The Vital Force Archive

Julie Schuster's class at Friendship Village of Bloomington spent weeks practicing a single chosen movement, and students recorded what came of it: Push Pull turning into a mantra, Six Healing Sounds cleansing breath, and Daughter on the Mountain Top easing anxiety at bedtime.

Ann Rutherford recounts joining Justin Stone's Turiya meditation group in 1996, being hospitalized after touching an ungrounded student's feet, and Justin's call for teachers to loosen up.

Sharon Sirkus collects three classroom moments: a Senior Center group breaking into "Down in the Valley," an Aspenwood resident asking to be poked more, and a student who skipped practice and put her shirt on backwards.

Charles B. Cappel maps Daughter in the Valley onto the Louisiana oak trees in his yard and park, tracing roots, trunk and canopy in the hands' sweep and the Chi's rising polarity.

Eliza Fulton pairs the Aramaic Lord's Prayer, meant to be embodied and intoned, with the TCC movements from Rocking Motion through Passing Clouds, finding new meaning in the Around the Platter variation.

John Flynn describes playing the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute, for Cathy Burton's Ventura class, quoting a Chan poem and a master's account of Three Valleys that shapes his playing during the Daughter movements.

Dora Wiemann's beginner class sank into moving meditation during Daughter on the Mountaintop and stayed there through Daughter in the Valley, emerging only when Carry the Ball to the Side's instructions intervened.

Carol Nelson-Selby draws on neuroscience findings about body movement changing the brain to argue that TCC hand gestures, from Pulling Taffy's welcoming palm to the rising hand of Daughter in the Valley, are universally self-affirming.

After 33 years of practice, Sandy McDonald describes paring each movement down to two or three key points, using Daughter in the Valley as her example, and quotes Justin Stone on teaching without rote or dogma.

Daniel Pienciak has students imagine a clock face on the torso, tracing middle fingers from 7:30 and 4:30 up to twelve, to learn the hand positions in both Daughter movements; Pyramid Poems from Carmen Brocklehurst's Fall Seijaku Retreat follow.

Carol Mockovak recounts the July 25 gathering at Hannah's Bend Park in Cannon Falls, where 28 Minnesota-area teachers and students practiced beside the Cannon River, then shared a potluck.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to four movements, including cocked wrists in Daughter on the Mountain Top, when the weight settles back in Daughter in the Valley, the sideways step in Carry the Ball to the Side, and the 60/40 hand emphasis in Push Pull.

Justin Stone explains mantras, one-pointed mind and a Shinran verse, followed by memories from Pam Towne of her 1984 Santa Barbara accreditation and Donna McElhose of corrections on Daughter in the Valley and Joyous Breath.

Teresa Lisum, a fitness devotee and public school teacher of twenty years, describes how months of daily practice softened her hard-edged, athletic movements, and how sensations of energy first arrived through Daughter in the Valley.

Justin Stone names the aimless hand-waving he sees in Bird Flaps its Wings, Pulling Taffy Variation #2, Light at the Top of the Head and Daughter in the Valley, and explains why he corrects it at Albuquerque practices.

Pete Gregory describes how Justin Stone's presence persists at practitioner gatherings, walks through the hand and weight pattern of Daughter in the Valley, and argues that a movement altered from Justin's teaching can no longer be called T'ai Chi Chih.

Caroline Guilott recalls learning Daughter in the Valley wrongly and Victor Berg's exasperation before her training, then walks step by step through the shifts, the circular hands and the energy felt between the palms.

Judith Schwartz walks step by step through Daughter in the Valley as companion to Daughter on the Mountaintop, stressing the in-between stage when both feet are flat and both knees bent.

Terrie Denisen walks through Daughter in the Valley step by step, from the first sinking and weight shift to the palms floating down, with attention to polarity, soft wrists and elbows that stay low.

Amy Tyksinski's teaching notes on Daughter in the Valley: keep substance between the palms, point the fingers down then up, stop the hands under the chin, and feel the swirling rather than imagine it.

Lynne Roberts teaches Daughter in the Valley alongside Daughter on the Mountaintop as one whole, describes the peace and freedom from stress they bring, and offers an "M" memory trick for students.

Norma Jennings teaches Daughter in the Valley as a movement of peace, recalling a Salvadorian sister at a Santa Cruz retreat who felt her Vital Force move from within outward, and detailing the weight shift, hand path and polarity between the palms.

Ev Hanson-Florin gives step-by-step instruction for Daughter on the Mountaintop, from the heel-forward weight shift to the hands crossing at center, followed by Carrie Schapker's poem for her mother Mary.