The Vital Force Archive
Eighteen years of The Vital Force (2007-2025), 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.
August 2015
The August 2015 issue opens with Justin Stone’s The Best Reason to Practice, which defines karma as action and motivation and names the burning of karmic seeds through circulated chi. Carmen L. Brocklehurst cautions against well-meaning health plans, Pete Gregory and Denise Emanuel Clemen write on caregiving and loss, and a dozen April accreditation candidates reflect on their week.
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.
Pam Towne
Oceanside, California
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.
Stu Goldman
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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.
Lisa M. Otero
Oxnard, California
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.
Ann Rutherford
Albuquerque, New Mexico