Tai Chi Chuan has similar transformational effects as many Yogas have. I mention the Indian Yogas, because there is more information about Yoga floating through society. The martial principles and energies (Qi) of the Internal arts can only be embodied and used effectively, if one experiences increasingly the oneness of consciousness. Many of the exercises can and will be a form of meditation.
Meditation is no doing at all, actually this may also be untrue, as it is beyond words.
Most internal skills would develop naturally, if one would simply sit or stand or act in stillness, in samadhi. The more of this quality of ,’changing nothing‘, of stillness, of meditation one can put into martial arts, the more effective they are. Sounds easy, but the realization of that thought is not easy at all.
Even in the beginning of the training of Tai Chi Chuan (Internal Martial Arts), one needs to allow stillness, if one can do that, all exercises will develop their potential quickly. There is intention, for example, to move the body in a certain way, or keep a position correctly, but furthermore it needs stillness, leaving the body, the brain in peace. That is the Wu Wei aspect, the ‚doing without doing‘. Stillness is not a concept, it means to let the body (brain) run its course, in this case within the frame of an exercise. One becomes aware of more and more subtle layers of the body and reality, that would be impossible with too much noise in the head. From the perspective of the absolute, there is no nearer or further, so no one can say, if stillness, meditation etc. really brings someone nearer to freedom or enlightenment, but to develop stillness or better Samadhi allows, to do exercises the right way. And usually this state of mind or body is called meditation or spiritual.
FURTHER READING
Chinese Yoga, Internal Arts
Broken Sword, Trauma and Internal Arts