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

Editor’s Note: These excerpts are from Spiritual Odyssey, available on .

The above letter from noted Zen writer, Paul Reps, was sent just after Justin and Paul’s visit and shortly before Reps died. Reps had just read and seen Stone’s T’ai Chi Chih photo textbook for the first time. The letter is printed as it was sent, except for colors that appeared in the original.

Note: TCC should not be thought of as exercise. Exercise implies effort, and effort is counterproductive in TCC. It must be done softly with the “effort of no effort” to be most effective. Sincere teachers, who practice a good deal themselves, gradually come to realize the true way of movement in TCC. Those who give careless interviews in which TCC is cited as “exercise” are doing harm to TCC. The purpose of TCC is to circulate and balance the Chi, and to do this, movement must be from the center of the body, not from the shoulders and arms. “How to move” is the most important point of TCC.

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Within this emptiness is a circle and within the circle are the mountains and the lakes. There is nothing empty about emptiness!

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Spiritual practices are paradoxically an “ego trip.” The ego identity is necessarily perpetuated as one’s dominant perspective, while the “journey of awakening” persists.

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Spirituality is accordance with Reality. This doesn’t come through words or intellectual processes. As the Chi is circulated and balanced, it comes of itself – rather, it is just there. When there is concordance with Impermanence, and you know Who and What you are, it is there.

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The hand of Satori is held out.

Too few can be too many.

The ocean waves: the essence is water.

The Japanese poet and artist, Nobutada, wrote, “Quietness and Emptiness are enough to pass through life without error” (or suffering, I might add).

Note this, you who are always rushing and being emotionally stirred by every phenomenon.

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It is hard for people to know that the inner and outer are in accord; fundamentally, they are the same thing. What happens in your world reflects the inner world.

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Acid is yin and alkaline is yang. When the system becomes too yin (acid), country doctors say that a little apple cider vinegar will help. When I asked Paul Reps how he stayed healthy in India and Mexico (when he got no dysentery), he answered, “I drank a tablespoon of vinegar each day and kept myself hungry.”

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Some teachers are willing to debate with students while knowing full well that the benefits come from the practice of T’ai Chi Chih, not the words about it. “Why is the right hand in front of the left hand?” and “Why is this movement named so-and-so?” These are useless questions that merely waste time. Do it and know that it works.

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So often I hear teachers (and students) say, “I can’t even remember what I was like before T’ai Chi Chih. It’s good you are aware of the change. (I’m sure your friends are.) Sincere practice is rewarded – more than you know.

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Some T’ai Chi Chih teachers are doing well financially, and I am all for it. The worker is always worthy of his or her hire. But do not be an opportunist. Hypocrisy is one way to be popular; but it is better to bring your words and your actions together, so that they say the same thing.

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Holy and unholy: Is there anything that is not holy? Isn’t every rock and blade of grass sacred? Can’t holy and unholy be manipulated, as Krishnamurti suggests? From one point of view, each word is the word of God; every happening points to Reality. Seen this way, what is unholy? Bad karma? Bodhidharma answered the Chinese Emperor, who asked for the Holy Truth: “Vast emptiness and nothing holy about it.” The term Vast Emptiness is hard for most to comprehend, but that is another matter.

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It is easier, of course, to sell illusion rather than Truth. The truthful person is thought to be either humorous or cantankerous.

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Ryoan-ji is a Kyoto temple that is world-famous for its unusual garden of pebbles and large rocks. Inside its walls one can find a sign that says, “We can protect you from your enemies, but who can protect you from yourself?’

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It is written that the great Sufi teacher, Sheik Abdullah Ansari, said:

What is worship? To realize reality. What is the sacred law? To do no evil. What is reality?

Selflessness.

This is right on; nothing need be added. Those who faithfully practice T’ai Chi Chih move rapidly toward identity with Reality. This is the real evolution.

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The Real within the apparent (the Host within the Guest) – this is the Great Mystery.

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A day of profound gratitude. When we are grateful, we are joyous. Gratitude does not mean rejoicing because some desire has been satisfied.

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You can never understand Life from the personal standpoint, saying: “I was put here for some reason, and I should have satisfaction and meaning in my life.” The realized ones speak from the impersonal; their conversation is not ego centered. When you do T’ai Chi Chih and feel the flow of the Chi, you are in accord with the Real. What is there to understand?

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You cannot give the same teaching to two people. It must fit the karma of each one and never be a teaching by rote. How do you know what teaching to give? You will be guided.

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The important thing about a problem is to understand the ground from which it arose.

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The moment of Enlightenment, concluded a Zen Master, is the understanding of unity with all creation, in which there is no need for individual desires.

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Confucius stressed “human-heartedness” and teh. I find them preferable to the attitude of the Zen Master who turned his back on all callers.

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No Two Live in The Same World

Withdrawing into abstraction – from there comes all creativity.

Nothing is in a state of Being; everything is in a state of Becoming (from one point of view). T’ai Chi Chih can greatly influence that path of Becoming.

Posture influences the state of mind and is influenced by it. Just as we can tell the character of a Chinese or Japanese by his or her calligraphy, so can we read people by their posture and the habitual working of the wrists and waist. We can tell much by noting whether someone sits down or falls down and by how one closes a door.

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When acknowledging an introduction, Reps would say: “Thank you for your life.”

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Paul Reps, asked what he believed in, answered: “Nothing. If I believed in anything, there would be two.” This is one side of the matter.