The Vital Force Archive

Carol Spicer describes closing every class with a short seated meditation, crediting Dorene Krause and Phyllis Segal for the practice, and includes her poem "Within the Softness," written after the 2014 teacher conference.

Donna Aldous practices outdoors during an eight-day silent retreat at an abbey in the Santa Rita foothills near Sonoita, where Passing Clouds and fifteen years of present-moment practice prepared her for daily silent prayer.

Julie Barrier describes taking over the T'ai Chi Chih class she had attended as Bill Moore's student at the Oakland Senior Center, including sleepless nights before teaching and the silence that ends each class.

Victoria Mogilner recounts eight years of teaching at Gilbert Senior, where a small class grew to 49 people a week, bringing better balance and a group that moves together.

Lisa Jacobs traces her path from a first class at the Gurnee Park District through years of unlearning ballet habits, and Ed Altman's insistence during accreditation that teaching stay purely Justin Stone's.

Dana Cline describes refining her movements over Skype with California teacher Lisa Otero while practice-teaching under Opie Reed in South Carolina, with Judy Anne Light's companion piece on returning to T'ai Chi Chih after 20 years away.

Marie Dotts previews two discussion topics for the 2017 conference: giving and receiving correction as an expression of teh, and whether teachers came to T'ai Chi Chih for physical or spiritual reasons.

Justin Stone answers audience questions in a taped lecture, recounting travels in India, Kyoto and Taipei while distinguishing good from positive, chi mastery from martial art, and intellect from emotion.

Eleven candidates accredited at Aston in April 2017 write about their week with Sandy McAlister and host April Leffler, in poems and prose about fear, presentations, dawn silent practice and auditors' support.

Dorene Krause, auditing a spring accreditation course, saw her own timid autumn accreditation in the candidates' eyes and watched their self-confidence blossom as they joined the teaching community.

Journal entries from April Leffler's PhysEd class at Widener University, where students describe feeling the t'an t'ien, easing seven years of anxiety and depression, and closing with Paige M.'s poem.

Justin Stone recounts a Zen priest's charge to "be the Big hermit," the Himalayan morning he decided he should be able to meditate at 42nd and Broadway, and how impermanence brings profound gratitude.

A rundown of the TCC blog, Instagram account and Facebook page, including the hashtag for reposting photos and the ten-point Facebook list of facts about T'ai Chi Chih worth sharing.

The 2017 planning committee lays out the Boulder program day by day, from Dr. David Parrish on brain science and a four-teacher panel on grounding to Jessica Lewis on teaching alone in Delaware, Sandy McAlister's movement refinement, and the Saturday auction.

Anita Vestal summarizes twelve controlled trials of T'ai Chi Chih, covering sleep quality, shingles immunity, inflammation, physical performance in older adults, stress and depression, with recommendations for future studies.

Lisa Stroyan describes the daily resistance she meets before practicing, the moment the weight shift takes over, and the tools she and other teachers use to keep showing up.

Vic Berg announces a new online teacher code and re-registration for ordering materials, followed by Sharon Sirkis quoting a college student on her barefoot professor and her deadline exchange with KG.

Carmen L Brocklehurst describes how students arrive at T'ai Chi Chih quietly, often through a friend or a spouse, and how the "I" reason for practising eventually turns into a compassionate "we."

Sheryl Adair practices in a sunny spot in her home studio, reads Justin Stone's line about gratitude, then tastes harmony, circularity and balance in a breakfast bowl of Cheerios and blueberries.

Judy Hendricks answers a student's question about why Justin Stone died five years earlier, recalling his words that he had never left his own teacher, Roshi Joshu Sasaki.

Sr. Agnes Fleming, certified since 1992, recounts teaching in retreat houses, stepping back after cancer, and keeping a daily practice at her east-facing convent window with the dawn and birdsong.

Sandy McAlister warns that a wandering mind lets the Chi rise, bringing headaches and giddiness, and describes keeping attention below the waist to stay grounded; pyramid poems on six movements follow.

First-year teacher Nikol Price describes using essential oil sprays and albums like Misty Forest Morning to mask Student Union noise and make her class an experience rather than exercise.

Daniel Pienciak calls Seijaku the gem hidden inside T'ai Chi Chih, recalling Justin Stone recovering "Deep Purple" at a New Jersey conference piano with wholly new harmonizations; pyramid poems follow.

Donna Deffenbaugh offers a raven soaring on canyon thermals as a visualization for days when fatigue tempts us to push through the movements, quoting Justin Stone's "effort of no effort."