The Vital Force Archive

Teachers at the 1989 conference listed their hopes for T'ai Chi Chih: a 15-minute promotional videotape, college credit courses, Elderhostel programs, a Colorado Center for Heightened Awareness, and a million practitioners by 2000.

Therese Goetz secured conference publicity in the Albuquerque Journal and SUNSET Magazine, both noting the 7 a.m. T'ai Chi Chih sessions held in Old Town Plaza.

Steve Ridley's brief pyramid poem, dated July 1989, sets birdsong, wind and sailing clouds against the stillness in motion, where unification impresses the heart.

Professor Huang Wen-Shan, former dean at Shanghai and Beijing universities and one of Justin Stone's revered teachers, wrote in the foreword to the first T'ai Chi Chih textbook that practice leads beyond longevity to spiritual strength.

A T'ai Chi Chuan student's letter, forwarded by Steve Ridley, recounts focusing on the tan t'ien while cycling from Lakewood to Evergreen and finding her legs suddenly effortless uphill.

Steve Ridley names the specific habits that conserve chi: soft flowing movement, refined alignment, resting with palms down over the lower abdomen, and never going fully yang or fully yin.

Richard Brier of Mill Valley, California offers a brief pyramid poem urging the practitioner to practice until the cup is filled with love, and then to give it away.

Justin Stone recalls the Albuquerque Teachers' Conference, the silent sunrise practice at Old Town Plaza, Guy Kent's small-group discussions, and warns that the Monterey Seijaku course may be cancelled for lack of letters.

Loretta Shriver's pyramid poem from Albuquerque speaks as house, light and dawn wind, closing on the welcome that you are me and we are all one.

Steve Ridley thanks the Albuquerque Teachers Association for the 4th T'ai Chi Chih Teachers Conference, recalling 7 a.m. group practice in Old Town and Justin Stone's charge to keep the art pure.

Renee Wilson, accredited in 1987, tells how her student Nicole Calestagne, who has ALS, went from sitting through classes in pain to standing without it, prompting her neurologist to recommend T'ai Chi Chih to other ALS patients.

The New Mexico T'ai Chi Chih Association thanks Justin Stone, Steve, the panel and guest speakers Marva and Darva for the 1989 Teachers Conference at the Sheraton Old Town in Albuquerque.

Corinn Codye's photocopiable letter to prospective teacher candidates lists the required and recommended preparation for the $355 six-day accreditation course with Steve Ridley, from written recommendation to memorized movement order.

Three ideas from teacher conference discussions for keeping students practising: Ed and Noel Altman's class-chosen graduation celebrations, a core group of continuing students, and Tais Hoffman's Saturday drop-in practice in the park.

Memorable quotes gathered at the teachers' conference, including Lia Ridley calling the movements a universal language, Steve Ridley on containing the chi, and Justin Stone's "Inch, time, gem."

A three-line Pyramid Poem by Don Arenz of Fargo, North Dakota, in which a shadowed moon reflects the light of a three-hundred-year-old pine.

Steve Ridley of Denver offers a brief meditation on Reality existing everywhere at once, arguing that refined perception reveals every place as sacred and every being as Reality expressed.

Two possible Seijaku accreditation courses with Justin Stone, March 1990 in Monterey and June 1990 in Edmonton, will be scheduled only if twenty written candidate requests arrive for each.

A roundup of suggestions gathered at the teacher conference: add a day for interest groups, build in unstructured integration time, meet in a natural setting like Vallombrosa, pair new teachers with experienced ones, and invite the public.

Five letters: Doris Dandridge on the toning and the Acoma presentation at the teachers conference, Jean Doan on her first class and a blind student, Jean Katus on improved eyesight, Corine Reeber on the teacher packet, and Tim Stuetz on Passing Clouds in meditation.