The Vital Force Archive

Christa Keller's prose poem, written out of her Seijaku practice, holds to the single moment, the breath of life, and moving through the perceived hardness of life with softness.

Annette McNeil traces a chain of coincidences from a get-well card illustrated by Sr. Antonia Cooper to the spare tire cover her husband Ed designed for their camper van, Jing.

Carolyn Pogwist describes feeling like "Polarity in Motion" during Seijaku, held back and moving forward at once, and credits the Seijaku Retreat's shared reflections for her own "ah-ha" moments.

Rachel Rilinger disliked the air element until a Gatha course with Melina Bondy taught her to move slowly and feel color in the air, deepening her Seijaku practice.

Rosalind Braga's haiku on passing clouds, rooted legs and the grand circle of chi, followed by Sheryl Adair on Carmen Brocklehurst's correction to her pause in Daughter on the Mountaintop: "Let Go! And take it with you," plus power-outage haiku from Hurricane Zeta.

Daniel Pienciak compares learning to use an electric razor without pressure to finding softness in T'ai Chi Chih, recommending 27 or 36 Rocking Motions and Seijaku to keep the t'an t'ien charged.

John Marquez describes how a Seijaku class on Zoom with Dan Pienciak, and the oft-heard instruction to feel your feet on the floor, finally brought the timing of the weight shift into focus.

After ten years of T'ai Chi Chih, Mary H. Schultz took up Seijaku with Jungmin Lee and found that grounding her feet released the back tension and let the t'an t'ien lead.

Daniel Pienciak recounts the panic episodes and hypervigilance he faced during COVID-19 quarantine, and how Justin Stone's Maximum Chi Program, Seijaku and forty minutes of daily meditation restored him.

Trish Winger struggled with a hymn's vow to live each moment in peace until her minister's explanation of Shalom gave her the same meaning she already knew in Seijaku: serenity amid activity.

Jeneth Rundle traces her attraction to statues of Kuan Yin and Amida Buddha, then describes the sudden urge during the pandemic to return to daily Seijaku practice alongside Nei Kung recitation.

Caroline Guilott describes the hop of Seijaku, light on the feet with the waist turning internally, as the point where thought disappears and awareness becomes total and glorious.

Dr. Pauline Quimson-Miller, a medical doctor, psychologist and clinical hypnotherapist, describes weaving T'ai Chi Chih, Seijaku and Nei Kung into customized wellness programs for clients recovering from trauma, abuse and addiction.

Asked in Carmen's Seijaku class to describe the form in one word, Shari Holmes chose "freeing," and explains the release felt moving from strong phase to soft, and from Seijaku into Fast Track.

Ann Rutherford describes how her New Mexico review group kept its regular practice times apart during the stay-at-home order, practising by shared intention in the Energy Sea rather than on Zoom.

Daniel Pienciak describes the expansion and contraction he feels in the t'an t'ien during weight shifts, using shadows, Peter Pan and rooted trees, and credits TCC and Seijaku with steadying a recently recognized case of PTSD.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst noticed she had cut short the arm curve in Around the Platter during Seijaku practice, repeated it fully, and drew from that completeness a lesson about awareness in daily life.

Cathe Powers traces her path from finding T'ai Chi Chih after a marital separation to accreditation, including a Santa Barbara intensive, two signature teachers, and leading Lisa's classes during her trip to India.

Pam Towne recommends Seijaku as a next step after a year of T'ai Chi Chih, describing how it deepens softness, increases Chi flow, and recalling Justin Stone's 1986 teaching of the form.

Justin Stone recounts the Buddha answering "I am awake!" and names habit energies behind compulsive behavior, followed by Sarah Riley's note on Daniel Pienciak's Seijaku retreat.

Diana Bahn uses her own home renovation and the stress of the unknown to describe Seijaku, serenity in the midst of activity, as a grounding internal practice for complicated times.

Terry Jennings recounts stopping at Carmen's Seijaku retreat in New Mexico on the annual drive to a family farm, then teaching four classes to beloved friends in Des Moines, where one student joked about getting only half the benefits.

Pam Towne, accredited in 1984 and present at every conference since 1985, recounts the Minnesota gathering: the Veterans Administration T'ai Chi program, brain research on bilateral rhythmic movement and PTSD, and Sandy McAlister's grounded closing practice.

Sixteen pyramid poems on silence and stillness written March 30, 2019 at Carmen Brocklehurst's Seijaku workshop, by Benjamin Brisjar, Sondra Lawson, Veronica Fleming and others.

Guy Kent uses an orchestra analogy to argue that teachers should play their own instrument but not rewrite the score, recalling Justin Stone dropping Circles within Circles and adding the jing.

Dan Pienciak returned to teaching after three family deaths, and used Gene Kelly's remarks about being grounded to the earth and dancing from the waist down to re-focus his classes on grounding, softness in the upper body, and surrender.

Bonnie Sokolov, host of the 2019 post-conference Seijaku courses, explains who the Basics Course is for, from accredited teachers seeking Seijaku accreditation to students with a year of practice.

Dan Pienciak, who learned Seijaku from Justin Stone in 1997 and needed ten years to feel its benefits, argues the advanced form belongs to the essence of TCC rather than a fringe few.

Sandra Babka, at 76 and living with nerve damage, recounts a lifetime of exercise and practicing TCC in airports and doctors' offices, paired with an anonymous student's account of letting go through Abandon Hope and a cancer diagnosis.

Diana Bahn recounts climbing onto a ledge in the Columbus Circle subway to free a trapped pigeon, and how the rescue loosened her struggle with teaching "Bird Flaps Its Wings."