The Vital Force Archive

An unsigned, unpriced poem titled "Deep Serenity" turned up on a gift store shelf at Fisherman's Wharf during the March 3-5 Seijaku course in Monterey, and the owner gave it away.

News that Mill Valley teacher Joseph Segal, comatose for six months after a head-on automobile crash, is home in Corte Madera, sitting up, practicing T'ai Chi Chih in a limited way, and recently visited by Justin.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts how her uncle practised T'ai Chi Chih at the bedside of her dying 95-year-old grandmother, who settled, took food, and died with a single crystalline tear.

Reneé Wilson recounts how an elderly couple joined her new class at the "Y" after watching two of her former Victoria students lead about 20 travelers in T'ai Chi Chih during a long wait at the Kunming airport.

Jeanne Carlson-Linscott reports on the first Teacher Training Class at Valhalla Resort, where Steve's insistence on purification of form produced five new teachers and brought the regional total to fourteen.

Chris Curran was hired by the PTA at Roosevelt Elementary in Fargo to lead Joy Thru Movement for early-drop-off children, drawing 20 to 50 kids twice weekly and local TV coverage.

Justin Stone states that a T'ai Chi Chih teacher who does not practise is somewhat of a fraud, quoting his teacher from India: before giving water, make sure you have water to give.

Hannah Hedrick and others were filmed for a videotape on AIDS therapies, Pam Towne taped half-hour teaching shows for public access TV, and Dorothy Marks filled two classes after a newspaper article and radio interviews.

Jeanne Carlson-Linscott recounts hosting Justin Stone's Heightened Awareness Seminar in September and Steve Ridley's T'ai Chi Chih Meditation Intensive at Valhalla Resort, and invites teachers to the next one.

Bill Nielsen's six-line verse from January 1989 equates moving with movement and loving with love, concluding that in the moment heaven is no longer above.

Teacher news from spring 1989: Beverley Bach at Humboldt State, Christine Sproehnle's T'ai Chi Telemarking and rock climbing courses at Boulder, Jeanne Carlson-Linscott's Hawaii intensives, and Corinn Codye leading 80 conference participants in Santa Barbara.

Justin Stone notes that posture both shapes and reveals state of mind, saying we can read a person by their wrists and waist, by whether they sit down or fall down, and by how they close a door.

Sher Jaksha's short poem traces a soft voice whispered from deep within, a note almost missed that gathers through the night until the soul begins to sing at sunrise.

Donna Shaffer began an eight-week class for Apple Computer in Cupertino and another at Stanford Research Institute, while Jeanne Carlson-Linscott praised Steve's T'ai Chi and meditation seminar at Valhalla Resort.

Steve's pyramid poem sets T'ai Chi Chih practice in a snow-hushed winter dawn, where sunlight lifts vapor above white pines and gratitude opens into a flash of collective awakening.

Zen teacher Tundra Wind, in a letter Justin Stone passes on, compares Karate with T'ai Chi Chih on chi circulation, weight loss and injuries, and plans to take teacher training.

Justin Stone links acid and alkaline to yin and yang, recounts Paul Reps staying well on vinegar, and retells a swordsman from Sword of No Sword who fled opponents projecting steady Ki.

Steve passes along Justin's wish that more accredited teachers audit accreditation courses, both to check their own movements against the original intent and to assist candidates as a small, dedicated handful already do.

Steve Ridley offers five ideas for continuing practice groups: emphasizing grounding and centering, dwelling on a single movement, moving very slowly, connecting Daughter on the Mountaintop with Daughter in the Valley, and closing class with the Great Circle Meditation.

Carolyn Shaw's Pyramid Poem "Hologram" names life timers of splendor awaiting us as we wake, calling them jewels of Time-Space in three short lines.