The Vital Force Archive

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.

Seven subscribers, among them Sue Bitney, Michelle Crow, April Leffler, Beverly Miles, Carolyn Pogwist and Guy Kent, wrote whatever surfaced after practice, from Passing Clouds and the water cycle to the t'an t'ien's glide in Working the Pulley.

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.

Jim Shorr gathers statements from five practitioners in the five-year-old Saturday standing and seated class at Creekside Village for Seniors, who name Passing Clouds, Rocking Motion and Light at the Top of the Head as the movements that release old habits, steady balance and raise consciousness.

Laurie Jacobi takes a student's description of T'ai Chi Chih as a tool for transformation and applies it to her own foot placement, Push Pull and Passing Clouds, watching physical corrections change corresponding areas of her life.

Jim Shorr collects student responses, including Becky F on climbing through clouds in Working the Pulley, Tom O on releasing worries in Passing Clouds, and a palliative care patient's new stability.

Dixie Adeniran uses the weightless pause at the top of a child's swing to describe T'ai Chi Chih transitions, tracing them through Around the Platter, Carry the Ball to the Side and Passing Clouds during COVID-19 solitude.

Charles Sasa, a black belt in Okinawan weapons who could describe chi but never feel it, recounts finally sensing energy during Passing Clouds and his teacher Hannah Hendrick's reply.

Dana Cline describes refining her movements over Skype with California teacher Lisa Otero while practice-teaching under Opie Reed in South Carolina, with Judy Anne Light's companion piece on returning to T'ai Chi Chih after 20 years away.

Donna Aldous practices outdoors during an eight-day silent retreat at an abbey in the Santa Rita foothills near Sonoita, where Passing Clouds and fifteen years of present-moment practice prepared her for daily silent prayer.

Donna Deffenbaugh invites the reader back to age seven or nine, lying in dewy grass or warm sand watching clouds, sinking into earth energy and carrying it to the supper table.

Justin Stone's booklet excerpt gives the keys to six movements, from the full 180-degree waist turn in Working the Pulley to the ancient Chinese origins of the Six Healing Sounds and the ankle placement in Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Eric Braff found T'ai Chi Chih easy to pick up and more calming than sitting meditation after a busy day, naming Passing Clouds his favorite for its circularity and shifting weight.

Pete Gregory walks through Passing Clouds step by step, from the sideways T'ai Chi step and heel-to-heel weight shift to the counter-circling hands and the right fingers tickling the left elbow.

Amy Tyksinski's teaching tip has the bottom hand swing through rather than push through the t'an t'ien, plus Pete Gregory's notes on the opening waist twist and a poem.

Diana Bahn recalls the 15-minute mock presentation at her 2002 teacher training, where moving Passing Clouds with the audience steadied her nerves and showed her the clarity practice brings without effort.

Antonia Cooper recounts asking Justin Stone about the hip swivel and getting the answer "you are doing it already," then traces the imperceptible pelvic oval through Carry the Ball to the Side, Perpetual Motion and Passing Clouds.

Three Pyramid Poems by Illinois students of Donna McElhose: Ramona Zalapi's "A Spirit Enlightened," and Jan Kirch's "Passing Clouds" and "Dandelions," which finds impressionist gold in a green field.

Sr. Antonia Cooper led a 16-hour retreat for 15 newcomers in a North Carolina retirement community, breaking a Passing Clouds impasse by switching to Linda Braga's Partner Practice.

Lucia Veteran writes to Justin Stone asking whether the Six Healing Sounds should be whispered or crisp, and whether Passing Clouds has a 60/40 hand emphasis; Justin answers both and welcomes good change.

Justin Stone corrects common errors: the wrists, not the arms, do the work in Carry the Ball to the Side, hands stay cupped in Push Pull and Passing Clouds, and Working the Pulley turns from the waist, plus news of his conference videos.

Vicky Webb recounts the September afternoon her twenty-year-old son Matt died, and how practicing Passing Clouds on her back deck afterward became a way of yielding to emptiness.

Sr. Meg Costello's account of the January 2003 East Coast teachers workshop at the Dominican Retreat House, where Sandy McAlister worked on alignment, stance, weight shift, Rocking Motion, Joyous Breath and Passing Clouds with 22 teachers.

Kimberly Davis joined a T'ai Chi Chih class expecting intense martial arts training five months after a breakup, and found in Pulling Taffy and Passing Clouds a swirling, protective energy that mended her heart.

Kathy Starrick watched smoke rise over the Twin Towers from her New Jersey living room, then faced it and offered her practice to those across the river, Passing Clouds releasing grief and relief.

Amy Hackenberg reviews Justin Stone's new T'ai Chi Chih video, praising its three-part structure, Justin's spare instruction on softness and weight shift, and the wordless practice session with four teachers.

Stephanie Winter helped her friend Anne through a long natural labor, and when the midwife asked to change the energy in the room she practised Joyous Breath and Passing Clouds.

Richard Brier continues his comic allegory of Chi Lanka, meeting Rip Van Stone in the Taffy Forest, relieving Masters Yink and Yank at the pulley, and posing atop Mt. Chi.

Richard Brier walks through the movements from Rocking Motion to Cosmic Consciousness Pose, giving his own symbolic readings, including a student whose thirty-five-year insomnia eased with ten minutes of Passing Clouds.

Richard Brier walks through the movements one by one, giving each a personal symbolic meaning, from varying circle size in Around the Platter to the student whose 35-year insomnia eased with Passing Clouds.