Sr. Antonia Interviews Justin Stone

Sr. Antonia Interviews Justin Stone

At Justin’s Life Celebration in November, Justin spoke briefly, saying, “TCC is done primarily below the waist. The hips and waist play a very big part. Don’t do TCC without the hips and the waist. Please remember, hips and waist. That’s all!” Then Sr. Antonia began her interview.

Sr. Antonia: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Justin: No, but I’d like to subtract some!

A: What is your greatest hope for the future?

J: It is not a hope. It is an expectation. I expect medicine to accept T’ai Chi Chih. Experience will show TCC’s value in healing. Under you, Sister, TCC will be accepted, perhaps worldwide. I believe that TCC was sent here with the aim of healing many people. But that’s not all. TCC is a spiritual discipline. People who do it regularly and faithfully receive a good deal. What better than a nun to lead you into the inner? Healing is not the only thing that TCC can give us.

As for today, which I’m enjoying, my reaction is – it’s a big fuss over nothing.

A: What is the most important experience of your life?

J: There are two that stick with me. Sitting opposite the yogi in India was the strongest influence I ever felt. The influence that man exerted, the strength, has always stuck with me. The other was witnessing a young boy dancing in the rain on an oxcart, shrieking in ecstasy. I felt it could be Krishna, who was an avatar, an incarnation of the Lord. The ecstasy he expressed is what life should be.

A: Could you please tell us about Professor Wang?

J: Professor Wang was a very quiet, shy man. We’re here because of him. When I left the stock market, I was staying at the Kipling House when Professor Wang said “Let me come down and do T’ai Chi Chu’an with you.” He taught me three preliminary movements. One was called Circles within Circles. I didn’t include “Circles within Circles” in TCC because people didn’t seem to be able to catch on to it. The second movement was something that later became Around the Platter. I can’t remember the third.

When I started to teach T’ai Chi Chu’an at the university, someone said something about the warm-ups, these three movements from Professor Wang that had stuck with me. Then Skip Whitson asked me to write a book on T’ai Chi Chu’an. I said, “Professor Wang already has written the definitive book on T’ai Chi Chu’an.” Skip then countered, “Why don’t you write a book on those warm-ups we do?” I replied, “I don’t know. Give me a week.”

That week the T’ai Chi Chih movements came to me complete with names. T’ai Chi Chih is not a commercial venture. I tore up teachers’ tithing checks when the first teachers offered them to me. I wanted to set a precedent.

I don’t like the idea of bringing up the past unless it has a purpose.

A lot of the experiences of my life occurred on Wall Street. A Chinese friend asked me, “What is the ethic of American life? What is the basis of American life?” Without seeming critical, I wondered the same thing.

My life changed very drastically when I got the opportunity to go to Japan.

Question from the audience: I’ve been doing TCC for the last six months and my legs have strengthened, but my arms haven’t. Should I use something to strengthen my arms while doing TCC?

J: If you do TCC, do it for itself. Let what happens happen.