The Vital Force Archive

Teacher news from Joy Barbour's RV park demonstration, Donna Shaffer's pre-natal class at Apple in Cupertino, press coverage prompting a Palm Springs workshop, and Ruth-Marie Arguello-Sheehan's earthquake injuries and retiree classes.

Steve Ridley's pyramid poem stacks pairs of opposites, from birth and death to inbreath and outbreath, arriving at freedom, wholeness and eternal love that we can know.

Four lines from chapter 48 of the Tao Te Ching, contrasting the pursuit of learning, where something is acquired daily, with the pursuit of the Tao, where something is dropped.

Steve Ridley argues that accreditation is only a starting point, and lists five habits of superior teachers: daily experimental practice, teaching varied groups, annual course review, study of master practitioners, and humility.

Justin Stone recalls Himalayan yogis who bathed in the icy Ganges and relied on inner heat, his own two years developing it without a teacher, and why Teh, inner sincerity, matters more than outer form.

Carmen Brocklehurst describes persuading Albuquerque's Health and Wellness director to fund city employee classes, and the student on crutches whose back pain eased when he practised seated.

Lois Mahaney reports on the March 24 planning meeting for the 5th International Teachers Conference at Vallombrosa, with Justin Stone offering Eastern philosophy, toning-with-movement, and Steve Ridley on the principles behind the movements.

Corinn Codye defines success in T'ai Chi Chih as integrity of practice and unbroken awareness rather than classes taught, then urges accredited teachers to attend the August Teacher Conference.

Therese Goetz reports on Justin Stone's four-evening Oriental Philosophy course in Albuquerque, where over 30 people heard comparisons of Indian, Chinese and Japanese religious systems drawn from his travels.

An excerpt from Taoist Master Ni Hua Ching's book "The Story of Two Kingdoms" defines Tao, T'ai Chi, God-in-self, soul, mind and body, and likens society and religion to fish ponds one must leave for the ocean of spiritual independence.

Chris McLain and Jeanne Carlson-Linscott describe the second Fargo Pre-Teachers' Training Preparation Course, where Steve Ridley's unannounced arrival interrupted Carry the Ball to the Side, and the team-teaching format they use.

Lynne Blackford writes to Justin Stone from Missoula about her move to Montana, a first class of thirty at the Unity Church, new proposals to hospitals and a fitness center, and her husband's reluctant practice on a Coeur d'Alene boardwalk.

Lia Ridley reviews her husband Steve Ridley's book Perspectives in Motion and Stillness, walking through its four sections of T'ai Chi statements, nature poetry, meditative sutras and meditation instruction.

Jean Katus offers a pyramid poem on practicing at dawn beside a dry riverbed, where the setting full moon and the rising sun arrive as a двойной gift.