The Vital Force Archive

Transcribed from a recorded lecture, Justin Stone answers audience questions on why concentration rests in the soles of the feet, why softness frees the meridian channels, and how karma builds habit energy.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, Justin describes the tingling fingers, healing heat and three confirmatory signs of Chi flow, quotes Lao Tzu, and outlines a maximum Chi program for athletes.

A transcribed lecture in which Justin Stone traces the Yin and Yang Chi back to the Tao, compares T'ai Chi Chih with Zen meditation, Hatha Yoga and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and recounts early student results from 1974 onward.

Two excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey equate energy with wisdom and describe Prana's physical work, citing Krishnamurti, Gopi Krishna and Rinzai, plus Paul Reps' ten minutes of quiet receiving.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, two talks recount a Roshi telling a lawyer to remove his overcoat, poems by Tagore and Tenko-san on the question of who you are, and a monk who kept rescuing a biting scorpion.

Reprinted from November 2006, Justin Stone describes Chi as the Cosmic life principle vibrating through all things, and credits consistent T'ai Chi Chih practice for his undiminished health at nearly 86.

Excerpts from Spiritual Odyssey in which Justin Stone takes up non-attachment within family life, Buddha's answer that he is awake, the poet Tao Yuanming, and why all healing is finally self-healing.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey on why a teacher who does not practice is "somewhat of a fraud," teaching beginners to flow slow motion in a dream, and self-clinging as the root of suffering.

Seven excerpts from Spiritual Odyssey in which Justin Stone argues that enlightenment and softness come from letting go rather than trying harder, warns teachers against special breathing techniques, and names TCC an inner discipline.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey recall the 1989 Albuquerque conference and its silent sunrise practice at Old Town Plaza, the first 1974 class, and his warning to keep T'ai Chi Chih unmixed with other traditions.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey on attenuating the pleasure principle, enlightenment hidden behind habit energies like clouds over the sun, why softness cannot be forced, and his 75th birthday verses.

Aphorisms Justin Stone collected in Spiritual Odyssey, insisting T'ai Chi Chih is not exercise but movement from the center, alongside Paul Reps on vinegar, Bodhidharma's vast emptiness, and posture as character.

Excerpts from Spiritual Odyssey in which Justin Stone credits the growth of T'ai Chi Chih to teachers' teh, or inner sincerity, warns against treating it as a business or as exercise, and insists movement come from the center.

Justin Stone's own definitions of koan, mantra, prajna, samadhi, satori, teh, T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Zen, drawn from two of his books and showing how his emphasis shifted over time.

Tracks three and four of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he links karate board-breaking to accumulated chi, explains effortless effort, and gives three reasons for concentrating in the soles of the feet.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, tracks 4 and 6 cover bringing heart fire below the navel, Hakuin Zenji's words on the elixir of life, why softness keeps the meridians open, karma and habit energy, and the balance of intellect and emotion.

From a spoken word CD, Justin Stone links chi to breath and mood, cites Sri Aurobindo, and describes the maximum Chi program he would give athletes, including Nei Kung at bedtime.

Track 5 of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he explains how flowing Chi erases vasanas and samskaras, names the seven emotions, recounts travels in India, Kyoto and Taipei, and denies that T'ai Chi Chih is a martial art.

Transcribed from his spoken word CD, Justin Stone contrasts changing the Chi directly with working through the mind in Zen or Hatha Yoga, and traces Yin and Yang back to the Tao in Chinese cosmology.

From a spoken word CD, Justin Stone recounts the 1974 first class where a priest regained his sense of smell, the tingling and heat students feel, and the stage when T'ai Chi Chih can be done mentally.

Justin Stone maps Patanjali's Raja Yoga into three parts and eight steps, argues that morality is only the stairway to the bridge, and explains how erasing habit energies leads to detachment.

In this chapter from his reissued book, Justin Stone argues that Yoga and Buddhism are three-tiered paths, tracing sila, dhyana-samadhi and the prajna wisdom that enlightened the illiterate woodcutter Huineng.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone's out-of-print 20th Century Psalms on impermanence, egotism and compassion, including the lecture he opened by telling the audience "You're all dying!" and his question to a millionaire about doing good.

Justin Stone argues that accepting death, baldness, and the unchangeable ends their power over us, drawing on Lao Tzu's losing a little each day, Chuang Tzu's Fasting Mind, and Hakuin's enlightenment.

Justin Stone recounts arriving unannounced at Rammurti Mishra's Manhattan ashram, the Indian teacher's reading of his recurring vision of a burning golden Buddha head, and his koan-like reply about mistakes.

Short aphorisms from Justin Stone on posture as a reading of character, Paul Reps's answers about belief and vinegar, the Ryoan-ji temple sign, and why T'ai Chi Chih should never be hitched to other causes.

Passages from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on disciplined mind, Japanese understatement, spring rain on temple eaves, gratitude at meals, and Zen freedom lived amid conditions.

Quotations drawn from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, on building an imperturbable Center amid busy life, the tan t'ien as the seat of intuition, and why a teacher who does not practice is a fraud.

Drawn from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, a Lotus Sutra passage, the Nasrudin tiger powder joke, Hakuin's enlightenment by broom and his Song, notes on purification, and a warning that a teacher who does not practice is a fraud.

Justin Stone describes human beings as shifting yin and yang energies, explains that blood follows chi and chi follows thought, and argues that T'ai Chi Chih balances energy before illness arises.