The Vital Force Archive

Ralph Garn, stranded on standby after Seijaku accreditation in San Francisco, spent a sunny Sunday wandering the city and dining with two fellow TCC teachers, testing Justin Stone's advice to think big.

Lois Mahaney taught twenty second graders in Hayward in just two one-hour sessions for a Chinese New Year multicultural program, and their demonstration impressed a visiting martial arts instructor.

Ralph Garn noticed a Mona Lisa smile on his own face during morning Seijaku, a change from years of grunting through practice that his class noticed as smoother movement.

Corine Reeber's poem thanks Justin Stone as the sunshine through fog who woke her from eons of unaware wandering and set her learning the dance of the Sage.

Carol Wright's NAPRA Trade Journal review, submitted by Jean Katus, praises Justin Stone's book for its cold Kyoto meditation halls, Samadhi of the Sadhu, Somali camel auction, and Ou Mie Shu's drawings.

Bill Nielsen's pyramid poem imagines a river asked what it would say of the moment its bed was torn away, and finds it simply falling homeward to the sea.

Connie Hyde recounts the Meditation Retreat at Green Gulch Farm, where Justin Stone guided the sittings, deer visited the guest house, and Sandy McAlister led a last walk to the beach.

Steve Ridley writes to fellow teachers urging them to attend the year's accreditation courses in San Diego and Denver, noting the first two sessions cover every movement in detail and make a valuable review.

Laura Jacobson remembers her teacher Sister Dorothy Ferrell, a Franciscan who taught T'ai Chi Chih through community education and private instruction, and who died after calling it the happiest day of her life.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts the five day meditation retreat at Green Gulch Farm led by Justin Stone, where 22 participants received simple technique instruction, stories, silence and shared gratitude.

Susan Hudgens supplies a fill-in-the-blank model letter recommending a student for the Teacher Accreditation Course, listing the qualifications she cites: soft effortless movement, attention to detail, openness to correction and perseverance.

Teachers report in: Denver weighs hosting the 1995 conference, Chris McLain documents blood pressure and anxiety changes in Fargo, Pam Towne heads to Russia, Verna Wenger copes with inoperable cancer, and Daniel Froese adapts movements for wheelchair users.

Jean Stone, a student from Ft. Mohave, sends thanks after her first retreat, praising the warmth of the group, Justin's generosity and Sandy McAlister's organizing.

Steve Ridley supplies a form letter that accredited teachers can hand to anyone teaching T'ai Chi Chih without certification, asking them to stop until they complete the week-long training course.

Two newspaper write-ups: the Milpitas Post quoted a skeptical senior in Susan Hudgen's class who now reports less stress, and Al Stanbridge of the San Mateo Times visited Hope Ridley's Foster City class.

Steve Ridley describes healing as a self-responsible action, arguing that the Self is Consciousness-Energy and that T'ai Chi Chih conditions the mind-body vessel to receive it more fully.

Chris McLain recounts being urged by Steve Ridley to write to Justin Stone after her 1985 accreditation, and the Green Gulch meditation retreat, where rain on the yurt and hooting owls merged with the practice.

Patrick Lenard's newsletter clipping invites the community to 12-step meetings at the Isla Vista Recovery Center, and reports his own 1992 teacher accreditation and planned further training in San Francisco.

Press coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle and Contra Costa Times reported t'ai chi's gentle motion as arthritis therapy, including Patricia Yu's ROM Dance used in occupational therapy at a Madison hospital.

Eleven readers write in with praise for The Vital Force, thanking the editors for the new Table of Contents and the maps added to the Teacher Directory.

Justin Stone retells a brief exchange in which a Chinese Ch'an master answers a monk's question about where he will go after death with "Straight to Hell!" and explains why.

Patrick Lenard of Isla Vista sends a poem written from his "mind stuff" while practising T'ai Chi Chih on the ocean side cliffs, crediting TCC with rekindling dormant creativity.

Steve offers a two-sentence statement on meditation as the chance to shed what he calls limitation consciousness and rest, self-complete, as immortal beings.

Connie Hyde of Cedar Crest, New Mexico, argues ahead of the Chicago Teachers Conference that Justin and Steve's guidance in reviewing every movement is vital, and urges teachers to send the coordinators feedback.

Steve Ridley pairs pyramid poems with commentary arguing that a spiritual teacher should be utilized rather than worshipped, and that realization means seeing there is nothing to realize.

Joanne Sultar traced students' foot positions onto large paper bags so those struggling with the stance could take a made-to-order guide home, and lays out her hour-and-a-half class schedule.

Loretta Shiver's account of Steve Ridley's April 17 meditation workshop, alternating indoor sitting with TCC practice outdoors in the New Mexico sunshine, and why a working mother needs such days.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts Justin Stone's whirlwind move back to Albuquerque at 76, placing a deposit on a home hours after landing, with a Seijaku course and meditation class already booked.

Richard Brier continues his comic allegory of Chi Lanka, meeting Rip Van Stone in the Taffy Forest, relieving Masters Yink and Yank at the pulley, and posing atop Mt. Chi.

Viola Moriarty of Denver notices that her students who show up consistently gain more than those who perform the movements well, and finds teaching sharpens her own learning.