Vital Force Greatest Hits: Excerpts from Justin (August 2021)

The Mystery of MYO
These days one hears a lot about enlightenment. Generally, I believe, it is thought that enlightenment is a super-intellectual state where the brain has great knowledge and knows many answers (or concepts). Nothing could be farther from the truth; it has nothing to do with I.Q. rating or knowledge assimilated. When the individual energy (Chi) merges with the Universal Energy (Chi), something acts through one, and that something is infallible. This is Prajna, the Inherent Wisdom. Give it theological terms if you will. Just as my Zen teacher said, “Love is Manifestation,” so is enlightenment known by this manifesting, not by words, phrases, logic or dialectics. – June 1991

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Merging Sense with Essence
The high plateaus do not produce the lotus flowers; it is the mire of the low swamplands.
If you consider quietude right … it is just the time to apply effort by a million times.
The sun shines on everybody – pure and unpure.
You do not have to give up the ordinary life.
What is given up is greed, anger and delusion.
Love and do as you please.
When active you are revealing the function.
It is better to discipline yourself than have life do it for you. – September 1991

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All Things Are As They Have Always Been
Those who do T’ai Chi Chih regularly have not been taught how they should feel or what they should experience. Whatever happens is right and does not have to be adjusted to any doctrine or dogma. It is for this reason that the writer sometimes does not answer questions which would call for conceptual answers – they would spoil the experience. – Spring 1993

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A Quotation
Justin has often quoted the following by an unknown Chinese Monk: “When the mind is transparent and pure, as if reflected on the mirror-like surface of the water, there is nothing in the world that you would dislike. When it is serene as the light breeze in the sunshine, there will be no one whom you would like to forget.” – From Spiritual Stories, Volume I and Justin Stone Speaks on T’ai Chi Chih – March 1993

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Softness and Continuity
We stress softness and continuity in T’ai Chi Chih, and the importance of the former can be seen in the following examples: The teeth are hard and the tongue is soft, but it is the tongue that outlasts the teeth. Water is soft and stones are hard, but it is the water that wears away the stones. Oak is sturdy and stands staunchly against the storm, while bamboo is pliant and bends with the wind. When the storm is over, the inflexible oak has cracked and comes crashing down, but the bamboo snaps back, unhurt. One cannot strive for softness; the very effort of trying to be soft creates tension. It is the absence of any pressure, moving slow motion in a dream, that allows softness to prevail. The best way to forget worries and ease tensions is to shunt the ego-center aside, so that no-one is doing T’ai Chi Chih, but TCC is doing itself. In this sense, TCC becomes a meditation. – Winter 1985

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The Effort of No Effort
Justin shared this comment at a T’ai Chi Chih teacher conference: “You can chase your shadow all day and never catch it but stand still at noon and it will merge with the body–no effort.” … “Withdrawing into abstraction – from there comes all creativity.” – August 1988