Remembering Justin Through His Books

The T’ai Chi Chih practice with 150 school kids had just ended. Many of the children ran over to Justin, who was sitting under a tree. They all seemed to have something they wanted to tell him. One fifth grader told Justin he was practicing every day. Another little boy told him proudly that his name was also Justin. A third boy asked, “Why did you call the movement Daughter on the Mountaintop? Why not the son?” Justin looked at him and smiled, then said, “Why do you have five fingers?” The next week he told me what Justin said, wondering why he had said that. I told him that was the true answer to his question. Weeks later he was still pondering this. In a story Justin tells on his CD, Spiritual Stories of the East, Roshi gives this same answer to a concerned woman wondering why there are wars

I love listening to these stories and hearing Justin’s voice.

When my grandmother died and left me some money, I knew the first thing I wanted to buy was one of Justin’s paintings. I really enjoy looking at all the paintings in the book Tentatively Forever: Paintings by Justin Stone. I called him to make an appointment to go to his house. After discussing schedules we agreed on a date. Justin said, “I’m writing this down in pencil.” Then I realized that would not be a good day for me to leave work early, so I said, “I think I need to change the date.” Justin replied, “I’ve already written it down.” That day worked out just fine.

A painting of Justin’s in my home office looks to me like a still life. In Tentatively Forever there is a still life painting with fruit. The painting I have has a lot of blue in it and my daughter, about five years old at the time, watched me hang it. She very excitedly said, “Oh, I love those magic blue rocks!” I told Justin what she had said and he said, “Those are grapes.”

At one of Carmen’s retreats, Justin was signing books for people after lunch. Someone had Paul Reps’ book, Zen Telegrams. Reps and Justin knew each other for a very long time and learned T’ai Chi Ch’uan together in Hawaii. Justin started reading the book to the few people who happened to be sitting around him. He was smiling as he read “walking between the raindrops” and “now that everybody’s in a hurry, let’s ride your bicycle through the ricefields.” We all were enjoying this special reading. Justin seemed to be very moved by the writings and said, “This is really good!”

I always looked forward to meditation evenings at Justin’s house. When we entered his house, there was always a calm and peaceful feeling. One time I told him I was having a hard time meditating and I thought that maybe sitting meditation just wasn’t for me. He looked me in the eyes and said, “Do it every day.” That made a world of difference for me. There is a wealth of great insight in Meditation for Healing: Particular Meditations for Particular Results, including a section about the dangers of meditation and how to remedy them.

Justin said in Abandon Hope!, “The greatest moments of my life have been spent with spiritual figures.” I try to practice what my teacher taught me, make time to be with my teacher and to be grateful for our time together.

I was always amazed at how aware Justin was of things going on around him. In Zen Meditation: A Broad View he talked about awareness. I remember having “second breakfast” with him and a group of TCC teachers at The Village Inn restaurant. We were all joking about something and Justin stopped, looked across the restaurant and yelled, “Stop that!” We all stopped talking and turned to see what he was talking about. A young mother was roughly pulling on her child’s arm, trying to force her to move across the floor. The mother immediately stopped pulling and the child starting obeying. Others remarked what a beautiful child she had. A calming wave seemed to come over everyone.

Students often notice that the teacher’s fingers move involuntarily when doing TCC. Justin said this is a confirmatory sign that the energy is flowing. In the T’ai Chi Chih Joy Thru Movement Photo Text he wrote, “This is a favorable sign that the Intrinsic Energy is flowing smoothly … it means that the practioner has reached an advanced stage of development.”

Justin often talked about finding out who and what you are. In Gateway toEastern Philosophy & Religion, he wrote three different answers to that question. We are so fortunate that Justin was also a writer.

sweet

spirit

justin stone

thank you thank you

t’ai chi chih

gift of

love

– Mary Griffith, Vista, California