The Vital Force Archive

Sheila Leonard hosts Sandy McAlister's three-day intensive in Newfoundland, then Pam Towne compiles participants' notes from Antonia's Santa Barbara monastery retreats, closing with Anne Lovdahl on Justin Stone's "state of Becoming."

After watching teachers and students at a retreat shift weight incorrectly, Justin Stone urges teachers to stress that T'ai Chi Chih happens below the waist, with loose wrists and spread fingers.

Six regular attendees, compiled by Lisa Thorburn and Athene Mantle, say why they come to the annual teacher conference, followed by Diana Welsh Durkin and Donna McElhose introducing the first TCC Teacher Symposium facilitated by Sandy McAlister.

Editor KG announces promotional postcards for the new taichichih.org site, press kit files and Pete Gregory's brochure on the community resources page, graphics copyright limits, and a subscription increase back to $40.

David Wasserstrom finds TCC more accessible than meditation in a busy life, while Laurenda Messer stops toppling over when she crouches and Margie Cala eases twenty years of chronic fatigue.

Two pieces on abandoning hope: Bill Moore likens the practitioner to a cork on the sea, and Susan Weber describes connecting with her son's medical struggles and her father's Alzheimer's.

April Punzo used Rocking Motion, Around the Platter, Bass Drum and the Cosmic Consciousness Pose outside the gym before her karate belt exam and got through it without an anxiety attack, followed by Andrea Bork on Minnesota's summer park practice and a set of Pyramid Poems.

Pauline Quimson-Tong, a doctor who felt unfulfilled, recounts emptying herself through T'ai Chi Chih, while Pete Gregory abandons his brochure scheme and daydreams of nationwide studios.

Stephen Ryter sorts audiences into facts, forms, feelings and futures people so a T'ai Chi Chih pitch lands, and Mary Schapker recounts the 2007 conference committee's agenda-free beach reunion in Silver Beach.

Two accounts of abandoning hope: Marie Dotts on moving from Minnesota to Colorado, living in her sister's basement through her husband's eight-month job search, and Tina Wells on five IVF attempts and the birth of her son Jamie.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst found a message of hope in the previous issue's candid teacher articles, praising conscious practice over careless repetition, and closes with Dorene Krause's poem welcoming newly accredited instructors.

Sr. Antonia Cooper traces Justin's words on serenity and "measured movements," recounting how a retreatant blocking the ocean steps drew first irritation and then a gentler thought, and asking how we drop the "I" in practice.

KG argues against a colleague's Xerox-copy theory of inevitable drift, pointing to Justin Stone's DVD as a way to stay one generation from Source, and urges teachers to keep the full movement names and the "Chih"; with Pyramid Poems.

Sandy McAlister likens practice to a relationship needing nurture, citing teacher training candidates who set aside work and family to go deeper; Pam Towne adds letting go after a burglary took her jewelry and her cat disappeared.

Sheryl Adair breaks down how she demonstrates Bass Drum to students, from the cupped hands to the letting go of the wrists, followed by Jim Eagle's account of how the movement unlocked his stiff hips and introduced him to his T'an T'ien.

Three takes on Bass Drum: retreat notes on feeling chi between the hands and rolling over at 4 o'clock, Ev Hanson-Florin's warm-bath abandonment and UK "Water Wheel" nickname, and Stephen Thompson on holding the stillness.

Cathy Williams, grieving her sister's death from breast cancer, found her mental chatter stop during Rocking Motion and quit smoking, while Gary Swanson credits daily practice after his double lung transplant with lower blood pressure and greater lung capacity.

Two beginner accounts from a junior college class: Janis Gorski found sounder sleep and relief from a headache before her first test, and Tony Botting, facing knee replacements, could stand through ten movements.

Judy Hendricks recommends Justin Stone's two-disk CD Spiritual Stories of the East as commute listening, from Hakuin's enlightenment to tea with a Zen Master, and retells the tale of the monk and the biting scorpion.

Justin Stone argues that "flow softly" should be a teacher's first instruction, since strain contracts the meridians, and adds a companion piece distinguishing spirituality from religion and linking gratitude to happiness.

Daniel Pienciak hosted an October 2007 intensive with Pam and a March 2008 teacher training with Sandy in Ringwood, and collects participants' own words on refinement, softness, auditing and accreditation.

Dora Derzon gathered the answers of all 29 participants at Carmen Brocklehurst's Albuquerque retreat when Justin Stone demonstrated movements and spoke, describing softer movements, energy shifts and a call to service.