Justin Stories, Conference Presentation Excerpt

It was a 2001 Meditation Retreat, right after 9/11. I was bound for an Albuquerque meditation retreat, on one of the first flights out of Newark, New Jersey following 9/11. It was a surreal experience.

When I arrived, I learned someone had asked at the previous Tuesday’s teacher practice, “May we dedicate the T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice to the 9/11 victims and their families?” Justin’s reply: “Absolutely not! That has nothing to do with our practice together here today.” I was surprised.

On Saturday night Justin asked me the same question he’d asked a year prior, “Dan, please tell the group why you left the priesthood.” 

It took me several years to figure out that Justin valued a person being faithful to who they are, not bending to norms or beliefs which do not resonate with their own nature. He had often taught: “The purpose of being on the Spiritual path is coming to know who and what you are, and according with Realty, with Impermanence.”