The Vital Force Archive
Eighteen years of The Vital Force (2007-2025), the journal of the T’ai Chi Chih community. Search for a word, a teacher, a movement or a place, or browse by category and topic.
Spiritual Odyssey
Spiritual Odyssey is one of Justin Stone’s books, and teachers draw on it in classes, retreats and their own study. These articles include conference talks on teaching with Justin’s books, suggestions for using his writings with students, and personal reflections on passages that have stayed with readers.
Dan Pienciak describes using Justin Stone's essay "The Cumulative Effects of T'ai Chi Chih" from Spiritual Odyssey to motivate senior students, and inviting them to report changes like dropped blood pressure medication and a discarded oxygen tank.
Dan Pienciak
Howell, NJ
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.
Antonia Cooper
OSF, North Plainfield, NJ
Dan Pienciak recounts how reading Justin Stone's books aloud in his own classes motivated students to buy them, and recommends starting with the Photo Text and Spiritual Odyssey.
Dan Pienciak
Howell, NJ
Sr. Antonia Cooper traces Justin's words on serenity and "measured movements," recounting how a retreatant blocking the ocean steps drew first irritation and then a gentler thought, and asking how we drop the "I" in practice.
Sr. Antonia Cooper
OSF, North Plainfield, NJ
Sheila Leonard hosts Sandy McAlister's three-day intensive in Newfoundland, then Pam Towne compiles participants' notes from Antonia's Santa Barbara monastery retreats, closing with Anne Lovdahl on Justin Stone's "state of Becoming."
Three conference talks, by Ann Rutherford, Dan Pienciak and Carmen Brocklehurst, on teaching from Justin Stone's Heightened Awareness, Spiritual Odyssey and the CD Justin Stone Speaks on T'ai Chi Chih.
Ann Marie Wyrsch recounts a June workshop with Sr. Antonia in Warrenville, including outdoor practice and getting discombobulated in Anchor Taffy, followed by Pam Kamholz on recovering from a severe head injury.