Thanks for that! I thought you were coming at this from an Indian/Yogic tradition, and I guess the confluence is less surprising if it all comes from Daoism.

My teacher is very much about awareness and the way it moves through the body; the interplay of will, qi, and strength. I'm slow mostly because I started out with some pretty gruesome hip immobility issues, and have treated taiji like physical therapy for the past two years. I'm only just coming out of the gross mechanical problems now, and starting to become more aware of the subtler issues at play.