The Vital Force Archive

Letters from Sr. Claire Whalen, Joan Torrence, Bryan James, Joy Barbour and Ralph Garn report first classes, five-session evening formats with treats, a monthly city-wide Denver practice in Washington Park, and a New Jersey teachers' weekend.

Timothy Stuetz outlines which state nursing boards must approve continuing education providers, the plan to let teachers in other states work under one approved provider, and Transformations' bid to serve attorneys and accountants.

Elizabeth Salada reviews Steve Ridley's booklet Spiritual Notes, praising its condensed meditative statements, black-and-white nature photography, and a practical section giving seated and standing methods for meditation practice.

Justin Stone lists the essentials of correct movement, from flowing effortlessly from the t'an t'ien to the heel-first side step and the 60-40 emphasis, with Steve Ridley adding notes on stance, alignment and closing without rushing.

Justin Stone writes that there is nothing wrong with abandoning practice if you get nothing from it, while Steve Ridley suggests practising for the world's peace when motivation flags.

Steve pairs his own brief notes on cosmic energy patterning and the quiet mental field with a quote from Swami Chetanananda's The Breath of God on humans as vibrations of one energy.

Carmen Brocklehurst distinguishes gratitude that is manufactured by finding reasons from the spontaneous kind, quoting Paul Reps and Justin Stone: "How grateful I am, with no thing to be grateful for."

Susan Webster describes getting serious about Seijaku after the August teachers' conference, adding its movements gradually to her TCC practice and losing fifteen pounds while a friend noticed her new radiance.

Carmen Brocklehurst's pyramid poem recalls a speaker whose words on gratitude, delivered with a sparkle in his eye, set the heart singing as movement reaches down and fountains out.

Richard Brier of Mill Valley offers a pyramid poem returning again and again to "this grand view of things, this joy, this dance of unerring beauty," ending with all now home and redeemed.

A pyramid poem by Adria Newman of Dubuque, Iowa, tracing chi from grounded roots up the spine to the crown and back down, generating strength and peace to share.

Richard Brier recounts finding Justin Stone's book in a Carmel bookshop in 1979, declaring on the spot that he would learn and teach it, then talking a retired Santa Cruz teacher into private lessons.

Virginia Shilson of Albuquerque looks closely at winter's leafless trees, their seed pods and dried leaves catching sunlight, and imagines being cradled in their branches, hearing their song and knowing oneness.

Ed Altman warns that the checkpoints useful to a new student can later become a distraction, and urges teachers to examine their own habit energies so students learn the feeling of the movements rather than details.

Patrick Lenard Eagle's poem pits social pressures to buy a car and sell the house against a dream vision in which Lady Wisdom counsels not to hurry, worry or fret.

Virginia Shilson recommends that teachers preparing accreditation candidates exchange students between classes, so candidates meet one another and see that minor differences in executing movements leave the essence unchanged.

Patrick Lenard Eagle recounts Seijaku training in San Francisco, Justin Stone's delight in local restaurants, and a diner's syrup-soaked breakfast that humbled him into seeing all people as equal.

Noël Altman describes the "Ongoing Practice" continuing class she and Ed lead, where students pull the teaching from them, mature students strengthen the group chi, and beginners watch the second half of the form.

Lois Mahaney describes five years of presenting T'ai Chi Chih to a Seniors Concerns Class at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, closing with student Alinya Charron's poem.

Hope Ridley of San Mateo outlines what her continuing class does after the beginning instruction: all twenty moves for refinement, then extended single moves, linked moves, practice in pairs or a circle, two extra moves, and alternate breathing.

Steve Ridley condenses flow into a single line, proposing that everyone is capable of dancing well when they connect with music that genuinely moves them.

Virginia Shilson recounts a class in which the room became a cathedral, spiritual energy rose up the walls, and students bowed to each other at the end knowing each was changed.

Recovering from foot surgery, Rosalind Braga spent the 9th Annual Conference practicing seated T'ai Chi Chih, and describes the pelvic movement, rooted center and movements that worked best for her seniors class.

Teachers from Anaheim to Albuquerque answer a Conference evaluation question about continuing classes, describing refinement of moves, connected form, Seijaku breath work, circle and outdoor practice, discounts and mailing lists.

Patricia Bough, sidelined by tendinitis, taught her senior center class seated, then standing with a student model, then settled on using Justin's new video so she could circulate, correct and rest her foot.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts the November 1994 retreat at the Dominican Retreat House in Albuquerque, where 34 participants studied Satipatthana meditation with Justin Stone and donated the proceeds to the T'ai Chi Chih Center.

Della Alberson assigns students to write a poem or story using the twenty movements in order as a 'memory key' for when they lose the sequence, with contributions from Frank Vance and Nikki Price.

Reports from Steve Ridley's October 1994 teacher renewal day in Alameda, where twenty-five participants shaped the agenda with their own questions, and a Sunday Practice in the Park in San Mateo drawing nearly 100 people, closing with Ridley's poem.

Justin Stone recalls telling a Satsang at Yasodhra Ashram that God is not an object, and argues that exhorting students to try harder is egotistical self-clinging, citing Hui Neng.

Virginia Shilson recounts offering her teaching free of charge to senior citizen centers after accreditation, where classes of eight to thirty students built the confidence she needed to eventually advertise and charge.