The Vital Force Archive

Transcribed from a recorded lecture, Justin Stone answers audience questions on why concentration rests in the soles of the feet, why softness frees the meridian channels, and how karma builds habit energy.

Two excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey equate energy with wisdom and describe Prana's physical work, citing Krishnamurti, Gopi Krishna and Rinzai, plus Paul Reps' ten minutes of quiet receiving.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, two talks recount a Roshi telling a lawyer to remove his overcoat, poems by Tagore and Tenko-san on the question of who you are, and a monk who kept rescuing a biting scorpion.

Gail Terriff describes the self-care habits that keep her replenished, from journaling and singing aloud to her morning T'ai Chi Chih practice, and quotes Thich Nhat Hanh's book Anger on mindfulness as the energy of being present.

Excerpts from Spiritual Odyssey in which Justin Stone takes up non-attachment within family life, Buddha's answer that he is awake, the poet Tao Yuanming, and why all healing is finally self-healing.

Ann Rutherford quotes Justin Stone's Photo Textbook and Heightened Awareness on enlightenment experienced in the body, then asks fellow teachers whether they tell students the deeper meaning of the Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Dan Pienciak recalls two stories Justin Stone told, about the Master who was simply awake and the student who saw mind moving, then likens nearly 30 years of practice to a road trip without a destination.

Seven excerpts from Spiritual Odyssey in which Justin Stone argues that enlightenment and softness come from letting go rather than trying harder, warns teachers against special breathing techniques, and names TCC an inner discipline.

Ann Rutherford connects the 2024 conference theme "There's Only One Thing Going On" to the Heart Sutra chanted with Justin Stone, arguing Push Pull should be taught as an ego-free ellipse.

Excerpts from Justin Stone's Spiritual Odyssey on attenuating the pleasure principle, enlightenment hidden behind habit energies like clouds over the sun, why softness cannot be forced, and his 75th birthday verses.

Aphorisms Justin Stone collected in Spiritual Odyssey, insisting T'ai Chi Chih is not exercise but movement from the center, alongside Paul Reps on vinegar, Bodhidharma's vast emptiness, and posture as character.

Lauren Marble recalls the 1988 Albuquerque workshop where Justin Stone taught heightened awareness, the Satipatthana mindfulness exercise, the reciprocal nature of mind and chi, and his choice to leave the Himalayas and be a 'big hermit'.

Justin Stone's own definitions of koan, mantra, prajna, samadhi, satori, teh, T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Zen, drawn from two of his books and showing how his emphasis shifted over time.

Tracks three and four of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he links karate board-breaking to accumulated chi, explains effortless effort, and gives three reasons for concentrating in the soles of the feet.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, tracks 4 and 6 cover bringing heart fire below the navel, Hakuin Zenji's words on the elixir of life, why softness keeps the meridians open, karma and habit energy, and the balance of intellect and emotion.

Track 5 of Justin Stone's spoken word CD, in which he explains how flowing Chi erases vasanas and samskaras, names the seven emotions, recounts travels in India, Kyoto and Taipei, and denies that T'ai Chi Chih is a martial art.

Transcribed from his spoken word CD, Justin Stone contrasts changing the Chi directly with working through the mind in Zen or Hatha Yoga, and traces Yin and Yang back to the Tao in Chinese cosmology.

Sharon Sirkis collects four jokes first printed in March 2001, including a student named Murray who joked about the draft board and a beginner worried she was doing variations on the variations.

Justin Stone maps Patanjali's Raja Yoga into three parts and eight steps, argues that morality is only the stairway to the bridge, and explains how erasing habit energies leads to detachment.

In this chapter from his reissued book, Justin Stone argues that Yoga and Buddhism are three-tiered paths, tracing sila, dhyana-samadhi and the prajna wisdom that enlightened the illiterate woodcutter Huineng.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst argues that T'ai Chi Chih movements never change, only our perception of them, and that teachers must admit mistaken understanding, citing Hakuin and Justin Stone's chapter "The Growth of Certainty."

Justin Stone argues that accepting death, baldness, and the unchangeable ends their power over us, drawing on Lao Tzu's losing a little each day, Chuang Tzu's Fasting Mind, and Hakuin's enlightenment.

Justin Stone recounts arriving unannounced at Rammurti Mishra's Manhattan ashram, the Indian teacher's reading of his recurring vision of a burning golden Buddha head, and his koan-like reply about mistakes.

Short aphorisms from Justin Stone on posture as a reading of character, Paul Reps's answers about belief and vinegar, the Ryoan-ji temple sign, and why T'ai Chi Chih should never be hitched to other causes.

Patty Stupca uses the Zen parable of the overflowing teacup to ask what expectations, shoulds and judgments students bring to practice, offering gratitude as what to fill the cup with instead.

Passages from Justin Stone's Climb the Joyous Mountain on disciplined mind, Japanese understatement, spring rain on temple eaves, gratitude at meals, and Zen freedom lived amid conditions.

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.

Drawn from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, a Lotus Sutra passage, the Nasrudin tiger powder joke, Hakuin's enlightenment by broom and his Song, notes on purification, and a warning that a teacher who does not practice is a fraud.

Ann Rutherford recounts a Tibetan Buddhist class where the lama, his translator and a sangha member warned that T'ai Chi was dangerous, and argues that holding the close position grounds circulating Chi.

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.