The Vital Force Archive

Stephen Thompson takes Loraine Lepine's pronunciation of "E-motion" at the October accreditation as a starting point for how moving first lets the mind rest, separating and reuniting yin and yang Chi.

Cristina Minelli adapts Italian meditation teacher Andrea Magrin's WhatsApp pairing system for TCC, where practitioners post a request like "10/10" and video call a partner, each leading half the movements.

A transcribed lecture in which Justin Stone traces the Yin and Yang Chi back to the Tao, compares T'ai Chi Chih with Zen meditation, Hatha Yoga and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and recounts early student results from 1974 onward.

Two excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey equate energy with wisdom and describe Prana's physical work, citing Krishnamurti, Gopi Krishna and Rinzai, plus Paul Reps' ten minutes of quiet receiving.

Dorene Krause invites the reader into a moment of ordinary silence, breathing into the soles of the feet, releasing the heaviness of the heart and letting stillness calm the mind.

Pam Towne uses Passing Clouds as a reminder to let thoughts drift by without following them, keeping the head facing forward while the waist turns, and describes extended repetitions as moving meditation.

Laurin McDonald and Adam Lacey describe how a breakout session at Mindfulness Now's 20th anniversary conference in Birmingham drew twelve therapists, four of whom are now Zoom students heading toward accreditation.

Greg Berg recounts his first eight-class beginner course, crediting written class plans, co-teaching with Jim Eagle, Justin Stone readings and closing stillness, while admitting 14 students was too many.

Mary Wichmann rereads years of notes from Justin Stone before the Albuquerque conference, recalling his congratulatory letters to new teachers, Turiya meditation at his home, Tuesday practice and "Second Breakfast."

Linda's short untitled poem, presented at the 50th T'ai Chi Chih Teacher Conference, instructs the reader to be silent, go within, dwell long in the quiet, and become one with the whole world.

Linda Braga remembers Ruby Harper, her San Leandro student and a Hindu swami in orange robes, who while meditating at her Guru's ashram in India took down a message from Justin Stone about natural breathing, signed in his own ascending hand.

Linda Braga recounts writing "Blooming the Rose Within" during a silent retreat at Santa Sabina Center, where she led morning T'ai Chi Chih, and its 2020 first-place win in the International Dancing Poetry Contest.

Lorraine Lepine describes moving her attention from the soles of her feet to the t'an t'ien until the Chi seemed to practice itself, and a group meditation on listening to mental clamor rather than pushing it away.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey recall the 1989 Albuquerque conference and its silent sunrise practice at Old Town Plaza, the first 1974 class, and his warning to keep T'ai Chi Chih unmixed with other traditions.

Kathy Grassel recounts being one of the "November Nine" accredited in 1994, her 2005 interview with an unanswerable Justin Stone, Saturday meditations at his house, and the day stiffening the back leg changed her practice.

Lauren Marble recalls the 1988 Albuquerque workshop where Justin Stone taught heightened awareness, the Satipatthana mindfulness exercise, the reciprocal nature of mind and chi, and his choice to leave the Himalayas and be a 'big hermit'.

Justin Stone's own definitions of koan, mantra, prajna, samadhi, satori, teh, T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Zen, drawn from two of his books and showing how his emphasis shifted over time.

Guy Kent recounts Justin cutting short his accreditation presentation for comparing TCC to "T'ai Chi in the park," a lunch about stock charts and guilt, Saturday teisho readings, and Justin's tears over a critic who renamed the movements.

KG recalls Justin Stone quietly pushing her photography career forward: buying a print he did not want, sending her to find a Belgian fine-art book publisher, and posing for the Photo Text.

Warren Wolfe, sleepless in the hospital after knee-replacement surgery and plagued by muscle spasms, began doing T'ai Chi Chih mentally at 3 a.m., and describes the practice he has refined since.

Jim Shorr collects statements from four Oregon senior students naming the movements that matter most to them, from Ellen H.'s swimmer's affinity for Working the Pulley to Linda L. feeling God's presence in Passing Clouds.

Rosalind L. Braga recounts Justin Stone's 1998 talk at Folsom Prison, where the words "your joy is my joy" won over inmates and guards, and traces the weekly classes and inmate teachers that continue in 2023.

Sharon Sirkis, in a piece reprinted from June 2001, used a slow winter in her classes to go within, then coaxed a squirrel across a parking lot and read its antics as a message: sit still, leap, discard the garbage.

Fusun Sulzbach traces her on-again off-again practice from her 2002 accreditation presentation through a divorce, retirement, a gym class closed by COVID, and a June retreat in Oceanside that renewed her daily routine and ended her sleep medication.

Carmen Brocklehurst recounts a doctor's advice to release teaching stress, her 1976 start with Helen Brungardt Pope, and, in a reprinted 2009 piece, the quiet mind and turning t'an t'ien she found.

Patricia Winger describes how agreeing to teach her neighborhood seven days a week finally built a daily practice, breaking a 30-year habit within two months and speeding her recovery from total knee replacement.

John Marquez builds a pyramid poem from single words, moving from chi and movement through vibration, freedom and awareness to silence, breath and honest written speech.

Track 5 of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he explains how flowing Chi erases vasanas and samskaras, names the seven emotions, recounts travels in India, Kyoto and Taipei, and denies that T'ai Chi Chih is a martial art.

Donna McElhose's students describe healing lower back pain and tennis elbow, feeling tingling energy, grounding in the t'an t'ien for balance, and combining silent group practice with meditation before and after class.

Three 2002 letters from Mary Wichmann asking Justin Stone if she could come to Albuquerque to learn meditation, through his invitation to her June travel arrangements.