Tara Stiles — A Life of Commitment

Carrie Kinsey, VFJ Staff

What goes on during a telephone conversation with Tara Stiles can reveal as much about her as a T’ai Chi Chih teacher as the conversation itself. Second lines ring, people come to the door, she shuffles through the papers in front of her, all this while she is explaining her enthusiasm about a particular student or teaching situation. She is open and excited about her classes, her students and her work.

Tara has been involved with T’ai Chi Chih since about 1976 when she took her first course in Canada. In that course she learned half the form and then continued to practice on her own for a year and a half before moving to California and resuming her study.

She was accredited as a teacher in 1979 at Green Gulch Zen Center in Marin County, CA and has been actively teaching ever since. Teaching is Tara’s full time occupation. She also teaches Yoga and Chi Kung. She finds that the disciplines compliment each other as well as enhancing her overall teaching ability.

You may recognize Tara’s name from an article in the Spring 1998 issue of The Vital Force where she was mentioned by a teacher candidate currently residing in Old Folsom Prison. Tara has been working with the men in the Old Folsom Prison meditation group for a number of months now and says she has been impressed with their sincerity and the depth of their commitment. The original student [Jim Hecker–who wrote the letter to Justin Stone–see Spring 1998 issue] will go on to become a teacher, working with Ed Altman. Tara stays in communication with him and is following his progress. She says the prison population can well be well served by T’ai Chi Chih. (See related article on pages 30-31).

When asked what advice she would give to new teachers, Tara says, “What is helpful is to teach. Don’t be shy. Even if you’re teaching a small class, you learn by doing it,” and, “the way to be a good teacher is to be a student. Work with a variety of teachers, learning different skills and approaches.” Some of the phrases that Tara likes to use when teaching include “Sink not think,” and “I’m not the T’ai Chi Chih teacher, T’ai Chi Chih is the teacher of T’ai Chi Chih.”

She loves to practice outdoors and has places throughout the Sacramento area that she has adopted for practice, including city parks and spots along the American river. She says that once she has practiced in an outdoor location, just driving by that location reminds her of the feeling of a practice. Tara also loves to teach outdoors and periodically hosts weekend retreats, often at ocean-side locations. Since 1982 she has hosted about 40 such events. Last November she took a group to Jamaica.

While Tara will not be able to go to the conference this July (she will be visiting her parents in Australia) she loves to have dialogue with other teachers and encourages anyone who wants to talk about T’ai Chi Chih and teaching to give her a call. Even after nearly twenty years of teaching the form, Tara’s enthusiasm is infectious. It is obvious that this work comes from her heart.