The Vital Force Archive

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.

June Calende describes a weekly hour at the senior center: shoes off, chairs against the wall, Debby counting reps barely audibly, nineteen movements done beside an east window of trembling leaves and a kettle pond.

John Marquez's pyramid poems on darkness, gratitude and silence are paired with anonymous workshop comments, including one widow who found faith in herself after losing her husband of 48 years.

April Leffler traces the "three-part harmony" of soles of the feet, softening knees and t'an t'ien in her practice, then asks how that same sense of connection applies to relationships in life.

Four intuitive writings after practice: Dora Wiemann basking in a peaceful bubble, Dixie Adeniran finding the Cosmic Rhythm in kelp and swings, Terry Gay Puckett's Monday circle, and Daniel Pienciak surrendering a tight shoulder.

Connie Shaw recounts a class in which teacher Marie Dotts urged students to practice with soft eyes and follow where the Chi led, and Shaw felt the room dissolve into light.

Caroline Guilott recalls skipping into the room to greet Justin in Albuquerque, and describes how words about the movements can trap a practitioner while attention to the t'an t'ien, the weight shift and softness opens the practice.

June Calende describes a weekly 3:00 practice at a senior center, shoes off, windows facing a kettle pond, Debby naming the nineteen movements in a barely audible voice.

JJ Johnson answers a student's question about Seijaku with the story of practicing at a Texas roadside park on World T'ai Chi Day when a freight train roared past.

Susan Corey rereads her notes from Laurie Jacobi's "Embracing Emptiness" talk at the 2022 Teacher Conference and finds that waiting inside the pauses brings her weight shift into palpable harmony.

Jeneth Rundle recounts her only face-to-face visit with Justin Stone in May 2011, when her phone rang mid-practice, and how his question returned to her after foot fusion surgery.

April Leffler recounts an intuitive nudge to focus on the Taffies at her YMCA class, and the fellow teacher who arrived that morning with a box of salt water taffy, as evidence of prajna at work.

Garo Nokhoudian's pyramid poems move from surrender and caring to Chi waking up playfully between the sheaths, ending with hang time when earth and sky beat as one.

Marcella K. Levie treats Justin's Graceful Conclusion between movements as a moment of coming home, followed by Sharron Gonzalez on the value of in-person accreditation courses over Zoom and on making daily practice a habit.

Caroline Guilott describes the resting pose that ends each movement, the softening around the t'an t'ien with feet rooted, and her memory of Justin Stone rising early and repeating his own close.

April Leffler describes imagining three coins under each foot, two at the ball and one at the heel, to track the weight shift and finally understand Justin Stone's reminder to bring a movement to a graceful conclusion.

Sandy McAlister describes how a wandering mind lets the Chi rise, bringing headaches and giddiness, and how attention below the waist keeps practice grounded while softness stays shaped rather than limp.

Lisa Stroyan collects teachers' responses from Sandy McAlister's April 2023 Zoom discussion on the split mind, including Joan Weaver's trick for recovering a lost count while teaching.

Abby Molino, a nurse and massage therapist, returned to T'ai Chi Chih after three decades, traded her frustrating VHS tape for a DVD, and drew the many-handed kitchen woman with her Sandhill Crane.

Ivonne Begue se Benzo describes the weekly practice she began shadowing with the sisters of Assisi Heights in Minnesota, and how moving meditation lets her respond rather than react.

Connie Shaw describes how her teacher Marie's instruction to keep attention in the feet and belly led, during a weight shift, to the unraveling of her vasanas or habit energies.

Carmen Brocklehurst links everyday acts of kindness, including a boy who unbuckled his seat belt to save a cat, to the wholeness felt when a group ends a movement together and Justin asked, "Did you feel that?"

Sandy McAlister questions Justin Stone's phrase "graceful conclusion," recalls how he ended repetitions with a downward thud, and asks teachers who studied with him to respond in the next issue.

Patty Stupca asks what comes after regular T'ai Chi Chih and Seijaku practice brings peace, and answers that the goal is nothing: return to the present and find gratitude.

Daniel Pienciak describes experimenting with faster, smaller movements and fewer repetitions, citing Justin Stone's Photo Text encouragement to build a personal program and test different speeds.

Debby McLister describes how years of T'ai Chi Chih have intensified nature's colors, from magenta azaleas and Kousa dogwood to bluebirds and goldfinches seen while practicing on her deck.

Justin Stone argues that accepting death, baldness, and the unchangeable ends their power over us, drawing on Lao Tzu's losing a little each day, Chuang Tzu's Fasting Mind, and Hakuin's enlightenment.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone's out-of-print 20th Century Psalms on impermanence, egotism and compassion, including the lecture he opened by telling the audience "You're all dying!" and his question to a millionaire about doing good.

Diana Daffner describes how she and her husband Richard included T'ai Chi Chih in twenty-five years of couples coaching, finding that partners facing each other while moving developed a heartfelt connection.

Passages from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on disciplined mind, Japanese understatement, spring rain on temple eaves, gratitude at meals, and Zen freedom lived amid conditions.