The Vital Force Archive

Judy Chancey recalls Justin Stone saying over tuna salad at Carmen Brocklehurst's Fall Retreat that life has always provided what he needed, and traces that to a Kyoto chess game.

Sue Bitney recounts an elderly Minneapolis student who arrived with a cane and oxygen tank on doctor's orders and, over three eight-week sessions, stood unaided for a full hour.

Donna McElhose describes the 2009 International T'ai Chi Chih Conference in Nebraska, organized by teachers from many areas rather than one region, with a scholarship raffle and a barbeque songfest.

Neal Roy describes meeting Justin Stone for the first time at a Fall retreat in Albuquerque with Carmen Brocklehurst, and the explosion of heat that rose through his body.

David Stone credits a morning practice with getting him through a painful couples counseling session where he disclosed troubling secrets, and thanks his teacher Steve Marsh for support after Iraq and entering a recovery program.

Becky Watkins traveled from Louisiana to the 2009 conference at Lied Lodge, spent two hours spotting twenty-seven bird species with an ornithologist at Arbor Day Farm, and found gratitude the theme of her week.

Stephen Thompson describes the state of flow in daily T'ai Chi Chih practice, where effortless movement, regulated breath and fluid time give way to a meta-state of oneness with Chi.

B.J. Day, a beginner in her twenties who considered herself clumsy and without balance, practised Rocking Motion while waiting for the shower to warm and recalled the Six Healing Sounds inside it.

Diana Reding recounts the group practice at the 2009 conference and how Justin's DVD changed her feeling for Pulling Taffy, where she now senses resistance across the t'an t'ien.

Mark Moloney writes that mystics' word maps are hard to swallow until one's own despair is mastered, followed by Pyramid Poems from CG and MW on chi, fear and sharing.

Terry Engelhart recounts the years after his wife's death from cancer in 2001, when faith, a Special Forces friend's blunt intervention, a quiche mispronunciation and T'ai Chi Chih kept him from suicide.

Pete Gregory argues that softness, unlike the weight shift or circularity, cannot be directly measured, and that overusing the word in class dilutes it; his image is holding a newborn, hand supporting the neck.

In a video address to the 2009 conference, 92-year-old Justin Stone corrects four points for teachers: the hand "turned up to the sun" in Pulling Taffy, cupped hands and wrist work in Carry the Ball to the Side and Bass Drum, and yinning and yanging below the waist.

Mary Ann Moran answers the request to speak of softness with a short meditation: do not think 'I must be soft,' but be rooted as bamboo, unhurried, melting into vital energy.

Justin Stone names the aimless hand-waving he sees in Bird Flaps its Wings, Pulling Taffy Variation #2, Light at the Top of the Head and Daughter in the Valley, and explains why he corrects it at Albuquerque practices.

Taking Justin Stone's bamboo and oak comparison, Pauline Quimson-Tong describes nourishing attitudes of love and gratitude rather than worry and resentment, and how stiffness blocks the flow of chi.

Pauline Quimson-Tong answers questions raised at the 2009 conference, naming Rocking Motion for grounding, seated practice to feel the t'an t'ien, Justin Stone's music, and demonstrating a movement wrongly before showing it correctly.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts the opening ritual at Lied Lodge, where 90 teachers poured soil from their home practice grounds into one bowl, and previews the 2010 and 2011 conferences.

Pete Gregory's two poems: a Beverly Hillbillies-style ballad tracing Justin Stone from struggling T'ai Chi Ch'uan classes to Albuquerque, and a verse about arriving at the Nebraska conference and hearing Justin's voice.

Sandy McAlister counts the ripple from Linda Braga's TCC presentation to 200 people at a six-thousand-person conference, and urges students who plan to teach after retirement to start now, one class at a time.

Nancy Werner-Azarski recounts the small but energetic 2009 conference, where Anita's description of T'ai Chi Chih as a personal journey within a community, and a panel on spirituality, reshaped her thinking.

Pam Towne gathers testimonials from her six-week Southern California Seijaku class, including reports of eased arthritis pain, more energy with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and Justin Stone's 1989 remark about health and strength.

Diana Bahn recounts two falls, one crossing West 57th Street and one on the tennis court that strained her hamstring, and how acupuncture, physical therapy and a rebuilt daily practice brought Seijaku back within seven weeks.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst counters frustration with Pulling Taffy by having students affirm their love for it, then teaches the small circular hip swivel that keeps the shoulders still and generates chi from the waist.

Ann Rutherford, prompted by the Nebraska teacher conference, locates the yang elements of T'ai Chi Chih in grounding the chi, the hands descending at each close, and the substantial hand in Pulling Taffy.

Jean Katus shifted her emphasis in Pulling Taffy from the tan t'ien to the side movements, picturing a fine filament from the center and recalling Justin's marionette image.

Caroline Guillot includes Justin Stone's T'ai Chi Chih: Joy Thru Movement in her class fee, assigning homework from it and quizzing students orally in the final session.

Donna McElhose teaches Pulling Taffy through the motions of making ice cream, scooping left at waist level, circling a topping on with the right hand, wiping the dish and serving it to a friend.

Carmen Brocklehurst plays the Justin Speaks on T'ai Chi Chih CD as beginners arrive, uses its confirming signs of flowing Chi to prompt discussion, and assigns teacher preparation students fifteen minutes of daily listening with a notebook.

Justin Stone answers his editors' constant requests for copy, notes his articles may lean spiritual as he enters his nineties, and recalls the former head of T'ai Chi Chih who quit over his insistence that the practice is a service to humanity.