The Vital Force Archive

A tribute to Liz Salada on her resignation as publishing editor of The Vital Force, pairing Fra Giovanni's 1513 letter with notes of thanks from Linda Meyer and Barbara Riley.

Tina O'Connell-Duggan's prose poem from a TCC retreat, set around a bouquet of holly and day lilies, incense above a clam shell, and candles passed to complete a flickering circle.

Teachers including Pam Towne, Edie Budney and Anne Doering recount the 1997 Teachers' Conference: Joel's harp concert, Justin's Jing chi enhancement, the candlelit rededication circle, and blunt suggestions for next year.

Sr. Antonia Cooper describes the second annual retreat at Xavier Center, a Catholic retreat house in Morristown, where seventeen women practised twelve hours of TCC alongside optional prayer and meditation.

Photographs from the 12th Annual T'ai Chi Chih Teachers' Conference, whose theme spelled out GREAT, Gratitude Ecstasy And Transformation, along with a pictorial of the funny, inspiring and celebratory Talent Night presentations.

Kathy Vieth reports on the May 1997 accreditation course at Mercy Center, where nine candidates, all St. Louis residents sponsored by one hosting teacher, were accredited under trainer Ed Altman.

Sr. Alice Holden's pyramid poem builds from T'ai Chi Chih participants sharing their essence, chi, through agendas evaporating in a fire of love, to effortless transformation.

Sher Dano's day-by-day diary of the June 1997 accreditation week at Pam Towne's home in Camarillo, from Monday introductions through a presentation she thought she blew to Saturday's announcement of five new teachers.

Mark Moloney's prose poem moves from the last peal of country church bells and echoes of plain chant to a riverside street at night, where street cleaners' brooms briefly interrupt the stillness.

Sr. Antonia Cooper's report on the Mahwah accreditation course, where 14 candidates were accredited, 12 area teachers audited, and the form deepened until her carried bowling ball became a balloon.

A four-line verse asking the reader whether they know how much their love means, how many hearts it has lifted, and that their love itself is healing.

Ralph Garn thanks Sr. Antonia Cooper and Ed Altman after auditing the July teacher accreditation in Mahwah, recalling Ed's drawing of a human form with emphasis below the navel and an empty head.

A Zen poem by Fa-yen Wen-I, quoted from John C. H. Wu's The Golden Age of Zen, in which a day sitting in a grove of apricot blossom and swaying willows cleanses the mind of idle thoughts.

John Buffington's single-line pyramid poem moves from the state of emptiness to the heart and soul, ending on one word: Love.

A two-line pyramid poem credited to Monty M. Bach in 1977, asking whether a caterpillar has any knowledge that its future lies in butterflies.

John Buffington, newly accredited at Carmel Retreat in Mahwah, describes practising at a forest waterfall with auditing teacher Ralph Garn and plans first classes at his mother's nursing home and his church.

Mark Maloney describes how weekly TCC practice in the room where his agency teaches men to be non-violent partners and parents coincided with healed staff in-fighting, new classes and financial stability.

Ralph Garn's pyramid poem holds a single moment as one small portion of forever, grasped temporarily in a camera's shutter and never to be the same again.

Justin Stone recounts how his own inner experiences, including glimpses of other universes, seldom matched the teachings he was given, the exception being Garma C. C. Chang's The Buddhism of Totality.

Buddy Jacobs recalls a class in the Grand Ballroom of the Siena Center Mansion, from removing his shoes with a stiff body to the instructor's cues on anchoring and bowing from the hips, to putting his socks back on easily an hour later.

Teacher news reports 83-year-old John J. O'Connor's accreditation at Mahwah, Justin Stone's first East Coast visit to Convent Station, Marlene Brown's six-day Kentucky wellness retreat, and Patricia Herbig's call for medical evidence of TCC's benefits.

Roberta Taggart's pyramid poem marks autumn in hue-laden leaves, harvest-dampened air, a triumphant golden moon and the smell of sweet hay filling the sky.

A letter from Bea Stasick to her Albuquerque teacher Rae Miller, marking one year of daily practice since her first class and crediting it with lower blood pressure and more energy.

A Pyramid Poem by Kathryn Christeen Curron urging acceptance, respect and love without comparison, holding that no practitioner is more advanced than another and that relaxing is the key to healing.

Elizabeth Salada steps down after six years as publisher-editor of The Vital Force, citing divergent opinions among teachers during the past year and escalating demands of motherhood.

Louis and Joyce DeGidio describe joining the Tuesday morning teachers' practice circle at the T'ai Chi Chih Center, where Justin Stone demonstrated each movement, Carmen Brocklehurst shared Nei Kung meditation, and Connie Hyde welcomed them to her evening class.

Dr. Tahir Bhatti describes his UCSD School of Medicine fellowship grant to test T'ai Chi Chih against routine care for chronic low back pain, teaching 11 movements in six-week sessions.

Ed Altman announces that from January 1998 all T'ai Chi Chih teacher training courses move to a week-long daytime intensive, raising course hours from 22 to 33 and the fee to $450.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts the 1997 Orange County conference, where teachers practised again and again, learned the Jing from Justin Stone, and heard Gwen Yee sing a song about it.

Reprinted from the Dublin News, Jason Montiel's report on eleven Taiwanese exchange teens who joined a dozen seniors for half an hour of T'ai Chi Chih led by Virginia Lee Cepeda at the Dublin Senior Center.