A conversation with Justin Stone on TCC

Reprinted from Indianapolis Prime Times, March 2001, p. 3.

Justin Stone, originator of T’ai Chi Chih (TCC), had successful careers in music (he still records jazz piano and recently wrote and recorded the background music for the 13-part PBS series on TCC), finance (he was an allied member of the New York Stock Exchange) and writing. He is also an exhibiting painter and poet.

Stone left the financial world in 1953 to take the first of many trips to the Orient, where he practiced with Yogis in India and Zen Monks in Japan. He considers these trips the most important part of his life.

In 1974, after having practiced and taught T’ai Chi Ch’uan for many years, he originated TCC. In its short existence, mostly via word-of-mouth, TCC has spread throughout the world. There are now over 1,500 accredited teachers.

I asked Stone about his life and the development of TCC.

Indianapolis Prime Times: You left a successful career in the business world to go to the Orient to study and practice. Why?

Stone: I had always wanted to go to Japan and India. At the time it wasn’t possible to visit mainland China, though I did visit Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and a few other Chinese cities. For years I had read about Indian traditions and Buddhist beliefs and had often been at Japanese “healing” churches and Zen Buddhist temples. Chinese thinking has always seemed closer to my views. Perhaps this is the reason I later originated T’ai Chi Chih, which has now spread throughout most of the world.

Buddhist thought–and that of the Yogis I lived with for a while in the Himalayas–demanded that you experience for yourself, not get your beliefs from church dogma and doctrine. The practice with the Yogis and also with Zen Buddhist monks seemed to offer the chance to experience God, Divinity, Heaven, Nirvana, etc. for me. In order to go to the Orient to practice, I knew it would mean giving up my means of making a living. I met Dr. Jon Covell, a female writer about Zen and Buddhist art, and she asked me to take a Japanese freighter with her and her son to Kobe, Japan, and then on to Kyoto where she said I could get a job teaching English. As it turned out, she and her son never boarded the freighter–I was the only passenger–but she was the catalyst that got me to go and fulfill my dream.

IPT: Why are Eastern philosophies so difficult for Westerners to grasp?

Stone: Anything foreign to our beliefs and educational background is hard to understand. Provincialism seems to be the most common characteristic in the world–”our way is the only right way.” The idea of Karma is known to physics as “every action must have an equal reaction,” but we don’t know that this applies to every phase of life. It is the only possible explanation to the inequities we find in this life.

Chi is the most important thing in life. In Indian thought, this universal energy (known as “Shakti”) arises simultaneously with Conscious-Energy. The cultivation of this Chi is all-important and is responsible for TCC. I believe that 50 years from now, medicine will come to understand the all-importance of Chi in every phase of life.

IPT: How did you develop T’ai Chi Chih?

Stone: I had studied T’ai Chi Ch’uan with Professor Huang Wen-Shan and two other Chinese teachers. Later I taught it, but it takes a very long time for a Westerner to learn it. Very few are willing to make the effort, which includes regular practice. I do not believe that the great majority of students feel the circulation of the Chi until the 108 movements have been learned and performed by muscle memory. Teachers in Los Angeles tell me that during the eight lessons needed to learn TCC, students strongly feel the flow of Chi and fewer drop out.

The basic purpose of my discipline is to circulate and balance (Yin-Yang) the Chi. I have seen bad habits drop away from those who practice regularly. I will not comment on the vast spiritual benefits of TCC, which is not a martial art like T’ai Chi Ch’uan, but this is the most important part.

IPT: How can T’ai Chi Chih benefit older adults?

Stone: A teacher in Danville, Calif., has old students in wheelchairs–mostly 90 to 96 years old. They enjoy the practice and look forward to lessons. Very early in the history of TCC, I worked with wheelchair patients and with narcotic addiction victims, and the favorable results surprised me.

IPT: Can you distill one central thought surrounding T’ai Chi Chih?

Stone: Thousands of students have told me of the benefits they have received from TCC. Because of this, I have never taken money from my teachers, though 15 percent of earnings have often been offered. Many who have been benefited go on to teach and pass along the benefits to others.

If you want to know about chocolate, taste it. Similarly, I say to people, “Try TCC and see for yourself. But you must practice regularly.” Once the joy is tasted, it isn’t hard to get people to practice.

TCC is practiced at California’s Folsom Prison. It’s been statistically demonstrated that those inmates who practice TCC have almost a zero percent recidivism–return to prison for crimes after release. I was told by a prison official that those who don’t practice TCC have an 80 percent return record!

Will this be the means of reducing or eliminating criminal tendencies? I believe so.

* * *

This article is reprinted with the permission of the Indianapolis Prime Times.