From a Teacher

My loving thanks to Justin, Steve and Lia Ridley and Corinn for their on-going commitment. I wanted to thank the Committee of Lois, Sandy, Valerie, Liz and all the others who came to the 2nd International T’ai Chi Chih Teachers’ Conference. I personally found much strength in the gathering. Everyone’s support was much appreciated. Justin’s gift of the preliminary movements/techniques of SEIJAKU have helped me more than words can express. After hearing of my dear friend’s death/transition the day before, there was no coincidence that my talk on the use of T’ai Chi Chih as a method for facing life threatening/chronic illness and the transition we call Death followed her passing. I made a copy of the tape recording of my talk. If anyone would like to have a copy, please call me.

I spoke from my personal experiences and would like to include in this issue of the Vital Force some research and quotations from Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, and others in the field of Death and Dying, which is, of course, all about Life and Living.

Stephen Levine:

“What we have come together to do, all of us, is to stop postponing death. To come into the very presence of death. To confront death so profoundly we take it within us and therefore go beyond it. As long as we are postponing death, we’re postponing life.” One dies as one lives…once that starts to fall into place the essence of a dying retreat (or a T’ai Chi Chih retreat for that matter) becomes the essence of a living retreat, and then the question is how you use the moment-to-moment experiences of your life as a way to become conscious.

Ram Dass:

“There is a way of shifting consciousness so that you look around you and see that what we are is a collection of souls. And you can look further than that and see that we are all one in the form of many. Now if you have seen that plane of reality how does it affect this plane? You literally die into service. You die in separateness. Neither grief nor joy banishes death. It does enable us to live within the reality of impermanence. BUT IMPERMANENCE IS THE VERY NATURE OF EXISTENCE. [The last issue of the Vital Force began with a comment by Justin on Impermanence.] With awareness/realization we can identify with the whole of which we are a part…and in this reality we can see ourselves as part of creation in the constant process of becoming. With this awareness comes TRUE ACCEPTANCE and within this acceptance we get off the wheel of ego-centric mind states, we convert our experience of loss or of dying from one of tragedy to one of grace [Chi].”

During T’ai Chi Chih we can quiet our minds and open ourselves to another awareness, a state of being in which we are not identified with our desires or our body separateness. Once we have experienced this transcending of our ego boundary, our experience of life and of self and of other is transformed. This experience awakens us to two interrelated possibilities: That higher consciousness can arise at the moment of death and that it can be cultivated throughout life. It is my belief and experience that through our teaching T’ai Chi Chih to others we create an atmosphere where grace can enter, where this transformation and higher consciousness occur. We automatically become instruments (Lord, Make me an Instrument of Thy Peace) for the surcease of suffering. This is a powerful and compassionate form of social action.

As Justin often says, “First comes the Thought, then the flow of the Chi, and then the Manifestation.” Herein is the power that each of us brings as instruments of Peace. We each have the responsibility–that is, the ability–to further Peace (both inner and outer) with the help of Justin, T’ai Chi Chih, and now, SEIJAKU.

I encourage all teachers to send in their deposit to Justin and join me, and others, November 28, 29, 30th at Vallombrosa. No greater gift exists than this one of Life/Vital Force.

– Lucy Hocking
Alameda, CA