The Vital Force Archive

Joanne Sultar describes a student who arrived feeling as rigid as Richard Nixon, and her new morning program moving with 318 kindergarten through third grade children in the schoolyard half a block from her house.

Donna J. Moore describes the carbon-copy check list she uses with accreditation candidates, with each movement scored on Enter, Hands, Feet, Exit and Other before she recommends them.

Steve Ridley offers a brief statement that thanking only for what we enjoy is shortsighted, since every experience can return us to wholeness, where gratitude becomes our natural disposition.

Carmen Brocklehurst recalls Justin Stone prompting shy new teachers to practice right inside the Albuquerque student union in 1981, and how a later demonstration for a fibromyalgia support group answered her questions.

Ralph Garn's practical advice for new teachers on finding venues, reaching the decision maker, and pricing, including how he rebuilt classes in Syracuse through a new age bookstore and a summer questionnaire.

Letters from Vicki Brodie, Steve Ridley, Justin Stone, Sr. Antonia Cooper and others praising the Denver conference issue, listing fall teaching schedules, and inviting responses to the book Ishmael.

Reprinted from Tapestry, a profile of Vivian Hoff of Eagan, Minnesota, who saw t'ai chi on a trip to China after her husband's death, became accredited, and won the Age is Opportunity Arts Award.

Paula Weiner, accredited in April 1995 and about to turn 60, describes teaching three night classes a week and leading a Chicago synagogue presentation for 30 seniors, some paralyzed, some arthritic.

On September 9 the New Mexico T'ai Chi Chih Center marked its first birthday with group practice followed by cake and goodies, as reported in Albuquerque T'ai Chi Chih News.

Rhonda St. Martin recounts meeting Sotinus, a Greek visitor at her husband's high school reunion, who looked at her "Joy Thru Movement" card and called the dance floor joy thru fast movement.

Stan Ousley, newly certified, found that six of eight students in his first Denver class and six of seven in Santa Fe came because of Carmen Brocklehurst's PBS program.

Timothy Stuetz of Anaheim sends Justin Stone birthday greetings along with an account of blue pearls, streaks of light and dissolving into pure light in the cosmic consciousness pose.

Carmen Brocklehurst asks what first drew each of us to T'ai Chi Chih and argues that prajna, unswayed by politics or fads, is round, continuous and flowing like the platter.

Newly accredited at Alameda, Eugene L. Box describes starting drop-in classes at the Deming Senior Center and contracts with Western New Mexico University, and how 'time for oneself' persuades busy students to practice daily.

Carmen Brocklehurst's pyramid poem thanks a special friend whose art makes her heart twinkle and leaves everyone feeling like the very best, ready to begin anew.

Steve Ridley offers short commentaries on sinking into the bubbling springs, rooted softness and continuity of chi circulation, daily submission of ego-sense, and why teachers should not tell students to smile.

Mark H. Covell's pyramid poem, written after Steve's Exploring Meditative Ways class at Asilomar in June 1995, moves from turtles and glaciers to surrender, open receptors and a fragile balance.

Steve Ridley's pyramid poem traces light spiralling down into matter, separating into oceans of self-bubbles, then working its way free again, followed by the journal's December 10 birthday wishes to him.

Steve Ridley describes each person's energetic resonance as a note in the symphony of living, and daily T'ai Chi Chih practice as what reconstitutes us toward balance and harmonious influence.

Loretta Shiver recounts a June weekend of sitting meditation and T'ai Chi Chih with Steve Ridley at Asilomar, and the on-fire Albuquerque class she taught on returning home.

Steve Ridley's pyramid poem asks whether, amid diversity and transformation, one can abide in persistent patience like a magnificent tree enduring vibrantly, rooted peacefully in a forest community.

Steve Ridley recommends minutes of slow deep breathing among trees or at the seashore to reestablish center, citing yogic teaching on breath and the circulation of prana, with short verse fragments on wholeness.

Brief notes from newly accredited teachers: Mark H. Covell on his first weekend class in Oregon, Marianne Merritt planning a prison class in Galt, and Theda Gillespie's 90 New Zealand registrants.

Steve Ridley describes how the Cosmic Consciousness Pose aligns chi and draws energy upward to the third eye, and offers a breathe-and-relax method for holding it several minutes.

Justin Stone's seven-line diamond form from Climb the Joyous Mountain is explained, followed by seven pyramid poems written by Carmen Brocklehurst's Seijaku students on stillness, chi and time.

Thank-you notes from Jeri Kline, Lise Kimball, Melody Rudolph, Judy Dunlevy and Elana Cohen following the October 1995 teacher training in Kearny Mesa, with gratitude to Steve Ridley, Susan Patterson and Justin Stone.

Justin Stone argues that family and financial life can be lived alongside an understanding of impermanence, and that recognizing the interrelatedness of all beings is where spirituality and an end to war begin.

Justin Stone credits the worldwide spread of T'ai Chi Chih to the good it does rather than promotion, and praises Steve Ridley for teaching six teacher training courses in one year with much travel and little financial reward.

Terry Jennings of Honolulu describes a symbol received during meditation at the October 1995 San Diego accreditation course: two semi-circles touching that became whole circles and then a moving mandala.

Justin Stone connects the Prajna Paramita Sutra's Perfection of Wisdom to T'ai Chi Chih, arguing that freely flowing balanced chi lets the Cosmic Rhythm move us, and asking whether we will release our habit energies.