Justin Makes a Difference

This year’s T’ai Chi Chih ’05 Conference was different than recent ones that Justin Stone did not attend. Why? Because Justin imparts wisdom with simplicity. Do you remember when he told us to “scoop up the energy” as the practitioner would in “Carry the Ball to the Side”? As he talked about this, several students commented, “I have never heard ‘scoop up the energy’ before.” But we assume we hear what Justin says the first or second or hundredth time he says it. It’s not that we’re not paying attention. It’s more like we can’t really hear what he is saying. For T’ai Chi Chih teachers who repeat the phrase, “The movements are done with softness and continuity” to their students — only to have students move in a stiff manner — this scenario is very familiar. One day the student will say with awe, “Oh, you want me to move with softness and continuity.” The grateful teacher smiles and agrees, knowing the student has really heard it.

Justin’s “Spiritual Talk” was also very inspiring. Letters have been pouring in, commenting on how important it is to hear what Justin says about his deep spiritual experiences. His talk carried not only information, but true depth of consciousness. It is stimulating to hear these talks because they’re born from the depths of experience, not from information he picked up from someone else. To have him in front of us sharing these experiences, and to be able to feel the reality of them, is for us to know that we too can reach these levels of consciousness.

True teachers — willing to be centered and firm in their being and teaching — are rare but very necessary. Justin is one of those teachers. How fortunate that he originated T’ai Chi Chih and that this is his lasting gift to us.

Thank you to all who came to the Conference. It was truly a blessing to be with all of you so that we could love and share the chi.