New ways of seeing

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. 

Here are the means. It is up to you to use them. – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator

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From the recent issue of The Vital Force:

Awareness: “Practicing TCC along the Poudre River, my vision had a clarity that surprised me. Where my sight line saw a leafless tree, I began to notice across the expanse of river on the far bank, a rope swing, when moments before I saw only the tree from which it hung. The reflection of as above, so below was apparent, with fallen trees, grasses, and sky undifferentiated from the water below. In ‘The Glory of Creation’ in Spiritual Odyssey, Justin wrote: “… if one gazes at the silent hills and rock, one will find that they are singing the Glory of Creation…. We can only be sure of a ‘total awareness,’ and perhaps Past, Present, and Future all exist in this fully aware and joyous Now.” – JS, Greeley, CO

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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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Flow: “The invitation to receive the Chi, to let it speak to me, to explore the movement of the Chi and its flow within me, to listen to its message and how I respond to it are all different ways to discover who and what I am. Uncovering what is inside of me brings me closer to the divine that I am.” – LL, Weatherby Lake, MO

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Chi: “TCC practice allows us to be mindful, to focus on the present, and notice our feelings and sensations. This allows us to be in the moment, not judging our practice on this particular day, in any way. We open up and allow ourselves to relax and flow with whatever happens. We feel the ground beneath our feet; we feel how our body moves or flows. We feel the principles of softness and circularity, balancing the yin and yang energies, the beautiful polarity, shifting our weight forward and back and side-to-side. We pay attention to how the wrist and waist move. These are keys to feeling the Chi, our vital energy.” – GT, Edmonton, AB, Canada

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Joy: … every cell in the body can be brought to a point singing with Joy. Those of us who practice T’ai Chi Chih are doing just that. To become jaded and just think of it as another discipline is to miss the point. – Justin F. Stone

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Where in the World have you been doing T’ai Chi Chih? Share your images for our gallery.

Want more inspiration? Want a connection with the global TCC community? Want tips for better practice? Join us:

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.