The Vital Force Archive

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.

Linda Prosche describes attending the virtual 2022 Teacher Conference with 150 others, lying on the floor to rest her back, and finding that less effort meant she learned more.

Paul Ciske argues from the physics of the center of mass, which shifts with posture and can fall outside the body entirely, that the t'an t'ien is dynamic, empty and representative of the universal.

Lisa Stroyan gathers teachers' views from April Leffler's July Second Saturday practice on whether and how to teach the hip swivel, including Justin's one-finger ellipse and Carmen Brocklehurst's "tiny hula in the tan t'ien."

Sandy McAlister explains why she left Anchor Taffy and Working the Pulley out of her seated TCC DVD, and why she now believes both belong in the practice with safe adaptations.

April Leffler compares the t'an t'ien to a dog walker and the arms to the dogs, then describes trying the analogy in class, including students whose hands reached up Daughter on the Mountaintop before the center moved.

Lisa Otero recalls sitting knee to knee with Justin Stone in chairs and finally understanding that it is all in the wrists, then gives practical guidance on chairs, feet and adapting Working the Pulley.

Dorene Krause draws on dictionary definitions and a Psychology Today passage to describe surrender in T'ai Chi Chih: yielding weight into the soles of the feet, releasing self-judgment, and trusting the flow of chi.

Sue Bitney played Carmen's KNME interviews and Justin's instructional DVD for her senior students, who asked why no one had told them about softness, and moved more softly alongside him.

Richard Karasik argues that teachers inevitably break T'ai Chi Chih into parts such as flexible wrists, hip swivels and moving from the t'an t'ien, but the student must reassemble them, as sodium and chlorine become salt.

Lorraine Lepine walks through the upright posture of the resting position, from the thread of energy at the ceiling to the tucked chin, lowered shoulder blades and perpendicular tailbone, as a route to the relaxation response.

A gathering of Justin Stone's sayings on teacher and pupil, softness that cannot be forced, and chi stored in the bones, plus zen poet Paul Reps's all-capitals letter praising his ordinary motion.

Daniel Pienciak takes Justin Stone's reminder that softness means lack of tension into the weight shift, suggesting practitioners feel the receiving knee lead and release rather than stiffen.

Passages culled from Justin Stone's books, including Meditation for Healing, Gateway to Eastern Philosophy & Religion, Heightened Awareness and the out-of-print Abandon Hope, on posture, mantras, joy and the effort of no effort.

Marcella Levie connects Marie Dotts's Zoom guidance about letting TCC do her with the Hebrew Letter Movements she teaches, tracing her path from a Siesta Key beach in 1991 toward accreditation.

Lisa Otero, who sought accreditation only to have people to practice with, describes returning to teaching in summer 2021 after COVID and argues that group practice requires everyone to sync up, like musicians following a conductor.

Sandy McAlister, in a piece reprinted from 2008, describes how unfocused attention lets the Chi rise into headaches and giddiness, and how attention below the waist keeps softness anchored in grounding.

Linda Braga's rhyming poem questions a practice mirror about stance, weight shift, heels down and relaxed wrists, until the comparing stops, ego drops away and the flow arrives.

Richard Karasik takes Justin's DVD and 2007 teacher notes as a starting point and asks what layer of continuity you are actually watching, from a single wrist to a symphony to a pointillist painting.

Dorene Krause gathers New Jersey students' accounts, including Carolyn Pogwist's story of leaving her first class convinced she could not do it, then feeling the chi shake her until grounding and the tan t'ien settled her practice.

Five short passages from Justin Stone's writing between 1985 and 1993, on enlightenment as manifestation rather than intellect, the tongue outlasting the teeth, and why he left some questions unanswered.

Carmen Brocklehurst introduces Fast Track as Justin Stone taught it, the third speed after T'ai Chi Chih and Seijaku, naming which movements use the hop and which are left out.

Terry Gay Puckett found the word "feelings" filling every page of her 2021 conference notes, and lists what she will carry back to her park class: grounding like tree roots, Judy Chancey's gold seal marking the tan t'ien, and softening hands and knees.

Mary Strom gathers teachers' takeaways from the March 2021 online retreat on transitions, including Judy Kistler-Robinson's discovery that the palms turn before the weight shift completes in Rocking Motion and Push Pull.

Pam Towne returns to Justin Stone's reminder that T'ai Chi Chih is done primarily below the waist, tracing how the t'an t'ien and weight shift move the hands for us.

Bill Nakao takes up continuity between movements, citing Justin Stone's "It is all continuous, dear" and the thread running from Rocking Motion to the close, and asks practitioners to attend to the pauses at rest position.

Dora Wiemann lays out a recipe for practice that begins with the TCC principles like full weight shift and grounding, then moves to the invisible ingredient of allowing the movements to express themselves.

Rebecca Paulson gathers Justin Stone's own wording on how to close each movement, from his Blue Photo Text, showing the step back, the hands lowered gently to the sides, and the four to five second rest pose.

Susan Corey applies the Laban and Bartenieff Effort/Shape Method, with its continua of flow, weight, time and space, to T'ai Chi Chih instruction, identifying the practice as a light, sustained, direct glide.

JJ Johnson describes cutting to three repetitions per movement, drawing on Daniel Pienciak, Jim Hecker and Bill Moore's pine needle exercise, and finds the hands gathering and releasing chi.