The Vital Force Archive

Pam Towne imagines T'ai Chi Chih in 2111: millions practicing worldwide, teachers appearing as holograms in students' living rooms, a 1000-teacher conference, and the form still led by an appointed Guide.

Judy Tretheway describes two contrasting prison classes: at New Folsom, grieving a suicide, she let the men initiate the Chi, while at Old Folsom she led with visualizations and unsynchronized Working the Pulley.

Pete Gregory walks through Passing Clouds step by step, from the sideways T'ai Chi step and heel-to-heel weight shift to the counter-circling hands and the right fingers tickling the left elbow.

Marcy Burns, 83 and practising six times a week, describes how morning gloom lifts during group practice and how walking after a full practice leaves her faster and far less fatigued.

Amy Tyksinski's teaching tip has the bottom hand swing through rather than push through the t'an t'ien, plus Pete Gregory's notes on the opening waist twist and a poem.

Nadine Burge recounts how her mother's death in 2009 sent her into a depression that halted her practice, and how returning to fifteen minutes of T'ai Chi Chih eased both her neck and back arthritis and her mood.

Marty Beery, an accredited teacher, had a stroke weeks after retiring, and describes retraining her right hand, finding that body memory brought the movements back, and practising with a beginner's mind.

Glenn Northern, skeptical that a non-Chinese teacher could create a T'ai Chi form, enrolled in Sister Morales's class four years after meniscus surgery and found his knee pain gone by the tenth lesson.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts an Atlanta workshop where Sheryl Adair's phone calls and emails brought sixteen students past work, flu, a funeral and distance, and quotes Justin on practising even when you don't feel like it.

Carolyn and Dennis, one week into their first TCC lessons, began home hemodialysis and found that doing a few movements dissolved the nervousness and jitters of a difficult treatment day.

Justin Stone offers a string of aphorisms on words versus actions, the danger of getting stuck in a feeling of Unity, the mental constructs we mistake for the world, and impermanence.

Taking up Justin Stone's question about whether TCC will have enough teachers, Hannah Hedrick describes organizing an accreditation course on the Big Island and credits Donna McElhose's six hours of vacation instruction.

Kompalya Thunderbird recounts learning the nineteen movements and one pose with Neena Mitchell, and how a first six-week course replaced constant worry with peace, harmony and clarity beyond years of yoga.

A rundown of the new taichichih.org features: a chronological, hyperlinked "In The News" archive of TCC press and research, a blog of Justin's writings, comment threads, and integrated Facebook and Flickr feeds.

Karen Carlisle, 67, joined Hope Spangler's class at Yavapai College after two foot surgeries and severe arthritis, and six months later walks miles barefoot with minimal pain.

Carolyn O'Donnell describes finding T'ai Chi Chih on a television segment in April 2010, taking beginner and Beyond Beginners classes with Sheila Leonard, and making morning practice part of her daily routine.

Terry Jennings practices every morning on her lanai facing the mountains, clouds and flowers, and describes how joy overflows by the end of the first movement, calling TCC her best friend.

Ruth Lillie, new to slow and purposeful movement, matches T'ai Chi Chih movements to her household pets: Stu the perpetually moving dachshund, Lewie the hunter cat, and Jujube the calm Sulcata tortoise.

April Leffler, diagnosed with Meniere's Disease, describes canceling classes and waking to a spinning room, and how dropping her attention to the soles of her feet loosens her white-knuckled grip on fear.

Three Big Island practitioners speak up: teacher Sharon Cushman credits 16 years of practice and her teacher Victoria Townsend, student Donna Fischer found balance and self-confidence, and Dave Johnson gave up coffee.

Dana Diller compares T'ai Chi Chih to the dormant oil applied to pinyon pines in early spring to control the needle scale insect, controlling stresses that rob vigor.

Neal Roy announces the 27th annual TCC Teacher Conference, set for July 5th through 8th, 2012 at the Red Lion Hotel on Portland's Columbia River, themed Bridges to Joy.

Hannah Hedrick describes her Hilo class grown from the Warriors Against Diabetes support group, an adaptive session co-taught with Marty Mimmack, who was born without arms, and a proposal to host low-cost 2012 accreditation.

Angela Dilegame took a beginner's class to slow down and stay active, and found that slow-moving animals now look like dancers, with concentration in the soles of her feet making every movement significant.

Pearl Kadota recounts two years of Monday classes at the Sumo Pavilion above Hilo Bay, from meeting T'ai Chi Chih through a diabetes support group to leading peer practice when Hannah is away.

Anita Vestal closes out the 2007 to 2010 Student Reaction Questionnaire, reporting that 610 surveys from eleven teachers showed significant gains in energy, sleep, focus, balance and stress response, with creativity the sole exception.

Ruth Dittmar traces her T'ai Chi Chih path from Theda Gillespie at Rancho Rio Caliente in Mexico to Hannah's classes in Hilo, discovering the two women shared the same first teacher.

In a talk from a 1990 teacher conference, Justin Stone links the circulation of chi to Zen's wordless transmission, quoting Huang-Po, D. T. Suzuki and Gopi Krishna on evolving consciousness.

Nory Esquivel compares T'ai Chi Chih with T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Rosen Method Movement, Erick Hawkins dance technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals, finding TCC simpler to learn yet equally effective and free of extraneous effort.

Justin Stone links karma to the habit energies built by the Chi, raises the dichotomy of Grace versus cause and effect, and cites Hakuin's Yassenkana on sinking heart fire below the navel.