The Vital Force Archive

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.

Jan Martindale traces how T'ai Chi Chih moved her from a toxic job in Southern California to Portland, Oregon, then describes practising at Cathedral Rock in Sedona and joining group sessions in Albuquerque and Denver.

Mary Hong's piece for the Glenbrook South Oracle profiles math teacher Amy Hackenberg, who found T'ai Chi Chih through a Los Angeles Times notice and now offers free after-school classes to students and faculty.

Steve Ridley offers a set of brief reflections on spiritual growth as an unfolding of Consciousness, with aphorisms on relatedness, the sacredness of each moment, and shaping chi to shape our lives.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts arriving at Chotoku-in temple in Kyoto, where Mrs. Ogata looked up from sweeping the moss and spoke Justin Stone's name, and closes with her own poem on jade green.

Excerpts from a Sept. 27, 1994 Albuquerque Journal feature on 78-year-old Justin Stone, tracing T'ai Chi Chih from a chance 1971 bookstore conversation to 800 teachers and the Chinese idea of TEH, inner sincerity.