The Vital Force Archive

Justin Stone warns that meditation without a qualified teacher carries real risk, citing a sadhu near Laksmanjula who lost his mind practicing Kundalini Yoga alone and a Kyoto art professor who left his body during Zazen.

Justin Stone answers Dale Buchanan's questions by letter, warning that Seijaku and the Jing be taught only to sincere students, advising against weightlifting, and insisting the teacher must be a motivator.

Justin Stone holds up Albert Schweitzer's creed of Reverence for All Life, and a small plant growing from barren rock on the Albuquerque tramway, as evidence that the Life Force manifests without doctrine or dogma.

Justin Stone insists that candidates arrive at Teachers' Training Courses already doing the form correctly, warning that varied versions destroy uniformity and TEH, as happened with T'ai Chi Ch'uan in the West.

Justin Stone asks who owns the smell of flowers and who hears the falling snow, answering that only the human heart hears it, in lines drawn from 20th Century Psalms.

Justin Stone recounts how his own inner experiences, including glimpses of other universes, seldom matched the teachings he was given, the exception being Garma C. C. Chang's The Buddhism of Totality.

Justin Stone distinguishes concentration, the one-pointed focus of zazen and koan practice, from meditation that becomes "no-pointed", using the image of sinking between waves to rest in the Turiya state.

Justin Stone's short refrain, credited to him as an A.S.C.A.P. composer, repeats "Joy, Joy, Healing thru Joy!" and places that joy in the heart, the mind and the soul.

Justin Stone argues that Moving Meditation suits Westerners better than sitting still, since T'ai Chi Chih needs no special space, clothing or quiet, stills the mind and lets the chi flow.

Justin Stone gives his own account of the "two T'ai Chi Chihs" dispute, Steve Ridley's refusal to meet and sudden resignation as Spiritual Head, and Ed Altman's agreement to take over the Teachers' Courses.

Justin Stone announces that a signed agreement has ended the "two T'ai Chi Chih" problem, limiting teaching to TCC as originated and copyrighted and halting illegal books and tapes.

A short passage from Justin Stone's 1991 book Abandon Hope, reminding practitioners that nothing happens without cause and that each word or act should be chosen for a desirable effect.

Justin Stone draws on the Buddhist Abidhamma's count of sixty-odd joyous states of consciousness against only three miserable ones, asking why people rush toward craving, anger and delusion instead of the joyous Way.

Justin Stone credits Corinn Codye with founding The Vital Force and Lucy Hocking with hosting the first Asilomar conference, then urges teachers to subscribe, submit articles and register early for Timothy Stuetz's summer gathering.

Justin Stone announces "Chi Enhancement," a method for increasing the power of the jing that he will teach to teachers at the summer conference, and lays out the three levels a TCC teacher passes through.

Justin Stone names TEH, or Inner Sincerity, as the basis of T'ai Chi Chih, credits teachers' sincerity for its growth, and warns against careless interviews that call the practice exercise.

Justin Stone recounts his first day and night in the Himalayas: a missed meeting at Hardwar, a boy dancing in the rain atop a bullock cart, a tiger warning in the forest, and a Holy man led away after unsupervised Kundalini practice.

Justin Stone recounts telling a Ramakrishna nun that her longing to escape the world for the ashram was a delusion, then poses a koan about one Mind and Consciousness.

Justin Stone links T'ien t'ai and Zen use of holding fast and letting go to stopping the conceptualizing mind, recounting a Zen Master answering a Latvian woman's question about war by holding up five fingers.

Justin Stone describes breath as fire and traces how breathing slows as thought becomes one-pointed and then no-pointed, so that deep immersion requires consciously reconstructing one's surroundings afterward.

Justin Stone explains Vashanas, the habit energies that harden into Karma and Samskaras, and how Zen's cleansing of the eighth consciousness and Patanjali's Yoga both aim to weaken them.

Justin Stone argues that dualistic thinking cannot realize Unity, cites Mary Baker Eddy on One Perfection, and insists the middle of everyday problems is where the Essence is felt.

Justin Stone argues that enlightenment and T'ai Chi Chih both come not from trying harder, as Zen teachers urge, but from letting go of habit energies and practising the effort of no effort.

Justin Stone traces the move from doing T'ai Chi Chih as exercise to the moment a practiser realizes "T'ai Chi Chih is doing T'ai Chi Chih," with the "I" out of the way and Bliss as our very nature.

Justin Stone insists teachers must perform the form well, not just teach it, and since re-examining more than 1000 accredited teachers is impractical, urges frank self-evaluation and attendance at the annual Teachers' Conference.

Justin Stone reduces spiritual practice to three Sanskrit words, Vairagya, Ahimsa and Prajna, and names detachment amid modern life as the hardest, achieved by scarcely one in a million.

Justin Stone tells teachers to spot and correct faults by example, using Pulling Taffy to show hands and weight shifting together, and warning against a stiff front or back knee.

Justin Stone quotes a new teacher with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who feels "uncorked" and symptom-free, and urges teachers who taste that joy and then back away to keep practicing.

Justin Stone argues that family and financial life can be lived alongside an understanding of impermanence, and that recognizing the interrelatedness of all beings is where spirituality and an end to war begin.

Justin Stone connects the Prajna Paramita Sutra's Perfection of Wisdom to T'ai Chi Chih, arguing that freely flowing balanced chi lets the Cosmic Rhythm move us, and asking whether we will release our habit energies.