Q&A with Senior Teacher Ann Rutherford

Albuquerque, New Mexico | Accredited 1998

Tell a first-person story about Justin.

My first lesson from Justin came on the day I met him. In 1996, after I had taken several T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) lessons with Connie Hyde, she mentioned that she and a group meditated at Justin’s house. I yearned to be part of a meditation group, and I asked her if I could attend. On a Thursday afternoon, Connie introduced me to Justin at his house. He took me into the meditation room and reviewed the Turiya meditation method. Another teacher had brought her student, and Justin did the same with him. After the forty-minute group meditation, Justin said to the group, “I wish teachers would stop bringing their students here to meditate.” I thought to myself, “He will have to throw me out if he wants me to stop coming.” The other student never returned. I meditated with Justin’s group thereafter, three times a week. It was a life-changing experience.

What lasting lessons have you learned from Justin and his teachings?

I once asked Justin why some students in classes seemed to quickly respond to the spiritual essence of TCC, while others did not. He said, “It should be obvious that not all people will get the same results from these practices. The reason is simple: we are not all at the same level of evolution. Some of us are more highly evolved than others. Some are at a stage where we can be more receptive than others.” (Interestingly, I asked Sister Antonia, when she was the TCC Guide, the same question and got the same answer.) When teaching, I found Justin’s words to be true. In TCC classes, not everyone is interested in, or can feel, the spiritual nature of the practice. I used to think it was my failing as a teacher when a student would not return for an intermediate class. Now, I just do the best I can to teach, and leave the rest to the student.

I will never forget the most important lesson I learned from Justin regarding the importance of grounding Chi. I was helping a student preparing for accreditation to ground her circulating Chi. When she practiced, her whole body would shake uncontrollably. Justin always told us at teacher practice to keep our minds, our concentration, in the soles of the feet. I told this to the student repeatedly, but she could not seem to do it. So, I held her feet to the ground, thinking that would help her to concentrate in the soles. Instead, her ungrounded Chi leapt into my body, causing me to fall to the ground in extreme pain, vomiting uncontrollably. An ambulance was called, and I spent hours at the hospital. Hearing of the incident, Justin admonished, “Don’t you ever touch an ungrounded student again!” And I haven’t.

When and where were you accredited?

During my accreditation in 1998, Justin often dropped by to monitor our progress. One day when he walked in, our class was practicing Daughter in The Valley. Before long, he got up out of his chair, walked up to me, and said, “What’s the name of that movement, dear, I’ve never seen it before?” That got my attention! It was time to begin anew the study of Daughter in the Valley!

Share an ‘aha’ moment from your teaching.

During the 2005 TCC teacher conference in Albuquerque, Justin appeared daily to speak and monitor the teachers’ movements. Noticing that whenever he entered the practice room, the teachers would freeze up with self-consciousness, he finally took to the stage, grabbed the microphone and, in a loud voice, said, “TCC is about freedom. Will the teachers please loosen up?” From that experience, I now use “loosen up” and “TCC is about freedom” more and more when teaching the movements.