The Vital Force Archive

Noel Altman reports on an April workshop at the Albuquerque T'ai Chi Chih Center where Justin Stone gave a mock presentation and Ed Altman offered practical tips on public speaking, props, music and class sign-up incentives.

Margo Carpenter hosts Ed Altman's April 2001 Edmonton Seijaku course for 13 candidates and four auditing teachers, using the inner and outer force question to examine self-imposed walls, with attendee comments.

Pam Towne reports on Ed Altman's May 2001 Renewal day for Southern California teachers and the Fullerton accreditation course that followed, the first to use the revised Teachers' Training Manual, with comments from candidates and auditors.

Carolyn Allenby follows the Minnesota conference charge to "plant seeds," describing radio interviews on addiction and healthy lifestyles, a Wellness Day, a retreat center workshop, and a nursing home fair table.

Linda Robinson recounts how a chance remark from a Seattle hospital bereavement coordinator led to paid TCC classes for the recently bereaved, with practical advice on scheduling, candles and group critique.

Justin Stone's poem asks what the Zen Way means, naming Zazen, the fullness of the Void, Bodhidharma's westward journey, and whether we can be thankful with no thing to thank.

Hannah Hedrick, a former AMA executive, lays out the folder a teacher should assemble for a hospital interview: benefit statements, the AMA Cultural Competence Compendium entry, Dr. Scotti's letter to Justin Stone, and research citations, speaking of symptoms rather than diseases.

Della Pacheco's Indianapolis Prime Times interview in which Justin Stone recounts leaving Wall Street in 1953 for India and Japan, why T'ai Chi Ch'uan proved too long for Westerners, and Folsom Prison's near-zero recidivism among practitioners.

Dale Buchanan recounts closing his Great Falls T'ai Chi Chih studio after two years of financial losses, and finding more students, no overhead and a Seijaku-like acceptance of distraction while teaching ten weekly classes at five fitness centers.

Ed Altman traces how the brute force that serves us elsewhere fails in practice, and how Justin Stone's counsel to let go holds even when life stops going our way.

Ann Rutherford lays out the finances of Albuquerque's non-profit T'ai Chi Chih Center, from the $14,156 annual rent and Justin Stone's donated retreat and gallery proceeds to the new Search and Find and Presentation Committees recruiting off site classes.

Excerpted from the revised Teachers' Training Manual by Justin Stone and Ed Altman, this guidance has teachers check flow from the center first, then correct stance, legs, spine, arms and hands in that order.

Caroline Guilott and Bitsy LeBlanc describe turning a neglected green rental house on Center Street in Lake Charles into a T'ai Chi Chih center, with bargain paint, scavenged furnishings and husbands' support.

Carmen Brocklehurst takes Ramana Maharshi's question "Who are you?" into the teacher training room, quoting Justin Stone to argue that teaching T'ai Chi Chih is a sacred trust rather than a hobby.

Donna McElhose writes that CBS will film T'ai Chi Chih with about twelve students at the Cancer Wellness Center, and Ed Altman replies with five key points to make in any interview.

Sharon Sirkis recounts how a gas station attendant's unasked-for help left her squirming, and how her practice afterward led her to burn 21 years of personal journals.

Roseann Heinrich, doubting whether to keep teaching after two small company classes, asked the Universe for guidance and days later received an engraved plaque from three of her first students.

Debbie Cole describes the spiritual awakening that followed her October 2000 teacher training and a January practice in a church memorial garden, where warmth flowed into her freezing fingers.

Carol Murphy asks about openings in the Fullerton course and whether she is ready, describing how TCC eased her Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; editor Noel Altman urges her to practice first with two recently accredited Washington teachers.

Denise Moreland names the "invisible girdle" of beliefs that kept her stomach held in all day, and finds in the T'an T'ien a reason to let her belly be full and relaxed.

Donna McElhose reports CBS filming her class at the Cancer Wellness Center and a college orientation video, and forwards student Bobbie Weichman's thank-you letter about practising with fibromyalgia after three months.

Patricia Strand, a month into teaching her first class, practises before a mirror and notices her suit jacket moving on only one side, until shifting awareness to her left evens out the flow.

Noel Altman describes buying and living with Justin Stone's paintings, finding koans embedded in their color and texture, and invites readers to test their own reaction to his artbook Tentatively Forever.

April Leffler contrasts weak knees, tender and resisting the flow of life out of fear, with soft knees that are loose, strong and moved by the chi, until she feels her knees smile.

Four light-hearted items: Debbie Cole's class billed as "Moving Medication," Sharon Sirkis taking a message from a squirrel, Mary Pat George's student hearing "Around the Bladder," and Sher Dano's grandchildren critiquing a graceful conclusion.

Two participants describe the 70-person Sedona retreat of March 2001, where Sr. Kathy Salewski found an easy rhythm in the high desert and Joanne Lovejoy learned to release the back heel.