Studying the T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics

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Besides being a diligent practitioner, I am also a curious student of T'ai Chi.  I learned from repeatedly coming back to lessons and insights by the likes of TT Liang, Marshall Ho'o, Martin Inn, and Jwing-Ming Yang.  I don't know when the internet started was, but since 1978 my T'ai Chi studies were mostly from books and magazines and from instruction and conversation.  Over the past decade, however, so much more is at our fingertips.      

Enter, Lee N. Scheele.   

I really appreciate the research that Scheele did on the T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics.  These are the hallmarks texts from masters of the art, and one doesn't learn them simply by taking a course or reading a book.  Instead, one learns them over a lifetime of study, reflection and practice.

Here are key points:

All movements are motivated by I [mind-intention],
not external form.
~Chang San-feng

Make the ch'i sink calmly;
then the ch'i gathers and permeates the bones.
~Wu Yu-hsiang

Maintain your central equilibrium
and your opponent cannot gain an advantage.
~T'an Meng-hsien

Carefully study, the Classics say.