Q&A with Senior TCC Teacher Carmen Brocklehurst

Albuquerque, New Mexico | Accredited 1980

When and where were you accredited?

It was finally Thursday, November 20, 1980, T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Accreditation graduation and Justin Stone’s birthday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Justin had been the fearless leader of our 11 students. The course started on the previous Sunday, and it had been a long week of teaching school by day and then coming to class by night. But I wasn’t tired. Quite the contrary. I felt that there was so much more to learn, and I didn’t know how that would happen.

How did you originally learn TCC?

There were no DVDs, retreats, or workshops when I began, and there were only five elderly teachers in Albuquerque. The textbook only had 49 pictures total. I now marvel at how little I knew about the deeper aspects of the Chi after the training. I had been so busy trying to learn to do the movements better. Justin had been very firm with us about doing the movements correctly, and the better I did the movements the more the Chi flowed.

Share a first-person story about Justin.

I did not understand the hip swivel, so my Carry the Ball movements received a lot of attention from Justin. At one point he said to me, “You are making this movement into a shoulder turn; it is done with the hips. I am twice your age, and I can do this.” At that point I said, “You don’t look 80.” He mumbled that it was not about his age. Releasing the hips released a great deal of tension and tightness inside of me for the rest of the class. I did better, but a truly better Carry the Ball to the Side would not be possible until I learned the hip swivel. 

Why did you become accredited?

My TCC teacher, the Reverend Helen Brungardt Pope, taught many classes in meditation and self-help subjects, but she only taught TCC as part of another class. She told us she included TCC to keep us healthy, as we learned very deep teachings about ourselves and the Chi. She said we needed to have a healthy body to go deep within. Rev. Helen had been studying various traditions for many years and was very serious about spiritual matters and their connection to energy (Chi) teachings. Since she did not believe in halfway measures, TCC became one of my daily spiritual practices.

I could see all the good coming from this practice of TCC, which led me to accreditation so that I could share it with students who might one day study with me. Rev. Helen was in the second TCC accreditation class, in 1976, which was also in Albuquerque. She taught us TCC very soon after her accreditation. She stressed that Justin asked that we not teach TCC until we attended a TCC accreditation class with him. It was a very important admonition.

Share an “aha” moment from your teaching.

It was amazing to watch Justin do TCC. He was so soft and so firm at the same time. When Justin would say, during “the Taffy’s” that the right hand goes down the right leg, I could feel the power of the Chi connecting to the ground with the right hand. The stability was incredible.

When I am teaching, I often talk about Justin, what he said, what he did, and the importance of both. For this reason, even though I have my own DVD for sale, I encourage students to get Justin’s 1994 DVD (or get the streaming option). Often, they will buy both.

What lasting lesson(s) have you learned from Justin and his teachings?

I try to describe movements in the same way that Justin did. His way was always as simple as possible. Some teachers try to be complex to show how much they know, but it doesn’t speak to the softness, nor the strength within the movement. In other words, the best is lost. In TCC, simplicity is best. Justin was a master at loving and sharing the Chi.