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

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

T’ai Chi Chih Community

At the recent, very enjoyable teachers’ conference in Albuquerque in 1989, I was pleased to hear frequent reference to the “T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) community.” I do not take this as an organizational reference — TCC does not have an organization — but as a description of a spiritual community that has grown very naturally from TCC. This would include not only the teachers but their sincere students as well. This wave of the TCC community is slowly spreading throughout the world, furnishing a constructive force that is badly needed to counter the influence of drugs and violence (all prompted by greed). The peace that emanates from TCC practice should have a noticeable effect as TCC continues to spread. It’s obvious in the faces of student and teacher alike as they conclude their practice. TCC is truly a moving meditation, with spiritual as well as physical benefits.

My most pleasant memory of the conference has to do with the early morning practice, in silence, at [Albuquerque’s] Old Town Plaza — watched by many townspeople — as the sun began to rise over the Sandia mountains. It is interesting to note that the sandias in India are the three periods of the day felt to be most suitable for meditation — sunrise, noon, and midnight. Some would also include dusk in this list.

Rapid Growth of T’ai Chi Chih Greatly Surprises Originator

Nobody has been more surprised than the author, the originator of TCC, by its rapid spread throughout the world since it was first introduced in 1974 at the Open Mind Bookstore in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At that time there was no way of knowing whether there would ever be a second class for beginners, let alone a series of teacher training courses that have accredited worthy teachers numbering more than 1,000. The success of the first class was a surprise, and the rapid spread, by word of mouth and excellent pioneering efforts by the teachers, could not have been foreseen, particularly since there has been no organization, no financial backing, and no hype to convince potential students of the merits of this relatively easy practice.

Attitude Changes

It always makes me smile when a student — or TCC teacher — writes that he or she is now much more confident and energetic in his work, or that he or she doesn’t kick the cat and yell at the children from fatigue. Always, they ask, “This doesn’t have anything to with TCC, does it?” To which I reply, “What’s the difference, as long as it is happening?” Our attitudes change and we become more like the bamboo, rather than the oak. Then the outer world reflects this inner serenity.

The resentful mind helps create illness. The greedy mind brings war and great discontent. For each frame of mind there is a corresponding Chi. Our thinking cultures our Vital Force. Thus, we can influence what we are and what we become by what we think. But similarly, what we think is greatly conditioned by the Chi, the Vital Force, so our pattern of thinking is not, as we might presume, an absolutely free process.

Keep T’ai Chi Chih Pure

The task of a TCC teacher is to teach people how to do TCC. Period. It is not to ally TCC with any spiritual or religious movement, which would be fatal to TCC. It is not to gradually be merged with a religion, spiritual movement, Reiki, Maharishi’s teaching, or Yogananda’s traditions — these are completely apart from TCC. … Asked many times to perform T’ai Chi Ch’uan, I refused. To do so would have just been showing off. … TCC is complete, and most people will shy away from it if these extraneous matters, some against their beliefs, are brought into the picture. If these matters are introduced, TCC will gradually decline. …

This message is clear: stick to TCC and do not bring these other matters into contact with it, whether for reasons of personal aggrandizement or to accomplish personal ambitions. TCC, kept pure, will bring greater benefits than you imagine.