The Vital Force Archive

A marriage and the birth of Michael Sol on the Winter Solstice are announced, and Hope Ridley describes fifteen Bay Area teachers gathering at Liz Salada's home to practice together, swap teaching approaches and assemble The Vital Force.

Hope Burla, accredited at the 1993 Alameda teacher training, explains why a year later she still does not feel ready to teach, citing health, family commitments and the responsibility of being a role model.

Colorado's local instructors newsletter reports a T'ai Chi Chih and Meditation Workshop that drew 29 people including 10 teachers, and announces the 10th Annual International Conference at Regis University in August 1995.

Steve Ridley recounts a teacher telling him, just after a deep meditation, how many years he would live and calling that his koan, and finds uncertainty about death useful for growth.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts a shy beginner who doubted she could learn T'ai Chi Chih, then found six weeks in that the depression surrounding her mother's nursing home decline had lifted.

Theda Gillespie recounts hosting the visiting Mayor of Monte Sereno, California in Napier, who found Jane Fonda tapes boring and yoga unsustainable, and asks TCC teachers near her to make contact.

Steve Ridley's pyramid poem states that spirituality becomes evident when mind and body hold a serene, unified alignment, an experience common among T'ai Chi Chih practitioners.

Carolyn Shaw recounts breaking her fibula on December 9 and rebuilding her practice after the cast came off, starting with Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings alone.

Carmen Brocklehurst's pyramid poem compresses a quiet transformation into a few lines, noting that life changed with no crash and no thunder, leaving a new person behind.

A short aphoristic poem by "Guess Who Tzu" distinguishing students of the Way, who come and go, from disciples who remain and grow, and masters who assist without distinction.

Lucille Boman began practicing a week after back surgery, standing still with wobbly legs, skipping Pulling Taffy, until three weeks later she completed the whole form with her group at Santa Margarita Lake.

Leslie Johnson-Leech passes along the water poetry printed on a T-shirt from WATER WAYS, a children's workshop at Point Loma Arts Academy, plus the Namasté greeting a San Diego State extension student offered.

Steve Ridley states in a single sentence that the greatest miracle is the emergence of free love through the spiritual transformation of the human heart.

Yogi Pranananda offers four short lines urging the reader to abide in the unwavering Self while everything else comes and goes, finding freedom in that coming and going.

Darlene Ross reports her small new class at Fremont's Center for Wellbeing will continue, while Elizabeth Tyler of Lake Oswego describes her "Paths to Wellness" brochure and the anonymous breathing poem she uses in class.

After a phone conversation with Justin Stone, Richard Brier amplifies the claim that T'ai Chi Chih concerns only the circulation and balance of chi, naming prana and prajna as its two purposes.

Joanne Sultar of Berkeley lists the seven T'ai Chi Chih principles she raises in the first class and returns to all course long, from self-acceptance to sinking energy into the feet.

Acupuncturist Margaret Weber, Ph.D. spoke on T'ai Chi Chih to nearly 100 people at the April 1994 Whole Life Expo, with Bay Area teachers performing the form and a seated version demonstrated.

Anne Doering, a T'ai Chi Chih student, offers a short syllable-counted poem praising the practice as release and simple joyful moves, and Justin Stone as the teacher leading students up joyous mountains.

Tara Stiles of Sacramento lists eight teaching points for a handout, from yinning and yanging feet and diaphragmatic breathing to relaxed shoulders, rootedness in the legs and quietness within movement.

Barbara Peller recounts sponsoring the April 1994 teachers' course at a Techny retreat center, where nine candidates were accredited, and her imminent move to northwest Wisconsin to marry and start new classes.

Catherine Clark, a student of Elizabeth Tyler in Lake Oswego, calls her T'ai Chi Chih practice an extraordinary gift whose benefits came faster than any meditation or yoga she had tried.

Dyanna Chowka's brief pyramid poem offers a single image for the practice, asking the practitioner to move like a strand of pearls.

Sr. Adria Neumann's pyramid poem moves from spreading palm heat and healing aura through exploding kaleidoscope light to the feather softness and rooted hardness she calls the Seijaku contrast.

Jamie McDonald's pyramid poem describes arms, legs and head disappearing during practice, currents of energy visible flowing from the t'an t'ien, and jarring pain in the left ankle pushed aside like broken rock in a flood.

Rosa S. Fallon sets out nine principles for teaching practice, from relaxation and the resting pose to circularity, yinning and yanging legs, focus at the t'an t'ien, and sitting still afterward to absorb the chi, quoting Justin Stone and Steve Ridley.

Fred Muckel of Fremont, California offers a short pyramid poem about chi moving through every fiber of his being and love flowing through heart, mind and soul, ending in repeated joy.

Rosalind Braga lays out an extended garden metaphor for T'ai Chi Chih practice, from cultivating the soil as a beginner to weeding agitated thoughts, rotating practice locations, and harvesting unlimited chi.

Twelve non-teacher subscribers answered a postpaid postcard naming who introduced them to T'ai Chi Chih and what it has meant, from a chiropractor's office advertisement to a chronic balance disorder improved in class.

Ralph Garn's pyramid poem builds from "Open-hearted Surrender" through wanting not and lacking no-thing to a closing line of being at one in peace.