Taiji Notes From Dong YingJie (T'ung Ying-Chieh)

I was searching around for how to better practice taiji, then I got these taichi practice notes from T'ung Ying-chieh (Dong YingJie), one of Yang Chengfu's two top disciples. I just want to share them with my readers:

Talking about Taijiquan in lieu of practicing apparently is not restricted to the state of the art here today. Tung Ying Jie advised students several decades ago that, in the beginning, a student should concentrate on listening and learning the correct forms from a competent master before getting too involved in pointless discussions on theory or the philosophy of Taiji. A certain maturity of practice is needed for one to be able to comprehend and discuss principles of the practice. There is no shortcut around long, hard, lonely practice.
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"The key point is that you have to learn the real Taijiquan from a good teacher. Without grasping the main points of Taijiquan, its effects, for the most part, will not be better than common physical exercise. Consequently, you will not realize benefits in this most subtle art even though you have been practising it for tens of years. If your method of practice is correct, you can also learn some skills of self defense besides its significant health effects. Some people are skeptical about the martial arts effects of Taijiquan. They think that Taijiquan is of no use in real
fighting. This is only because their knowledge about Taijiquan is too superficial and they haven't got a good teacher to teach them."
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"Taijiquan belongs to the internal school of Chinese martial arts. The strength used in Taijiquan is created by the bones, but the jin (trained strength) is stored in the tendons. The main purpose is to sink the internal qi and consolidate the bones."
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"To loosen the shoulders and drop the elbows means not to concentrate the force at the back of the shoulders. Actually, the strength is transmitted through the upper part of the forearm."