Joy & Community
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 benefitted from the practice.
Joy becomes our natural heritage. – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator
From a recent issue of The Vital Force:
A community moving together: “Justin repeatedly emphasized that TCC is a ‘service to mankind.’ Teachers who emphasize service above detailed technique receive immeasurable personal benefits, as well as immense appreciation from their fellow teachers. I teach a weekly class to recently released offenders required to attend, so commitment to TCC movements is rarely achieved. However, even after a couple of classes, participants benefit from the sense of community that moving together, however imperfectly, seems to impart.” – HH, Fern Forest, HI
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Learning through teaching: “I am so grateful that TCC and I found each other. I had been searching for something to help me de-stress and find serenity. After years of working in a high-stress position and having been through various maladies, we instantly connected with each other about two years ago. I was told that teaching would deepen my practice and that I would be rewarded through sharing this gift with others. My teacher training experience was more than I imagined. Challenging, yes. Fulfilling, yes. My classmates, (teachers) and teacher auditors will be lasting influences. I am finding that teaching others deepens my practice.” – JM, West Chester, PA
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Connecting through practice: “TCC was the missing link in my spiritual development. It energized me and helped me maintain focus. … The overwhelming surprise? We are now connected to this amazing TCC community. Wherever I go I can probably pick up the phone to find a like-minded individual. My favorite kind of travel is getting to know people in the areas I’m visiting.” – LM, Culworth, Banbury, UK
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Joy through movement: “I have a feeling that Justin made ‘Bird Flaps Its Wings’ a preliminary movement because he felt how freeing and topsy-turvy it was to take that bold leap forward so soon after ‘Rocking Motion.’ … Sometimes our legs get in the way of us moving. Justin, ever Zen-like, took this koan on immediately, before we ever get to yinning and yanging. I wonder if it has to do with joy.” – DB, New York, NY
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Another community moving together: “In a morning class, someone shared she felt that ‘those are my hands,’ referring I thought to her sense of being undifferentiated from three others moving within her view. Then, after another two days, as our practice group flowed seemingly in unison, I saw so many faces filling with new light, and it gave me chills. For me this reciprocal group awareness is a further way of letting go in order to realize something bigger. And as our community moves together deliberately and consciously as one, the ease is beyond thrilling.” – SC, Fort Collins, CO
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Where in the World? Visit our website for photos of TCC practice around the globe. Submit your own.
Want more inspiration? Want connection with the global TCC community? Want tips for a better practice? Join us:
1) 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.
2) Subscribe to this monthly e-newsletter by sending an email.
