The Vital Force Archive

Amy Tyksinski followed an impulse to buy peonies at the grocery store, watched them open over days at a TCC retreat, and links the urge to Justin's "pointing arrow."

Amy Tyksinski describes the New Teachers' Cohort pilot, six monthly Zoom sessions after the November 2024 Colorado Springs accreditation, in which 13 of 15 graduates became actively teaching.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts how Justin Stone received T'ai Chi Chih without knowing its effects, from the woman whose narcolepsy eased to his own cure for writer's block.

Lois Vermilya's prose poem gathers energy from the most distant star into fingertips and soles, naming a paradox of force and letting go that might fuel her activism of fierce hope.

Kathy Grassel tells how a student who arrived late and had to stand across the room noticed the energy there felt different, leading Grassel to conclude that collective Chi has variable individual components.

Kathy Grassel tells her Albuquerque class about ospreys diving at the Tingley Fishing Ponds, and her student Peg likens an osprey beaten under by a wave to the power of softness in Seijaku.

Amy Tyksinski gathers six UNM college students' written responses to the Softness passage in Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey, from bamboo and oak temperaments to jaw clenching, political argument and caring for a crying baby.

Silvia Coffey sets her own habit of self-criticism, learned in middle school, against a passage from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on how self-pity and gratitude cannot share a breath.

Gregory Berg notices how seldom the body moves sideways in daily life, from supermarket aisles to the Pecos River, then follows that thought into Carry the Ball to the Side, where the margin becomes the new center.

Kathy Grassel interviews Tyler, a retired Episcopal and Byzantine Rite priest leaving her Albuquerque gym class for Chicago, on how the Tao Teh Ching, yin and yang, and bodily worship shaped his three years of practice.

Guy Kent announces the TCC Association's move to a larger Osuna Road center in Albuquerque, recalling the counsel that Chi follows community and the first center's 1995 opening.

Carmen Brocklehurst breaks down the hip swivel used in the side-to-side movements, from the slight curve of the hips to Justin's reminder "nose to the front" and grounding the Chi.

Guy Kent, a Vital Force board member, makes the case for recurring monthly donations to the T'ai Chi Chih community, noting the 2017 tax law's effect on itemized charitable deductions.

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.

Greg Berg, who writes free verse himself, examines Justin Stone's Pyramid Poetry form from Climb the Joyous Mountain and reads its seven lines as an ascent of yang and descent of yin.

Catherine, accredited in November 2024, took the training to deepen her own practice, then found herself teaching when three friends asked for classes in her home.

Ann Rutherford quotes Justin Stone's Photo Textbook and Heightened Awareness on enlightenment experienced in the body, then asks fellow teachers whether they tell students the deeper meaning of the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Ann Rutherford opens a new column with three postcard-style letters to Justin Stone, asking colleagues whether they feel grounding in the palms during closing positions, whether standing up and pointing fingertips down disrupts Chi, and whether fingers flutter.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts the in-person teacher conference in Albuquerque, where 150 teachers gathered after COVID, and how letting go of her once-larger movements let her feel the flow Justin described.

KG describes how her two presentations at the 50th anniversary conference honored the people and entities that brought Justin Stone's works into print and published the community's experiences in The Vital Force.

Ann Rutherford connects the 2024 conference theme "There's Only One Thing Going On" to the Heart Sutra chanted with Justin Stone, arguing Push Pull should be taught as an ego-free ellipse.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst, a member of the program committee, recounts the first in-person conference since COVID, held at Albuquerque's Marriott Pyramid for TCC's 50th year, and Judy Hendricks' rededication ceremony.

Dora Wiemann recounts how a donation earmarked for outreach led her to pull 208 excerpts from Justin Stone's Photo Text, sorted into four card decks, and suggests practising with one quotation at a time.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst takes Justin Stone's 2005 remark that time is the maker of delusion and asks whether the Chi is in the movement or always present, comparing students' joyful faces to a baby reaching for something unseen in its crib.

Amy Tyksinski invites undecided teachers to the July 25-28 Albuquerque conference marking 50 years of T'ai Chi Chih, noting deferred payment until June and the theme "There is Only One Thing Going On."

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'.

Judy Kistler describes the TCC International Foundation's redesigned website at taichichihfoundation.org, which added teacher conference registration, scholarship and grant details with teacher testimonials, and a Donate page with fund options.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts a friend being told about T'ai Chi Chih for high blood pressure by someone who did not know she already knew, and urges a post-Covid return to daily practice.

KG accounts for the taichichih.org teacher listing pages, the 250 hours spent contacting 1500 teachers, why the PDF directory was never public, and the new map and single-page teacher search.

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.