The Vital Force Archive

Two Widener University students describe what they found on taichichih.org beyond the classroom: photos of practice in public places worldwide, advice to keep practising on vacation, Justin Stone's quotations, and the health benefits reported by students, followed by student pyramid poems on silence.

Jerry Jonnson reprints a poem from his 2006 book Living in Balance, which he hands to every student, on caring for yourself and giving the gift of your uniqueness to the world.

Carol Nelson-Selby draws on nearly two decades teaching an 8am class of retirees, stroke survivors and Parkinson's patients in Arroyo Grande, and on Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight, to argue TCC balances left and right brain.

Victor Berg announces that Good Karma Publishing is closing, with remaining funds paying KG to convert Justin Stone's books, DVDs and CDs into free online versions, and inventory discounted meanwhile.

Excerpted from his book Heightened Awareness, Justin Stone links spiritual evolution to Gopi Krishna's Kundalini, habit energies, mindfulness at meals, and the Satori that came to Hakuin after a woman broke a broom over his head.

Jessica Lewis, once the only accredited teacher in Delaware, lays out practical promotion tactics: a logo and business cards, a website, free newspaper coverage, short free presentations, doctor contacts, and a local TV interview.

A rundown of the TCC blog, Instagram account and Facebook page, including the hashtag for reposting photos and the ten-point Facebook list of facts about T'ai Chi Chih worth sharing.

Janet L. Starr, a newly accredited teacher in Houston with only one other teacher nearby, describes starting a closed Facebook TCC Teacher Circle Group that grew beyond her accreditation classmates and mentors.

Caroline Guilott of Lake Charles explains how to set up a local T'ai Chi Chih Facebook community page, from the taichichihcitystate naming convention to posting class times, event photos and Justin Stone quotation cards.

Jim Shorr takes up the phrase "the flow" from Sandy McAllister's teacher newsletter, quoting the Dalai Lama by way of Howard Cutler, and describes the peace that arrived after years of practice.

Ann Rutherford and Kathy Grassel trace how Justin Stone's deliberately incomplete Seijaku DVD and brief accreditations left teachers unsure, and why they compiled a community booklet whose sales fund the TCC International Foundation.

Hannah Hedrick traces how cancer prevention authority Sam Epstein moved from scientist's skepticism to nightly practice on an Italian terrace at nearly 90, after 25 years of exposure to TCC.

Stu Goldman, the only year-round teacher south of Orlando on Florida's east coast, describes retreats as his lifeline to the TCC community and, after reading Barry Boyce in Mindful, proposes renaming them a recharge.

Donna J. Moore takes up the phrase "Let T'ai Chi Chih do t'ai chi" and quotes Alan Watts, from Chop Wood, Carry Water, on sitting and listening without naming.

Margaret Lang Nelson found a 1987 receipt from Carmen Brocklehurst tucked inside Justin Stone's photo text, revealing that her mother had taken an eight-week T'ai Chi Chih class in Albuquerque.

Lisa Otero, who runs the official T'ai Chi Chih Facebook page, gives practical guidance on starting a local page: naming without the apostrophe, including your state abbreviation, keeping other practices off it and posting daily.

A primer on the five independent organizations behind T'ai Chi Chih, with details from Dora Wiemann, Guy Kent, Carmen Brocklehurst and Sandy McAlister on each group's history, services, revenue and volunteer boards.

Linda Braga traces definitions of cosmic consciousness from Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke's 1894 paper to Dr. Stanley Dean's ten manifestations, drawing on Ruth-Inge Heinze's book The Light In the Dark.

Justin Stone reads his Zen teacher's statement on the vertical and horizontal, Saigo and Daigo, warning that an experience of oneness must be integrated back into ordinary life.

Justin Stone's introduction to Heightened Awareness, newly back in print, argues that wisdom is already within us, using the Indian pearl story and Dogen's half dipper of water to make the point.

Sandy McAlister opens with a 17-year student who found fuller weight shift by moving her underneath hand an inch farther in Pulling Taffy, then argues Justin Stone's photo text and DVD should stand unchanged.

Justin Stone recounts talking a woman out of abandoning her family for a Master in India, then contrasts Zen's self power with Shin Buddhism's reliance on Amida Buddha.

April Leffler assigned her university students a one-page paper on what they could learn about T'ai Chi Chih from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, and prints excerpts from three of them.

Two social work students report on the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, with Lauren Robson noting migraine and blood pressure claims and another discovering seated practice for wheelchair users.

April Leffler assigned her university students a one-page paper on what they could learn about T'ai Chi Chih from Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube, and prints three of their write-ups.

Social work major Lauren Robson, writing for Amy Schied's social media column, reviews the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting migraines, joint pain, seated practice for wheelchair users and depression.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's book in which he recounts telling Paul Reps in Seattle that there is nothing to be done, quotes Dogen and Pai Ch'ang, and repeats his Roshi's advice about wine, women, song and religion in proper amounts.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts how Justin Stone handed her a tape of his 1990 Teachers' Conference lecture and asked how others would hear it, leading to the booklet Evolution Through Chi.

Robert Montes de Oca describes seven years of volunteer classes in psychiatric acute care units, including an inmate who learned all the movements over 18 months and read Justin Stone's Abandon Hope.

April Leffler replaced two cancelled university classes with an assignment to research T'ai Chi Chih on social media, and three students report what they found on Facebook and Twitter, from the bubbling spring and trembling fingers to studies on depression in the elderly.