The Vital Force Archive

Justin Stone traces his study of spiritual healing from the Japanese Healing Church to Chinese and Indian teachers, arguing that illness is imbalanced Chi and that the best healing is self-healing.

Justin Stone explains why he refuses to write a book on ultimate truth, then offers a sample of it: nature's disregard for the individual, vibratory rates, and the Lotus Sutra's answer.

Aphorisms excerpted from Justin Stone's out-of-print 20th Century Psalms, ranging from unasked-for advice and locked church doors to the story of Zen Master Tokusan telling two quarreling monks both were right.

Justin Stone argues there is no such thing as higher consciousness, only Consciousness obscured by habit-energies and the dusts, illustrated by clouds over the sun and the Zen mirror.

Justin Stone's aphorisms on breath, the vibration before sound and the "thoughtless state," plus stories of a chanting mendicant, hat-stealing monkeys, Swami Krishnanand, and a woman bound to her chair.

Aphorisms by Justin Stone from the out-of-print 20th Century Psalms, ranging from Chao Chou's traveler carrying nothing to the jazz musician who wonders who is really playing.

Justin Stone explains how habit energies and tendencies form grooves in the brain, and how balancing the chi through TCC practice reaches back to the cause and erases it.

Justin Stone explains the Sanskrit term Advaita, arguing that trees, chairs and bodies are transformations rather than permanent forms, and that balancing Intrinsic Energy through regular practice makes us whole.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone's out-of-print 20th Century Psalms on the Impersonal, karma worked out in dreams, the barrier of time, cruelty toward animals, and the man who retired with a million dollars and still has it.

Justin Stone defines karma as action and its motivation, argues that habit patterns shape us, and names the burning of karmic seeds through circulated chi as his best reason to practice.

Justin Stone's general comments from the booklet "Teaching Tips For Teachers" insist T'ai Chi Chih is neither exercise nor martial art, and detail spotting faults in weight shift, wrists, waist and knees.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to six movements, from the full 180-degree waist turn in Working the Pulley to the ancient Chinese origins of the Six Healing Sounds and the ankle placement in Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Justin Stone's teaching keys for Pulling in the Energy and all four Pulling Taffy variations, correcting flat feet, horizontal palms, waist turns and weight shifts timed to the pulling hand.

Justin Stone recounts the Hua-Yen candle and mirrors demonstration, the gilded lion, sayings of Confucius, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, a Zen master living under a Kyoto bridge, and Tat Tvam Asi.

Justin Stone recounts four encounters: Suzuki Roshi offering a hot bath and the line "The moon gives light, too," a student's question about reincarnation answered with a tree, Lynette Wooliver and the Sachertorte, and Swami Ramdas in court.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to four movements, including cocked wrists in Daughter on the Mountain Top, when the weight settles back in Daughter in the Valley, the sideways step in Carry the Ball to the Side, and the 60/40 hand emphasis in Push Pull.

Justin Stone reads his Zen teacher's statement on the vertical and horizontal, Saigo and Daigo, warning that an experience of oneness must be integrated back into ordinary life.

Justin Stone's introduction to Heightened Awareness, newly back in print, argues that wisdom is already within us, using the Indian pearl story and Dogen's half dipper of water to make the point.

Justin Stone gives teachers the keys to the first five movements, from flattening the feet before raising the toes in Rocking Motion to keeping the hands a steady distance apart in Bass Drum.

Justin Stone recounts talking a woman out of abandoning her family for a Master in India, then contrasts Zen's self power with Shin Buddhism's reliance on Amida Buddha.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone on contraction and expansion, the unhappiness he observed among the monied people of the financial world, and the need to balance Yin and Yang or face trouble.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's book in which he recounts telling Paul Reps in Seattle that there is nothing to be done, quotes Dogen and Pai Ch'ang, and repeats his Roshi's advice about wine, women, song and religion in proper amounts.

A selection of Justin Stone's aphorisms on security and impermanence, doing your best now, money and karma, chasing your shadow, and gratitude as the antidote to self-pity.

Excerpted from Justin Stone's book Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, this lecture material covers Indian Buddhism's three truths, the hindrances to meditation, practicing loving-kindness toward oneself first, karma and non-attachment.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone on giving instead of worrying, the Life Force bursting from bare rock, Hakuin's enlightenment, the lavender skies of Kyoto, and why each death is also a birth.

Justin Stone retells two Zen stories about death and Chao Chou's instruction to throw out emptiness, then turns to yoga as a science, the Gayatri Mantra and remaking oneself by changing tendencies.

Justin Stone's collected aphorisms on wind and rain being neither good nor bad, Hakuin's enlightenment, the one Energy moving through worm and bird and tree, and death as another birth.

Excerpted from Justin Stone's book Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, four short pieces: the greedy businessman's dying words, Ramamurti Mishra on mistakes, a Roshi's five fingers, and Zen's life-affirming earthiness.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone on ambition and envy, the Chi that can neither begin nor end, the Life Force springing from bare rocks, and Chao Chou's traveler carrying nothing.

Justin Stone pairs Professor Huang's account of Yin and Yang with the story of Lynette pushing away a Sacher torte in Laurel Canyon, then turns to yoga's circular time and the Yoga Sutras.