was nothing I could do. Luckily it did not rain. his went on for a week.　　　

　　Ultimately, although I was a new practitioner, I knew this was my responsibility. I finally made the decision that I would hire another roofer, this time one with a contractor's license, and pay the entire cost myself. I knew there was no other choice. The very day I hired another contractor, the original roofer finished the job. I repeatedly told the people whose things were damaged that I would be responsible for the repairs, but to this day they have never asked me for anything.　　　

　　I don't think there could be a more vivid way to teach me about giving up my attachment to saving money or about being responsible.　　　

　　This happened after I had only been a practitioner for a few months. Another incident happened just recently and has had a much deeper effect.　　　

　　I had a friend, a fellow practitioner, with whom I discussed many things. We made many observations about other people, often criticizing them. All of this was extremely interesting and enlightening until one day my friend criticized me. I thought his criticism was extremely unfair. I know that in a conflict we must look inside ourselves. I realized the extent to which I had criticized others. I blamed others. I found fault with others. Whether I said anything to them or not, I judged them. It just did not feel right when I was the one being judged.　　　

　　Then I understood. I needed to be paid back for all those times I had judged others, criticized others, and hurt others because my motives were never pure. I realized that I needed to be hurt in order to pay back the hurt I had caused others. I needed to feel pain in order to pay back the pain I had caused others. I became very withdrawn and started to feel actual physical pain in my left arm. This pain seemed very, very fitting. It seemed to be getting worse. It got to the point where I could not lift my arm to do the second exercise because it hurt too much.　　　

　　Then I read what Master Li said about criticism in “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore:”　　　　　

　　"I often say that if a person is free of any personal notions, isn’t motivated by self-interest, and is truly looking to benefit others, then when he points out another person's shortcoming or tells the other person what’s right, that person will be moved to tears.”　　　

　　At the following weekend's practice, I could lift my arm and the pain was almost gone. I knew that the unjust criticism from my friend was a message that I could use to purify myself so that I could separate the chaff from the pure essence of who I am.