The Vital Force Archive

A short passage from Steve Ridley's book Perspectives in Stillness and Motion, describing life as a journey unique to each yet common to all, resolving more and more into Love.

A Teacher Trainer Tips column recommends one to three rounds of Joyous Breath to open the meridians and oxygenate the blood, then reviews the key points of execution and the attitude the movement asks for.

Justin Stone asks T'ai Chi Chih teachers to write to The Vital Force about ordinary classroom experience, noting that accounts need not be spectacular and that sharing is the T'ai Chi way.

Justin Stone reminds teachers that T'ai Chi Chih is first a spiritual discipline, urging them to pursue their own self-cultivation so that students will be drawn to them in growing numbers.

Mark Harrell of Campbell, California argues that the teacher's own actions set a class's tone, urging teachers to stay grounded rather than react to students' negative energies.

Justin Stone describes how every mood and thought carries a matching prana, from the roughness of angry breathing to the near-stopped breath of deep samadhi, concluding that mastering body masters mind.

A passage from Kakuzo Okakura's The Book of Tea on how tea-masters carried the tea-room's refinement into daily life, keeping serenity of mind, measured conversation, dress and walk.

Steve Ridley welcomes Liz Salada as the new publisher of The Vital Force, praising her as conscientious, selfless, and a living example of T'ai Chi in action.

Teacher updates spanning Billie Blair's team-teaching at a Unity church, newly accredited teachers from the Bemidji course, Corinn Codye's 16-day cruise classes, and a Bay Area referral list project.

Liz Salada introduces herself as the new publisher of The Vital Force, describing T'ai Chi Chih as Karma Yoga and committing to self-facing with compassion and service.

Bob Howells' Women's Sports and Fitness piece, reprinted from January 1991, reports how skiers, rock climbers and LPGA golfers taught by Christine Sproehnle and Pam Towne use T'ai Chi Chih for grounding, focus and faster recovery.

Steve Ridley marks the Spring Equinox, the moment of equal daylight and darkness, with a meditation on balancing yin and yang, a paraphrase of Justin Stone, and two of his own poems.

Lois Mahaney traces her path from 1917 Hancock, Michigan and wartime WAAC service to substitute teaching, a Sunday park practice session, and a high school demonstration where students' chi set her hands fluttering.

Jean Katus taught a one-day workshop to fifteen men at a state prison, where early snickering and macho posturing gave way to sincere questions and requests that she return.

Justin Stone's short poem on meeting visitors at whatever level they bring, answering Emptiness with Emptiness and gold with gems, or banal talk if the guest lingers in dust.

Letters from Fran Dukehart, Amy Hackenberg and Vicki Brodie thanking Justin Stone, with Brodie listing practice during a two and a half hour tow wait, after oral surgery, and under summer stars.

A short passage submitted by Carmen Brocklehurst counsels listening not with the ears or the mind but with the Chi, an emptiness ready to receive all things.

George R. Balliet's pyramid poem recalls a December teacher training in Santa Barbara, a large room full of peers, the master present and cheerful, and chi flowing from toes to ears.

Justin Stone traces Zen from Bodhidharma and Hui Neng to his own 3:30 a.m. Zazen at Eiheiji, where monks manned cash registers, and argues Zen demands attenuation of the pleasure principle.

A traditional Gaelic blessing, offering the deep peace of the running wave, flowing air, quiet earth and shining stars, shared at the February teacher training in Bemidji.

Three poems gathered under Justin Stone's phrase "Nurture the Nowness": Ed Altman on pearls retrieved from the soles of the feet and on the gradual sunrise, and Rachel Buchler on chi moving through her body.

Gwen Cameron, a T'ai Chi Chih student, offers a pyramid poem naming joy, peace, the ancient patterns traced by hands, arms and legs, and the balance of yin and yang.

Steve Ridley describes the pranic or chi body interpenetrating the physical body, and argues that consistent daily T'ai Chi Chih balances its bipolar nature despite mood swings and ingrained tendencies.