I have done two years of tai chi with a good teacher, very intensely. It is a good martial art, and did wonders for my health.

Some of the way one is meant to pay attention while doing the various exercises, esp. push hands, are akin to the way one should pay attention during meditation.

But it is a rather distinct practice to meditation, otherwise.

Many teachers aren't all that good. A good tai chi practitioner will move very softly. It's easy to see a person's skill when doing push hands, but not so easy from eyesight, and impossible if you haven't done at least some tai chi.

There is NO POINT in learning tai chi from videos. I cannot emphasize that enough. Looking at videos might allow you to do some immitation of tai chi, but it will be wrong on so many levels that it won't produce the right bodily effect. To have any inkling of what it's about, you will need to find a teacher or school that gives you lots of opportunity to have your tai-chi form corrected, and lots of opportunity to do push-hands. Without an experienced practitioner to correct your movement, you will never learn how to move properly, because it takes knowing how to move properly before you can correct mistakes. You can also learn to move correctly by doing push-hands with a more experienced practitioner — that way you learn (by way of touching his body) how he moves internally. (he/she of course)

And by push-hands I don't mean push-hand patterns. That's just a drill not the real thing.