The Vital Force Archive

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts how Justin Stone received T'ai Chi Chih without knowing its effects, from the woman whose narcolepsy eased to his own cure for writer's block.

Ann Rutherford quotes Justin Stone's Photo Textbook and Heightened Awareness on enlightenment experienced in the body, then asks fellow teachers whether they tell students the deeper meaning of the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

JJ Johnson, a self-described novice, describes feeling chi flow like honey from the fingertips, carrying it between movements, and noticing a slight finger flutter at the yin-to-yang weight shift.

Ann Rutherford opens a new column with three postcard-style letters to Justin Stone, asking colleagues whether they feel grounding in the palms during closing positions, whether standing up and pointing fingertips down disrupts Chi, and whether fingers flutter.

Lauren Marble recalls the 1988 Albuquerque workshop where Justin Stone taught heightened awareness, the Satipatthana mindfulness exercise, the reciprocal nature of mind and chi, and his choice to leave the Himalayas and be a 'big hermit'.

Guy Kent recounts Justin cutting short his accreditation presentation for comparing TCC to "T'ai Chi in the park," a lunch about stock charts and guilt, Saturday teisho readings, and Justin's tears over a critic who renamed the movements.

KG recalls Justin Stone quietly pushing her photography career forward: buying a print he did not want, sending her to find a Belgian fine-art book publisher, and posing for the Photo Text.

Caroline Guilott recalls skipping into the room to greet Justin in Albuquerque, and describes how words about the movements can trap a practitioner while attention to the t'an t'ien, the weight shift and softness opens the practice.

Karen Silva recalls Justin Stone demonstrating grounding in Basic Pulling Taffy, the pulling hand crossing diagonally to end parallel to the ground, an explanation she still uses in her classes.

Jeneth Rundle recounts her only face-to-face visit with Justin Stone in May 2011, when her phone rang mid-practice, and how his question returned to her after foot fusion surgery.

Laurie Jacobi recalls first seeing Justin Stone playing 1940s jazz at a grand piano, and the conference where he corrected her for not moving low enough before learning of her back pain.

Three 2002 letters from Mary Wichmann asking Justin Stone if she could come to Albuquerque to learn meditation, through his invitation to her June travel arrangements.

Lisa Otero recalls meeting Justin Stone through her aunt Carmen Brocklehurst, her initial disappointment that he seemed a conventional businessman, and the lessons on death and attachment absorbed over pancake house dinners.

A gathering of Justin Stone's sayings on teacher and pupil, softness that cannot be forced, and chi stored in the bones, plus zen poet Paul Reps's all-capitals letter praising his ordinary motion.

Passages culled from Justin Stone's books, including Meditation for Healing, Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, Heightened Awareness and the out-of-print Abandon Hope, on posture, mantras, joy and the effort of no effort.

Justin Stone introduces his out-of-print book on gurus, teachers and the mystery of Being, then argues in the chapter "Abandon Hope" that only dropping hope for tomorrow lets us live today.

Justin Stone's photo text notes on the three Pulling Taffy variations, Working the Pulley, Joyous Breath, Passing Clouds and the Cosmic Consciousness Pose, followed by his account of habit energies, karma and chi.

Judy Hendricks recalls Tuesday morning teacher practices at the TCC Center, where Justin Stone offered no new material, only corrections to bend the knees and turn the waist, and she still hears him on DVD.

Justin Stone recounts his first voyage to Japan, a chance train meeting with Reverend Takahashi, and the Chinese volume on the I Ching that Mr. Tung insisted he carry around the world.

Rebecca Paulson gathers Justin Stone's own wording on how to close each movement, from his Blue Photo Text, showing the step back, the hands lowered gently to the sides, and the four to five second rest pose.

Dora Wiemann recalls Saturday evening meditation and Teisho at Justin Stone's house, where he answered his own question about why they gathered, and Judy Hendricks describes learning from his DVDs and CDs.

Justin Stone on the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic of understatement, weathered wood and Kaga no Chiyo's morning glory, paired with his wordless hours beside a silent sadhu near Baroda.

Justin Stone argues provincialism outranks greed as our defining trait, recalling a German traveler pitying healthy children in a walled village near the Hong Kong border and an English couple in Benares.

Jim Hecker recalls Justin Stone asking him whether he had done T'ai Chi Chih that day, once or twice, and the answer Justin gave when asked why nine repetitions.

Justin Stone's point-by-point reminders for the movements a beginner has just learned, from loose arms and flat landings in Rocking Motion to drawing energy from the most distant star in Pulling in the Energy.

Justin Stone gives step-by-step instructions for two seated meditations, Chih-kuan concentration on the t'an t'ien or third eye, and the Great Circle, which lifts a golden current from the Bubbling Spring using breath and eyes.

KG announces that all the content from Justin Stone's two DVDs, individual movement instruction plus the 30- and 45-minute practices, is now streaming, prioritized after COVID-19 closed classes worldwide.

Justin Stone contrasts Indian Buddhism's escape from suffering with the Taoist love of life and longevity, concluding that daily contemplation and gratitude serve most people better than asceticism.

Justin Stone lays out a sequence of listening practices, from registering random sounds without embroidery to chanting the Gayatri Mantra and singing his own "Healing thru Joy," recalling a flute heard in Himalayan rain.

Carmela Beck recalls watching Justin Stone demonstrate at an Albuquerque bookstore while her toddler roamed unsupervised, then finding his photo online a decade later when back pain sent her looking for something gentler than yoga.