The Vital Force Archive

JJ Johnson answers a student's question about Seijaku with the story of practicing at a Texas roadside park on World T'ai Chi Day when a freight train roared past.

Tracks three and four of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he links karate board-breaking to accumulated chi, explains effortless effort, and gives three reasons for concentrating in the soles of the feet.

Patricia Spears Bigelow credits regular practice with strengthening an ankle after tendon surgery, easing asthma, and stopping the falls her glaucoma caused, and describes doves, squirrels and an owl watching her practice outdoors.

Warren Wolfe, sleepless in the hospital after knee-replacement surgery and plagued by muscle spasms, began doing T'ai Chi Chih mentally at 3 a.m., and describes the practice he has refined since.

Carolyn Perkins, writing from Cyprus, managed one group practice and one of Carmen's workshops at the teacher conference despite the time difference, and does six repetitions daily since breaking her neck.

Caroline Guilott recalls skipping into the room to greet Justin in Albuquerque, and describes how words about the movements can trap a practitioner while attention to the t'an t'ien, the weight shift and softness opens the practice.

Julie Schuster's class at Friendship Village of Bloomington spent weeks practicing a single chosen movement, and students recorded what came of it: Push Pull turning into a mantra, Six Healing Sounds cleansing breath, and Daughter on the Mountain Top easing anxiety at bedtime.

Karen Silva recalls Justin Stone demonstrating grounding in Basic Pulling Taffy, the pulling hand crossing diagonally to end parallel to the ground, an explanation she still uses in her classes.

Jim Shorr collects statements from four Oregon senior students naming the movements that matter most to them, from Ellen H.'s swimmer's affinity for Working the Pulley to Linda L. feeling God's presence in Passing Clouds.

Bruce Childs borrows Pamela Adelstein's definition of sacred space to recall the quietude of the T'ai Chi Chih Center in Albuquerque, then asks his friend June, who answers with a poem about weekly open practice.

Dina Ajlenberg found that Israeli students, unlike Canadians raised on parades and big bands, had no image of a bass drum, so she teaches the arm movement as a train's wheels.

June Calende describes a weekly 3:00 practice at a senior center, shoes off, windows facing a kettle pond, Debby naming the nineteen movements in a barely audible voice.

Sue Kenney lists the paradoxes of T'ai Chi Chih, physical and spiritual, calming and energizing, and recalls Justin Stone's advice not to analyze them but to experience the effort of no effort.

Laurin McDonald recounts the first 800 hours of teaching after her 2018 accreditation, from a chance encounter at a business showcase to classes in wheelchairs, a mosque, and her Seijaku accreditation in 2021.

Rosalind L. Braga recounts Justin Stone's 1998 talk at Folsom Prison, where the words "your joy is my joy" won over inmates and guards, and traces the weekly classes and inmate teachers that continue in 2023.

Sandy McAlister outlines the volunteer-run pieces of the TCC organization and urges every teacher to pay for a listing on the taichichih.org find-a-teacher page, after a researcher searching for a teacher found no names.

Jessica Lewis recounts how she, Anita Vestal, Adam Lacey and Sokie Lee won a 30-minute experiential slot at Boston's OSHER Whole-Person Health Conference in September 2023, funded partly by grants and T-shirt sales.

Dorene Krause describes the tan t'ien as a rounded bowl of stored Chi rather than a dot, with quotes from Justin Stone and Julie Barrier-O'Grady and instructions for breathing into the center in stillness and in movement.

Adam Lacey travelled from Oxfordshire to the inaugural Tai Chi and Qigong research conference in Boston, where prominent scientists named T'ai Chi Chih in their trials and attendees sought out the day-two experiential workshop.

Carmen Brocklehurst puzzled over the textbook subtitle "Joy Thru Movement" until she watched Justin Stone walk out of an Albuquerque dry cleaners with his laundry and saw joy itself.

Dr. Anita Vestal reports from the inaugural Science of T'ai Chi and Qigong as Whole Person Health Conference, where Dr. Helen Lavretsky could not locate a TCC teacher for a study through the website directory.

Catherine Fedewa, who co-chaired the 2023 online Teacher Conference, names what Zoom gave the community and what it could not, and looks ahead to the in-person anniversary gathering in Albuquerque in 2024.

KG accounts for the taichichih.org teacher listing pages, the 250 hours spent contacting 1500 teachers, why the PDF directory was never public, and the new map and single-page teacher search.

Terry Gay Puckett strings together phrases gathered at the 2023 conference, from "effortless effort" and "empty the cup" to feeling the soles of your feet and remembering Justin Stone.

Lisa Stroyan compiled accounts from April Leffler's October 2023 Zoom accreditation, where 12 candidates from three countries worked from tree-frog "suction cup" feet upward and shared their "green banana" takeaways.

John Lee Marquez, a teacher of nine months, describes his first TCC conference under the theme "Remembering Connection," with videos and stories of Justin Stone and notes on deepening practice.

Lorry Marcketta recounts Janet Oussaty's afternoon workshop on teaching beginners, with five points including ocean-wave imagery for Rocking Motion, energy balls held between the hands, and avoiding analysis paralysis.

Laurie Jacobi arrived at the 2023 teacher conference convinced 24 years of practice had taught her all there was to know about body mechanics, then came away with new refinements in Bird Flaps Its Wings, Around the Platter and the Six Healing Sounds.

Sharon Sirkis Columbia recounts three classroom moments from 2001: a reluctant husband who called his practice "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," a quip to Justin about "umm" versus "OM," and her own trip up the stairs.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, tracks 4 and 6 cover bringing heart fire below the navel, Hakuin Zenji's words on the elixir of life, why softness keeps the meridians open, karma and habit energy, and the balance of intellect and emotion.