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.

April Leffler compares the t'an t'ien to a dog walker and the arms to the dogs, then describes trying the analogy in class, including students whose hands reached up Daughter on the Mountaintop before the center moved.

Rosalind Braga's haiku on passing clouds, rooted legs and the grand circle of chi, followed by Sheryl Adair on Carmen Brocklehurst's correction to her pause in Daughter on the Mountaintop: "Let Go! And take it with you," plus power-outage haiku from Hurricane Zeta.

Daniel Pienciak defines softness as lack of tension and continuity as movement without abrupt starts, stops or slippery spots, naming the lunge-and-return habit in Daughter on the Mountaintop and offering the basin-of-water image for an even weight shift.

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.

Tom and Julie Schuster recount climbing Half Dome in Yosemite, where a fear of heights was met by visualizing the grounding and opening of Cosmic Consciousness pose, culminating in Daughter on the Mountaintop at the summit.

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.

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.

Larry Bloom describes creating a five-stroke digital painting of Daughter on the Mountaintop, drawing on shodo, Zen calligraphy and enso, and the wabi-sabi aesthetic Justin Stone praised.

Larry Bloom pictures firm forearms as a mountain and crossed wrists as the daughter on top, then gathers passages from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on joy, seeds and attachment.

Nancy Lawrence took up T'ai Chi Chih a year earlier after personal tragedies and because it cost so little, and describes chi feeling as large as a basketball during Daughter on the Mountain Top.

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.

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.

Jean Katus teaches Daughter on the Mountaintop by synchronizing hands with the weight shift and keeping fingertips pointed upward, followed by Carmen's account of the torus of energy formed as the hands cross.

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.