The Vital Force Archive

Prompted by Ray Watson's letter in the March issue, Justin Stone recalls teaching partially paralyzed students at Kushi West in Los Angeles in 1975, where some regained sensation in their legs.

Justin Stone argues that enlightenment and T'ai Chi Chih both come not from trying harder, as Zen teachers urge, but from letting go of habit energies and practising the effort of no effort.

Judy Jones recounts a lunchtime practice on the grass at Evergreen Hospital's courtyard where a large black dog galloped through the group into the pond during Joyous Breath.

Richard J. Briar's story from Sacred Stories For Remembrance portrays Bo Yin Ra, the tiny San Francisco fortune cookie seller whose cryptic answers, odd quotations and favorite fortune, "This is it," dissolved every question into laughter.

Donna M. Cone, a student of Timothy Stuetz, writes after 35 consecutive days of practice about rising early, losing 10 pounds, steadier balance at 57, and calm during career stress.

Ho Hu Tzu's pyramid poems warn that adhering to ritual can blind us to the Way, picture events as ripples on the ocean, and end with enlightenment as waking into dissolution.

Lee Campbell met Barbara, newly moved to Phoenix from Calgary, while she walked her dog, and invited the former student of Sharon Melvin to her Wednesday night Share the Form.

Four short meditations from M. T. Kupper, moving from cloud-filtered sunrays resolving into one light, through witnessing with no witness, to the work of unearthing the Light we always are.

Mary Stebbins steps away from a hectic morning to practise in a light snow on her lunch break, moving from awkward uncertainty into tingling, flow and a sense of becoming a dancer of light.

Steve Ridley describes daily T'ai Chi Chih practice as a way of releasing accumulated debris rather than attaining anything, and urges building each movement from the ground up, rootedness being possible even seated.

Mary Stebbins, three classes into T'ai Chi Chih with Ralph Garn, camped alone in a snowstorm on Morgan Hill and practiced on a sun-dried platform beside a rushing stream, weeping with joy.

Steve Ridley's counsel to new teachers, given at the Albuquerque accreditation course: teach by listening, with love and detachment, give all and expect nothing, and keep refining form toward ego release.

Marlene Brown volunteered to lead T'ai Chi Chih at a clinic program for people with schizophrenia, and within four days was offered a paid contract that was later extended twice.

Terry Jennings, newly accredited in San Diego, reports on finishing three eight-week classes on Oahu and bringing them together for a sunrise practice at Makapuu Beach, with students' comments.

Justin Stone insists teachers must perform the form well, not just teach it, and since re-examining more than 1000 accredited teachers is impractical, urges frank self-evaluation and attendance at the annual Teachers' Conference.

Steve Ridley describes how sitting in silence, at rest and quietly attentive, neutralizes the force driving unconscious involvement with random thought and frees the mind for more refined perspectives.

Steve Ridley advises teachers on judging when a student is ready for general corrections and when subtler suggestions about circulating chi will actually be received, a sense sharpened by seasoned practice.

A brief pyramid poem by Sky Woman in which blue sky emerges gradually from gray, pulling out mare's tails, and the sun's golden light meets the sky.

Justin Stone traces the move from doing T'ai Chi Chih as exercise to the moment a practiser realizes "T'ai Chi Chih is doing T'ai Chi Chih," with the "I" out of the way and Bliss as our very nature.

Steve Ridley describes a class so intent on perfecting Pulling Taffy that tension built, prompting his joke that the movement was improving while the chi fled the room.

Janie Dick's pyramid poem about a gathering of old souls who may have helped heal their mother and each other, and for whom simply being part of it was enough.

Steve Ridley offers a brief perspective holding that full attention in T'ai Chi Chih practice gives birth to meditation naturally, as the form gives way to the formless.

Steve Ridley recalls his T'ai Chi Ch'uan master asking students to let go and give full attention so he could move them through the forms, then offers classroom ideas: soothing music, informal talk, gentle breathing, a circle of Rocking Motion, and pausing when frustration builds.

Teacher letters report the Africa Fund covering Sister Marie-Ann Main's airfare for accreditation, a Dutch-language text translation in Switzerland, monthly outdoor practice at Portland's Rose Garden, Kaiser Permanente classes, and a San Diego publicity push.

Marlene Brown answers Susan Hudgens's question about students who correct others or tell the teacher how to teach, followed by reader letters thanking the Vital Force Journal's contributors.

Justin Stone explains Vashanas, the habit energies that harden into Karma and Samskaras, and how Zen's cleansing of the eighth consciousness and Patanjali's Yoga both aim to weaken them.

Newspaper clippings from Arizona and Wisconsin cover Lee Campbell's six-week course at Sun Lakes Country Club and Barbara Sommers teaching at the Rice Lake Coffeehouse to students with chronic pain and migraines.

Timothy Stuetz argues that the essence of T'ai Chi Chih cannot pass from teacher to student without the Teacher's Training Course, and urges certified teachers to confront those teaching uncertified.

Yogi Pranananda offers aphorisms on surrender and the dissolution of ego-consciousness, arguing that zen training and devotional bhakti serve the same end: living without a fixed self-image.

T. Hart Guy describes breathing into the heart chakra through fear, expectation or joy, and chanting the syllable "ah" with awareness in the mid-chest to loosen stagnant creative energy.