About Stuart’s Passing: Longevity, Humanity, and the Tao

When someone like Stuart, who devoted his life to the Taoist arts of vitality, passes in his 75th year, it can raise questions. How could a teacher of health and longevity die “relatively young”?

Stuart himself would have wanted us to look at this openly, without denial. For him, life as it is was always the real teaching.

The Human Side of Longevity

Stuart lived to age 75, which, given his background, was itself a form of longevity. Both of his parents died in their early old age, and several siblings passed even younger, often from genetic heart issues. Stuart himself nearly died many times, including being struck by a train in his late thirties, which left him with lasting health challenges he overcame through cultivation.

He was an on-and-off smoker for most of his life, and he wasn't concerned about having a healthy diet. During the last 15 years of his life, he also became more sedentary, not out of neglect, but because of his devotion to translating, writing, teaching on Zoom, and his long hours as a dedicated meditator. Stuart poured his energy into writing more than forty books and disseminating what he had culminated from his learnings and practices via the Sanctuary of Tao during his later years.

Resilience Through Cultivation

At the same time, Stuart’s Taoist practices gave him remarkable resilience and inner stability. Through it all, he met illness with calm and fearlessness, carrying his humor and love of life with him to the end.

Stuart often said that Taoist practices are not a guarantee of endless years. They can improve the quality of our life and sometimes extend it, but they cannot erase genetics, past choices, or the realities of human karma. He also said that the point was not merely to live long, but also to enjoy life and live well, with spirit awake. In this, he succeeded.

Devotion and Sacrifice

Another important point is that Stuart cultivated very intensively in his younger years. He reached a level of realization and attainment and from that point on, his focus shifted: instead of continuing to practice solely for his own longevity, he devoted the greater part of his energy to translating, writing, and teaching, so that others could benefit. That devotion came at a cost — it meant fewer reserves of Jing and Qi to fight illness in his later years — but it also gave thousands access to wisdom that would otherwise have been lost. This was his way.

And even with all these factors, Stuart may still have survived had it not been for the major delays experienced at the start of this health challenge. Setbacks and hindrances with imaging caused Stuart to lose several critical months to begin treatment. By the time Stuart was finally given a medical diagnosis, the cancer was very advanced. In that sense, the outcome was not only about lifestyle or genetics, but also about circumstance and timing.

The True Purpose of Taoist Practice

Some people are interested in Taoist practices simply for health and longevity, and some are even seeking physical immortality. But Stuart and his Taoist teachings focused on spiritual immortality and taught physical longevity practices to give one as much time as possible and the energy to practice to awaken their spirit. 

Most people don’t start taking their cultivation seriously until they are in mid-life or beyond, like Master Liang began when he was 48. That can be why it becomes so important to extend the lifespan to gain enough time to practice to awaken. 

But Stuart began in earnest when he was young, doing Chan sessions with Master Hsuen Hua, doing a two-year bowing pilgrimage, and then practicing with Master Liang and other students for hours a day for years. He didn’t have to restore his Qi and Jing as much as an older person because he was young. Because he started young, he didn’t need to focus on the body for restoration; instead, he was focused on his spirit. And that's what the purpose of Taoism was for him.

Once he had awakened his spirit (and he'd always say he had a lot further to go), he wanted to focus on enjoying life, writing, and teaching to help others on their path. He was never actually that concerned about mortality and longevity. In fact, when talking about longevity, he would say he didn’t really care if he lived that long.

It’s noteworthy that Stuart followed the spirit of his teachers — Master Hsuan Hua, who died from diabetes and kidney disease in 1995 at age 77, and Dainin Katagiri Roshi, who died of kidney cancer in 1990 at age 62. Stuart, too, passed from kidney cancer — in good company with the Buddhist masters he deeply respected.

For him, their lives and deaths were reminders that practice is not about avoiding mortality, but about meeting impermanence with clarity and compassion.

What We Can Learn

For us, Stuart’s example actually shines the light on what’s possible for us. We are not carrying the same lifelong task of translation that Stuart shouldered. We can choose to balance cultivation with healthier lifestyle practices. Imagine combining serious Taoist practice with the nourishment of good food, movement, rest, stress reduction, and timely medical care — using the very methods Stuart preserved for us.

Stuart’s life shows both what Taoist practice can give, even when other factors are stacked against us, and how much further it can take us when we add care for body, lifestyle, and circumstance along the way.

Everyone walks their personal Tao, balancing enjoyment, karma, and cultivation. Stuart made his choice — to give himself to the work of transmission. And through that choice, he left us the chance to take the teachings further: to live not only with spirit awake but with bodies well-nourished, and lives that may stretch longer in years.

All of us at the Sanctuary of Tao are so grateful that Stuart dedicated his life to practicing the way and later to the dissemination of that knowledge, for it was through his very writings and works that many of us have found these teachings, which have served as treasures in our own lives.