The Vital Force Archive
Forty years of The Vital Force (1985-2025), the journal of the T’ai Chi Chih community. Search for a word, a teacher, a movement or a place, or browse by category and topic.
April 2004
The April 2004 issue opens with Justin Stone correcting common errors, noting that the wrists do the work in Carry the Ball to the Side. Sr. Antonia Cooper announces Pam Towne’s appointment as Seijaku Trainer, and Athene Mantle reports on Ed Altman’s final Seijaku teacher training in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Carolyn Perkins tapes a segment with Martha Stewart.
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.
Holly Davis
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.