The Vital Force Archive

Esther Kieffer of Cedar Falls, Iowa, returned from her second T'ai Chi Chih Conference with renewed energy, thanking the Chicago hosts for a job well done and praising the TCC family.

Anonymous notes and fragments from conference attendees, recalling the grounds and food, Justin's "I don't do it that way!", Marlene's warmups, the Tea Ceremony, and a Friday night silence held hand in hand.

Waiting alone among the scurrying crowds of an airport after a T'ai Chi Chih gathering, Ralph Garn of Syracuse thanks those who fueled his fire and encouraged his journey.

Vicki M. Brodie thanks by name the people who made the International Conference at Cabrini Center memorable, from Barbara Peller's organizing and Justin's teaching to Lia's dancing, Berta's flowers and the late night swimmers.

Virginia Shilson describes flying home from the Chicago teachers' conference with a full heart, and Sandra Lutz, at her first conference, offers a rhyming poem on soft, low, continuous movement.

Pam Towne lists her conference highlights, from practising TCC at O'Hare airport while waiting for a cab, where a curious attorney asked where to learn it, to renewing her commitment to the practice.

Steve Ridley watched Justin hand Lois a completed handwritten front-page article minutes after the Conference ended, comparing the feat to Yogananda's ability to create creatively on request.

Lia Ridley recounts leading her "Dancing from the Heart-Gypsy style" workshop of storytelling, dance and music at the Chicago conference, and the news that her daughter Tamara will be accredited in San Diego.

Virginia Shilson's account of a month in India, sitting in silent meditation at the feet of her injured Guruji in Ahmedabad, temple hopping, and a boy's birthday party where every adult guest received a gift.

Sandra Tanner announces the August 1994 International Teachers Conference at Vallombrosa Center in Menlo Park and urges teachers to send $100 or $50 deposits so the site reservation can be held.

Verse twenty-four of the Hua Hu Ching, in Brian Walker's translation of Lao Tzu, argues that subtle awareness is no achievement, since your nature and the universe's are already one.

Steve Ridley quotes a yogi on the Kingdom of Heaven extending to this earth plane, and describes T'ai Chi Chih practice as a daily segment of mindful rest beyond thought and tension.

Steve Ridley urges practitioners to bring full consciousness-awareness to every motion, arguing that attentive daily practice restores natural mind-body integration and yields the most consistent results.

Justin Stone recaps his summer Teachers' Conference talk on the two Sanskrit requisites for Enlightenment, ahimsa and vairagya, and warns how habit energies harden into tendencies that lead us by the nose.

Steve Ridley gives the hand position for sealing in the chi after the Resting Pose, right palm over left hand on the lower abdomen with the left thumb at the navel.

Carmen Brocklehurst thanks Barbara for organizing the conference and Hannah for linking the group with Chicago, and predicts 1993-1994 will bring a more visible expression of T'ai Chi Chih.

Liz Salada describes the monthly advanced classes, Steve Ridley's question-and-answer evening and a Teacher Review weekend that prepared Bay Area candidates for the June 1993 Alameda accreditation course.

Meara Joy Rybczyk had decided to skip the Chicago teachers' conference until three mornings of practice brought a vivid sense of the other teachers moving, prompting a last-minute call to her travel agent.