It is difficult for a thoughtful intelligent person to appreciate that understanding in taichi has little to do with the mind. Understanding in taichi is embodiment : I understand a point of principle only once I embody it, a process that requires rigorous and lengthy training under a qualified master. The master may explain a little with words but only to assist the mind to come into accord with the body and stop getting in the way. The student who is unaware of embodiment will happily memorize his master's words and repeat them willy-nilly to his own students as though this amounted to transmission; it does not, it amounts to malpractice.