Justin Stone Speaks on T’ai Chi Chih (May 2024)

Editor’s Note: These excerpts are from Spiritual Odyssey, available on https://justinstonetcc.com.

Spiritual Progress

To realize spiritual progress, the pleasure principle must be attenuated. Why make spiritual progress? Because it is the only way to Joy.

The one with low spiritual consciousness, small awareness, is never content. There is constant suffering, based on the fact that everything is judged from the basis of “I.” Universal Consciousness is not dreamed of. The statement of Zen Master Hakuin, “After this (enlightenment), seeing things of the world is like seeing the back of my own hand,” is incomprehensible.

Where there is an artificial “high,” there is always an artificial “low.” Only True Joy, which is not the result of some action, is different.

My meditation students are asked to detect what is prior to thought, to rest in the still ocean below the waves. Then real Bliss can be attained. It cannot be gained through worldly activities — hence the statement: “To realize spiritual progress, the pleasure principle must be attenuated.”

Removing Those Clouds…

Enlightenment is a strange word. It can mean the Satori experience of Zen, where extreme concentration can force a powerful experience, perhaps before the student is ready for it. It can mean the moksha state of India, where the jivan mukta (enlightened or freed in this lifetime) has escaped the wheel of birth and death.

In truth, is there such a thing as an unenlightened person? All the factors of enlightenment are present. The vasanas (habit energies) and samskaras (tendencies) cover them up — that is all. The sun does not cease to shine because clouds obscure it. Think about that. No one lacks any thing, though it is not perceived that way. All beings are possessed of the same Life Force.

Those who study T’ai Chi Chih (TCC), practice it, and then let it fall by the wayside will not allow the wind to blow the clouds away.

Softness & Continuity

We stress softness and continuity in TCC, and the importance of the former can be seen in the following examples:

The teeth are hard, and the tongue is soft, but it is the tongue that outlasts the teeth.

Water is soft and stones are hard, but it is the water that wears away the stones.

Oak is sturdy and stands staunchly against the storm, while bamboo is pliant and bends with the wind. When the storm is over, the inflexible oak has cracked and comes crashing down, but the bamboo snaps back, unhurt.

One cannot strive for softness; the very effort of trying to be soft creates tension. It is the absence of any pressure, moving “slow motion in a dream,” that allows softness to prevail. The best way to forget worries and ease tensions is to shun the ego-center, so that no one is doing TCC, but TCC is doing itself. In this sense, TCC becomes a meditation.

On Justin’s 75th Birthday

The best advice I can give to anyone who wants to be happy is, “Just remember that this life is temporary, transient. So, don’t take it too seriously, and certainly don’t become attached to it.”

Flowers on the Hillside –

The First Snow.

Life dies and is renewed again.

Striving, striving, striving –

The years are soon used up.

The brilliant rising sun will set when day is ended.

Evanescence – What is it that remains?

There is rebirth, but no one who is reborn.

Life is constantly renewed, but as for Justin – who knows?

Walking thru the snow in great peace,

there was no sense of destination.

Trying is not the Way

Not trying is not the Way

You say it must be one or the other,

But I say

Neither Nor

The Soul in (or as) the Breath. The breath as fire.

Seeing is not seeing,

lonely the road home!

Off the treadmill,

brilliant the spring flowers.

Innumerable worlds, strung like

pearls along a path of daisies.

Listen inwardly;

Hear the wordless song.