The Vital Force Archive

Pam Towne reports on the first West Coast TCC Intensive at Mt. Calvary Retreat House, where Ed Altman led 24 participants in four days of refinement and marked the end of his tenure as community head.

Carolyn Perkins recounts taping a six-minute T'ai Chi Chih segment at Martha Stewart's Westport studio, persuading Stewart that her 89-year-old mother, recovering from hip replacements, should practise seated.

Sr. Antonia Cooper announces Pam Towne's appointment as Seijaku Trainer, explains how teachers can sponsor Seijaku trainings, and previews upcoming conferences in St. Louis, Albuquerque and Minneapolis.

Pam Towne collects comments from teachers and students who attended the TCC Intensive, including Jan Kovac feeling chi flow for the first time and Holly Sanders describing breakthroughs in moving from the t'an t'ien.

Carolyn Perkins recounts how she and her husband Michael drove twelve hours through the High Atlas Mountains to Meezouga, then climbed the highest Sahara dune so she could practise on New Year's Day.

Justin Stone corrects common errors: the wrists, not the arms, do the work in Carry the Ball to the Side, hands stay cupped in Push Pull and Passing Clouds, and Working the Pulley turns from the waist, plus news of his conference videos.

Robin Spencer recounts a one-day spring workshop in Phoenix where 25 teachers and students, led by teacher trainer Pam Towne, reviewed the principles and let go of perfectionism.

Five reader anecdotes, including Carol Houtkooper's grandson mishearing "aftermath" as a math class, Sher Dano's 99-year-old student Gerry explaining the Viagra benefits of T'ai Chi to a curious newcomer, and a Seijaku training quip about sitting in a square.

Marking 20 years accredited, Pam Towne recalls Justin using her as an example of how not to do Pulling Taffy, learning from Corinn Codye at Asilomar, and choosing teaching over a conventional job.

Debbie Cole recounts the four-day TCC Intensive in Santa Barbara, where by the closing Rocking Motion the group seemed to breathe as one body, and closes with her own verse.

Justin Stone traces the Vital Force from Corinn Codye's founding through Noel Altman and Kathy Grassel, and asks lapsed teachers to subscribe again and rejoin the community.

Ann Rutherford pairs Lao-Tzu, Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey and physicist David Bohm to teach the Matter and Substance sections of Seijaku, asking students to sense the congealed energy rather than resent it.

Nancy Werner-Azarski reports on the February 2004 Minnesota one-day workshop led by Judy George and Marie Dotts, where 12 teachers and 18 students drew movement and principle requests from a bowl.

In a letter to Justin Stone, Marilyn Irvin lists the changes of her first year of practice after fourteen years with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, including an acupuncturist who could not find her chi.

Debbie Cole's verse of thanks, written at the close of the last Seijaku teacher training weekend Ed Altman would lead, credits Justin Stone's original inspiration and Altman's years as conduit.

Margery Erickson, crossing 50 yards of iced-over walkway from her garage after teaching an evening class, told herself to think soft knees, sink down and move slowly and continuously.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts Joe, a student who arrived depressed and in a stocking hat, revealed an incurable cancer diagnosis at Week 7, and died months later happy, according to his wife.

Rebecca Busching practiced in the corner of a Los Angeles business seminar room, where one attendee swore the wallpaper waved above her hands and another offered to help with her tremors.

Kathy Grassel introduces the prize-winning poem of Paul G., a painfully shy twelve-year-old in her juvenile detention T'ai Chi Chih class who was tried for manslaughter after an alleyway fight.

Athene Mantle reports from Redwood Glen in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Ed Altman led his final Seijaku teacher training for 27 candidates and 19 auditors, urging them to linger in softness.

Judy Tretheway asks the TCC community for prayers after lock-downs, budget cuts and an earlier cell-return time suspended her five-and-a-half-year Folsom prison class indefinitely.

Lisa A. Thorburn's pyramid poem pairs rolling fog, drifting mist and sunlit leaves with the refrain "Resisting, Releasing, Letting Go," naming Seijaku as serenity in the midst of activity.

Four pyramid poems from teacher Lisa Thorburn and her students James Braswell and Majori Fremont, naming quieted minds, released tension, mosquitos taught patiently, and chi moving soft through the body.

Holly Davis names herself as the obstacle that kept her from learning Seijaku for nine years, then describes the weekend workshop with Ed and Athene that finally dissolved her resistance.

Michael Isaacs sets out three aspects of spirituality in T'ai Chi Chih, "It", "Is" and "As", linking circularity, peace, stillness, joy, beauty and transcendence to specific movements from Rocking Motion to Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Debbie Cole's pyramid poem praises simplicity, flow and form, inner peace and the strength of a community strong in number and in spirit, calling on the world to hear it.

Judy Tretheway's prayer for a class, which came to her during Rocking Motion one early morning, asks to be emptied of expectations, regrets, wisdom and doubts so loving energy can flow through.

Pam Towne recounts reviewing Seijaku with fellow teachers, taking home Ed's image of the weight shift coasting onto the front foot like a boat approaching the dock, and explains who can learn the form.

Jan Arrott practices on her porches between the prairie and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, keeping binoculars nearby for passing wildlife, and describes snowfall, drought-thinned cattle and singing blackbirds.

Debbie Cole's pyramid poem praises a teacher whose soft hands and fluid, joint-deep movement inspire lasting integrity, concluding that whatever label he holds is beside the point.