The Vital Force Archive

Cass Redmon of Watsonville offers three classroom tips: cueing long fingers in Daughter on the Mountain Top, a hand on the lower back to reveal upright posture, and rubbing fingernails to feel subtle energy.

Justin Stone lists the essentials of correct movement, from flowing effortlessly from the t'an t'ien to the heel-first side step and the 60-40 emphasis, with Steve Ridley adding notes on stance, alignment and closing without rushing.

Carmen Brocklehurst's pyramid poem, dated August 15, 1994, moves from dreams alive with music to the poised standing start of the movements, called simple, graceful and beautiful.

Joan Alvord, a student of Jean Katus, describes how softness, continuity and centeredness in the soles of her feet work on her, and how practising on her porch amid snow, birds and wind renewed her sense of the gift of life.

Tara Stiles of Sacramento lists eight teaching points for a handout, from yinning and yanging feet and diaphragmatic breathing to relaxed shoulders, rootedness in the legs and quietness within movement.

Rosa S. Fallon sets out nine principles for teaching practice, from relaxation and the resting pose to circularity, yinning and yanging legs, focus at the t'an t'ien, and sitting still afterward to absorb the chi, quoting Justin Stone and Steve Ridley.

Steve Ridley's brief reminder to teachers: pause in stillness between movement patterns to assimilate what the motion generated, returning to neutral before the thought to begin the next one arises.

Steve Ridley gives step-by-step instructions for Pumping Breath, a heel-lifting, arm-raising exercise some use as a warm-up before T'ai Chi Chih, ending with hands resting over the lower t'an t'ien.

Steve Ridley gives the hand position for sealing in the chi after the Resting Pose, right palm over left hand on the lower abdomen with the left thumb at the navel.

Steve Ridley urges stillness after practice rather than chatter and random motion, using the Cosmic Consciousness Pose and several quiet minutes seated to assimilate freshly circulated chi, as hatha yoga does after asanas.

Rosalind Braga's linked haiku, written at a June 1991 teacher renewal, trace hands floating like passing clouds, legs rooted earthward, yin-yang balance, resting pose and the grand circle of chi.

Steve Ridley describes the cycle of softness and continuity opening the mind-body, chi infusing it, and the Resting Pose allowing that refined energy to be absorbed and assimilated.

Steve Ridley names the specific habits that conserve chi: soft flowing movement, refined alignment, resting with palms down over the lower abdomen, and never going fully yang or fully yin.

Justin Stone notes that posture both shapes and reveals state of mind, saying we can read a person by their wrists and waist, by whether they sit down or fall down, and by how they close a door.

Steve Ridley explains how to hold the Cosmic Consciousness Pose for five to fifteen minutes after practice, focusing on the upper t'an t'ien, and why he follows it with a grounding resting pose.