Balance, Being, and Hope

T’ai Chi Chih is a mindfulness-moving meditation practice that’s easy to learn. The series of 19 movements and one pose helps circulate the Vital Energy, the Chi. Practitioners experience peace, improved health, and many more benefits. Our free monthly e-newsletter offers inspiration between issues of the TCC quarterly journal, The Vital Force, in which teachers and students tell stories about ways they’ve benefited from the practice.

When we perform TCC properly, we feel the results. – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator

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From the recent issue of The Vital Force:

Balance: “Perfect energetic balance is when all possibilities are present. In TCC and Seijaku, we balance yin and yang energies. We can experience this perfect balance when our ego steps aside, when we’re in our tan t’ien, when we let go, when we embody the six principles of TCC. From balanced yin and yang come possibilities, peace and flow. We’re no longer trying to control possibilities, outcomes, anything.” – PS, Rochester, MN

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Editor’s Note: Learn more from TCC teachers with more than 25 years of experience in the May issue of The Vital Force.

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Being: “Many of us spend much of our daily lives in survival mode, with filters necessary to help us cope with a challenging world, but these filters are like veils that cover up our true selves. When I do TCC and allow my mind to rest and experience my inner world, dropping the filters is easier. It’s not a mental decision, but rather a state of being I experience as a result of a meditative state of mind. Conscious thinking is analyzing and controlling. Conscious being is directly experiencing the present moment without trying to manage it.” – MKL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Hope: “Last fall my life turned upside down when I went over the handlebars of my bicycle, breaking multiple bones and teeth. Barely able to move and headed for surgery, there was little I could do to settle my body and spirit, but daily TCC practice carried me through the months of healing that followed. For the first few weeks, I practiced in my mind while my husband practiced in the next room. Later I migrated to a chair, working around parts of my body that were splinted or too painful to move. Then I graduated to standing, again moving what I could and visualizing the rest. Every day, I could see and feel progress. TCC gave me a deep sense of hope and the speed at which I healed was remarkable. It turned misfortune into a gift.” – AT-B, Golden, CO

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Change: Since we are, essentially, a conflux of moving energies, stimulating and balancing the Intrinsic Energy (Chi) affects our whole being. The effects seem to be personal but, in truth, they are widespread. Just as our Enlightenment is ‘Saving All Beings,’ so does the balancing of the Universal Energy affect both the outer and the inner. So many students have written me about how their lives have changed with the practice of TCC. – Justin F. Stone

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Subscribe to The Vital Force. Our quarterly journal offers engaging stories, hints, and insights from TCC teachers and students. We also highlight wisdom by, and photos rarely seen of, originator Justin Stone.