Chronology of T’ai Chi Chih

From the very beginning I concentrated on Purity of T’ai Chi Chih, and, consequently, turned down efforts of some teachers to tithe money to me. The treasure of TCC lies in the “TEH” (I mean Sincerity) of its teachers.

In 1974 I was teaching T’ai Chi Ch’uan at two Universities in Albuquerque, as well as at Extension Courses. I began to use two movements shown to me by Professor Huang (to which I added leg motions) as warm-up for the Ch’uan classes, and the students seemed to enjoy them. Prof. Huang had called them “T’ai Chi Chih” in their original form and I adopted that name for them.

One of the students at the Extension Course was a young publisher who had brought out, successfully, my first book, “The Joys of Meditation.” He asked me if I’d write a book on T’ai Chi Ch’uan, and I refused, saying that my friend, Professor Huang had written a definitive book on the subject, and I did not want him to think I wanted to compete with him.

The young publisher then asked if I’d do a book on “T’ai Chi Chih.” That surprised me, as there were only the two hand movements and one other I found I could not teach to students. I asked him for time to think over his suggestion.

Immediately after that, movements started coming to me, complete with names. Finally I went to the publisher and said I would do the book, and that we should arrange to do some pictures for it (by that time all TCC movements except “Bird Flaps its Wings” were fully developed). The pictures were taken in my apartment by a young photographer friend of the publisher, and shortly after that the book appeared in hardcover.

Using that as a basis, I spoke to Rick Cramer, head of the Open Mind Bookstore, about doing a TCC class. He arranged it, and soon after TCC was taught for the first time.

There were two interesting students I remember from the first class, a Catholic priest and a psychologist from the Veteran’s Administration.

The psychologist was frankly skeptical until after the second class, at which time he said: “Sure, I feel something, but how do I know I’m not imagining it?”

“Doctor,” I replied, “How do you know you’re here?”

Father Schneider, the very lovable Priest (who later became a successful meditator from lessons in my first book), enjoyed the first lesson very much, and at one point he let out a yell. “What’s the matter, Father?” I inquired.

“I can smell!” was his delighted answer.

“So can I,” I replied dryly.

“Yes, but I haven’t been able to smell anything in twenty years!” was his surprising statement.

Shortly after that I went to California for some months, and while there began to teach T’ai Chi Chih beginning classes at the Sai Baba Foundation in Los Angeles. My good friend, Dick Bock (who later published the T’ai Chi Chih Videotape of mine thru his Aura Productions company) was the head and founder of the Sai Baba Foundation. He was enthusiastic and began to arrange classes for me to teach, as well as interviews and personal appearances at such places as the East-West Cultural Society, which later was the scene of the first Teachers’ Training Course, suggested by Dick Bock.

An interview was arranged for me, by Dick, with a Public Radio Station that was powerful enough to be heard thru most of the State. It was taped. At first the interview was scheduled to be a half hour long, but the woman interviewer became so enthusiastic that she extended it to an hour and a half. I wondered who would be listening to radio at 8 A.M. on a Saturday morning, but I soon found out. Though I was staying at the Sai Baba Center (and sleeping on the floor) to save money, I was out most of the day Saturday. When I strolled into the Foundation’s Center about 4 P.M., I found Dick and his wife furiously answering phones. “Where have you been?” screamed Dick. “Calls are coming in from all over the state! Some people are coming down in person this afternoon.”

From all those calls, Dick began arranging beginning classes, and soon I was doing fifteen classes a week! This was a key turning point in the beginnings of TCC. At that time we were charging eighteen dollars a Course, and half of that was going to the Sai Baba Foundation. I was not getting rich, but managing to eat.

At Dick’s suggestion, the first Teachers’ Training Course was held in August of 1975. There were about 24 people in the course, which lasted nine days (it was later shortened to six). I am still in touch with only three of those teachers from the first course, but imagine some of the others are still teaching.

Immediately after the end of the course I returned to Albuquerque, and early in 1976 the second Teachers’ Course was held at the Open Mind Bookstore (the owner, Rick Cramer, played a key role in the early days of TCC). There were about twenty-four candidates in that Course, and many of them are still active. I had met some of them when I was a guest speaker for only one day at Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, NM.

At this stage of TCC’s development, everything was on a hit-or-miss basis. I never knew if a class–or a Course–would be the last one. There was no money for promotion. At one point the owner of a large business Conglomerate in New Mexico talked with me about integrating TCC into his set-up. He had read all the publicity on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and felt that TCC could be developed into a similar money-earner. No matter how I explained that “TEH” (power of inner sincerity) was the basis of TCC, he was unable to understand, and we parted company rather quickly.

I went back to California for a long summer, and during this time I met Joseph Segal and Steve Ridley, who is now head of TCC. Joseph Segal lived in New England and got hold of a copy of my TCC text. He immediately came to Los Angeles, though he had only studied the movements thru the text. At 6′ 4″ he was an imposing figure, and his sincerity was obvious. Joseph learned quickly, and later he played a key role in arranging Teachers’ Courses in Northern California. Everybody liked Joseph and he brought many good teachers to TCC. Unfortunately, today he is in a wheelchair, after suffering a severe auto accident.

Steve Ridley took a weekend seminar from Jim Burns in Boulder, Colorado and then came to a Teachers’ Training Course that Corinn Codye also attended. Corinn later was the founder of The Vital Force (using my suggested name). Steve learned and perfected his TCC very quickly. I well remember that, at the end of his Course, we (by “we” I mean all graduating new teachers) were invited to give a demonstration at an Oriental Spiritual College in L.A. and I had Steve lead the group. The performance was well-received. I was aware that Steve had a big future in TCC.

The appearance on stream of The Vital Force and of the Summer Conference, in August 1985, was very important to the growth of TCC. They have helped cement the Unity of effort, in addition to furnishing much enjoyment. Corinn Codye first suggested the publication, but I don’t remember who was responsible for organizing the first Conference at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula.

In the early 1980’s I called a meeting at my Carmel home of a teacher from Santa Cruz (who had been a T’ai Chi Ch’uan teacher), a lady from Monterey (who had been a dancer), Richard Brier of Mill Valley, who really understands TCC and the Yin-Yang outlook, and Steve Ridley of Denver. In discussing the future of TCC I noticed that the first three concentrated on their own efforts, while Steve talked about the broader outlook of TCC and its future. At that time I began to think of Steve as the future head of TCC. Later, when I was called to New York by the severe illness of my mother, just before a Teachers’ Training Course, Steve took over for me and did an excellent job teaching the course. A few years later, after a brief misunderstanding at a Conference, I decided it might be wise for younger people to take over TCC and announced that, henceforth, Steve Ridley would be the Spiritual Head of TCC. This decision brought a lot of flack from a few who, perhaps, thought that they were better qualified, but I have seen no reason to regret that decision.

A few years later, quite by accident, I got hold of some old Chinese documents, and, after studying just two pages of these, wondered how the principles would work if applied to TCC. Subsequently I developed some new movements and brought a different approach to the old ones, called the new form “Seijaku” (Stillness in the Midst of Activity). My experiments had proved much more powerful than I would have expected. After that I began giving Seijaku Accreditation Courses, usually about a year apart, to teachers only, and I have been gratified at the results. I am now training Ed Altman in the teaching of this Form in case anyone eventually has to take over for me.

There have been many highlights since then, and the future growth of TCC seems assured–it is no longer on a “hit-or-miss” basis. T’ai Chi Chih has spread and become popular, not because of publicity or expensive promotion, but because of the good it does for people.