The Vital Force Archive

Jessica Lewis recounts arriving at her accreditation week intending to be an empty vessel, noticing old habit energies return during exhaustion, and leaving humbled, grateful and ready to teach.

Judy Hendricks discovered that a school's new director had changed her once-silent elementary students into chatterers, and that setting clear expectations with teachers and children made every class move well.

Justin Stone defines karma as action and its motivation, argues that habit patterns shape us, and names the burning of karmic seeds through circulated chi as his best reason to practice.

Teresa Lisum recounts her teacher accreditation course, where full, intense days and the support of fellow candidates, auditing teachers and Pam let her feel successful even while embarrassing herself.

Donna McElhose describes restructuring her intermediate college class with five minutes of silent sitting, a wordless 45-minute practice and a closing meditation, followed by nine students' written accounts.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst argues that well-meaning health plans, from hour-long walks to vegetarian diets, can throw the body out of balance, and recalls Justin Stone's gentle suggestion to try T'ai Chi Chih; a set of Pyramid Poems follows.

Julie Barrier tracks her intentions day by day through accreditation week, from deepening practice to giving her presentation, and describes the laughing therapy the candidates invented to survive intense sessions.

Jan Kirch, a twelve-year student of Donna McElhose, practiced alone at the hour her class met and felt unusual energy in her arms and fingers, later learning the class had been told to focus on the upper body.

Marie Dotts gathers five newsletter columns from her Northern Colorado classes, linking seasonal rhythms, Cynthia Bourgeault's Centering Prayer, World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day, and her own move from anxiety to self-love through attention in the soles of the feet.

Charlie Williams set four objectives on the first day of teacher training, calm, openness, accepting criticism and giving to others, and found he received far more than he gave.

Dixie Adeniran, accredited in October 2014, recounts finishing her first beginner series at a senior center, from business licenses and flyers to the silent circle practice with music.

Sandy McAlister brought Justin Stone's 1993 conference remarks on Ahimsa to her classes, met mostly silence, and found her own revelation while cursing other drivers in traffic.

Oreann Kempadoo describes her April 19, 2015 accreditation as a rebirth, including the new name Blossom given to her by Tony and the family of friendships she found.

Daniel Pienciak recounts asking a doctor whether men and women feel pelvic turn and swivel differently, then examines Justin Stone's statement that side-to-side weight is transferred but never drastically, as a tall practitioner.

A photo caption naming the group with Jessica Lewis, Charlie Williams and Sister Christa Thompson in front, and Stacey Moore hosting alongside teacher trainer Pam Towne behind them.

Pam Towne draws on Justin Stone's instruction to accord with impermanence, naming the weight shift, awareness of the breath, Seijaku and gratitude as tools that carried her through Ted's illness and death.

Stu Goldman, the only year-round teacher south of Orlando on Florida's east coast, describes retreats as his lifeline to the TCC community and, after reading Barry Boyce in Mindful, proposes renaming them a recharge.

Lisa M. Otero asks teachers and serious students to tune in, plug in and stay connected, with concrete steps like subscribing and writing for The Vital Force, mentoring candidates and joining the conference committee.

Ann Rutherford recounts reading aloud Justin Stone's typed letter at the 2002 San Antonio teacher conference, which led to the intensive and the requirement of a second, impartial teacher signature for candidates.

Tish Jaramillo, a Chinese Medicine practitioner, locates Middle Palace, the first point on the Lung meridian, at the front shoulder crease, and links relaxing the shoulders back and down to releasing grief.

Diana Bahn recalls years of frustration with Carry the Ball to the Side before an afternoon of Seijaku with Dan Pienciak left her standing wordlessly in the soles of her feet.

Donna Deffenbaugh invites the reader back to age seven or nine, lying in dewy grass or warm sand watching clouds, sinking into earth energy and carrying it to the supper table.

Ron Richardson watched a gracefully slow practitioner from behind at a teacher conference, discovered it was his teacher trainer Sandy McAlister, and learned to let waist and hips set his pace.

Pete Gregory, seven years into live-in caregiving for his 89-year-old mother and failing 91-year-old father, maps the TCC movements onto the falls, vigils and mini-crises of his days.

Terry Slaney tells students who speed up to treat each part of every movement as a beginning, and Sonja Walker adds nine-word meditations for every movement from Rocking Motion to the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Denise Emanuel Clemen finds the movement names taking on new meaning through four years of caring for her mother and her boyfriend, who died in June 2014, and names the love she feels radiating from TCC.

Donna J. Moore takes up the phrase "Let T'ai Chi Chih do t'ai chi" and quotes Alan Watts, from Chop Wood, Carry Water, on sitting and listening without naming.

Justin Stone gathers Zen anecdotes with his own encounters: Joshu Sasaki telling a lawyer to remove an imaginary coat, a silent hour before a yogi in samadhi at Baroda, and Honen's father's dying request.

Jim Shorr asked students what draws them inside themselves, and their answers about gym classes and home practice led him to describe the Oregon practice circles he and Neal Roy sustain, from a downtown Portland church to the Rose Gardens.

Oreann Kempadoo traces her path from a hospital magazine course listing in 2012 to accreditation in April 2015, when presenting before a supportive audience released a lifelong shyness.