The Vital Force Archive

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Nancy Werner-Azarski describes how 27 Minnesota teachers turned a conference planning weekend into a working retreat, using Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey for discussion and solving a hotel problem along the way.

Judy Tretheway recounts Sister Antonia's visit to three Folsom prison classes, where a quote from Spiritual Odyssey, talk of trafficked women, and coaching on releasing arm tension shifted the room.

Sr. Antonia Cooper's spoken text for the Albuquerque conference rededication ritual, in which Albuquerque teachers poured green tea into empty cups while readings from Spiritual Odyssey were given.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts three weeks in California: two retreats hosted by Pam Towne at Mt. Calvary, an interspiritual gathering at la Casa de Maria, and teaching with Judy Tretheway inside Folsom Prison.

Judy Tretheway accompanies Sr. Antonia through two days of teaching at New Folsom and Old Folsom, where a yard recall cuts one class short and inmates describe staying still inside their emotions.

After the 2004 St. Louis conference, Beverly Weil argues that the community's collective Chi mirrors each member's own, and asks whether responsibility is being shifted yin to yang, citing the Teachers Directory.

Evan Hammond recounts nearly quitting the Albuquerque Intensive after Justin's corrections felt harsh, and how dinner with fellow students, softened hands and a quote on the Center whiteboard changed him.

Ann Rutherford pairs Lao-Tzu, Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey and physicist David Bohm to teach the Matter and Substance sections of Seijaku, asking students to sense the congealed energy rather than resent it.

Kathy Grassel reviews Spiritual Odyssey, the collection of Justin Stone's 1985 to 1997 essays, poems and napkin-scribbled snippets, drawing out its recurring themes of practice over theory and non-attachment.

A countdown of ten inducements to the 1998 Teachers' Conference, from green chile and the Talent Show to moonrise over the Sandias, Justin's new Spiritual Odyssey book, and learning the Jing.