The Vital Force Archive

Robert A. Buss compares two evening practices, one flowing and centered, the next fragmented and frustrating, and concludes that good practice is simply practice that gets done.

Jean Katus builds a pyramid poem from the dawn sun, whose sprinkled light guides a path to freedom and the connectedness of all planet beings radiating from one heart.

Justin Stone distinguishes the "ultimate truth" students ask him to write about from the practical Truth for Human Beings offered by churches and spiritual teachers, calling the former valueless.

Two short pyramid poems: Mark Harrell on being still as a broken gong with no striving, and Viti of Sunnyvale thanking Justin while naming Seijaku, Prajna and joyous gratitude.

Jean Katus reads the Tao symbol as a lesson in not clinging to either extreme, noting the seed of each opposite within the other and the stable center where outer changes cannot reach.

Richard Brier answers the hurry and worry of modern life with a refrain that came to him, "You can slow down now," using "I am here" hundreds of times a day as a mantra.

Virginia Shilson passes along dated testimonials from Albuquerque students Gwen and Bob Cameron, who report energy for chores, easier health walks and a calmer wait in a doctor's examination room.

A passage from Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth on how every act ripples outward: a housefly's wings stir a breeze around the world, and new knowledge enriches everything.

Steve Ridley's poem sets a frozen winter landscape against no-thought stillness and choiceless awareness, with Justin Stone's note calling it truthfulness that says it all.

Meredith Robbins recounts her first class at the Stone House in Lakewood and the teaching images she relies on, from ducks on a pond for Around the Platter to rhythm words and the lesson of Push Pull's reserve.

Sharon Melvin outlines the Teacher Preparation Course she built in Edmonton, with apprenticeship teaching, private instruction, a research report and monthly meetings, one student heading to Victoria in May.

Luba Blumberg reports on teaching T'ai Chi Chih to Danny Glover's Actors Workshop, a Monday class at the Orinda Community Center, and a lecture-demonstration for a Transactional Analysis seminar after her October 1987 teacher training.

Virginia Shilson's report on the Albuquerque teachers group: Carolyn Shaw's brochure pitching a TCC break to companies, a bamboo brush painting workshop for making flyers, and acceptance of the 1989 Teachers' Conference.

Carlos Magana reports martial arts students at the Brisbane Community Center and San Francisco Y.M.C.A. getting good results from Seijaku, Justin Stone's beginners' class fills at Monterey Peninsula College, and Joan Roulac finishes her first class.

Justin Stone links the Sanskrit idea of Advaita, or Non-Duality, to T'ai Chi Chih, arguing that since forms are impermanent and we are moving energies, balancing chi affects outer and inner alike.

Corinn Codye reports from the March 1988 Monterey course where thirteen T'ai Chi Chih instructors became accredited to teach Seijaku, with an equal number of teachers auditing to review the form.

Steve Ridley argues that affirmations and coping strategies produce no lasting change, while working directly with chi through T'ai Chi Chih alters its quality and awakens intuition, creativity and gratitude.

A Sierra newspaper piece by staff writer Matt Miller profiles instructor Chris Worcester, whose Recreation Department class draws construction workers and others to moving meditation that eased his own back trouble.

Pamela Towne's referral plan asks current students for names, addresses and phone numbers of people who might benefit from T'ai Chi Chih, then invites those contacts to free demonstrations.

A Princeton Packet description of T'ai Chi claiming it "improves book circulation" was caught as a newsbreak by The New Yorker, with a note of attention to librarians.