Blog
I met Stuart in 1992āmore than thirty years ago. Like a lot of people, I wanted to learn Tai Chi. I had started studying with Jim Lodal, a student of Master Liangās and Stuartās in Duluth, MN.
Jim told me that Stuart, newly married to Lian Hua and with his son Lee, on the way, had just moved back t...
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 ārelatively youngā?
Stuart himself would have wanted us to look at this openly, without denial. For him, life as it is was ...
In Taoism, life and death, or mortality and immortality, are one and the same. Mortality is immortality and immortality is mortality, just as life is death and death is life.
Taiji Symbol
In the Taiji (Yin-Yang) symbol it can be seen that death (the small dark circle) exists within life (the large...
From www.science.org.au: āNo one likes the thought of growing old. Despite our many human endeavors to escape or delay the process of aging, it seems to be an inevitable part of life.
But ā¦ why? Why do living things gradually fall apart when they grow older?
There is a word for it:Ā senescenceĀ is t...
天 ę é
Tian Wen Lu
Translation Copyright Ā© 2014 by Stuart Alve Olson. From the Chinese bookĀ Non Action Tranquil Sitting MethodsĀ (ē”ēŗéåę³,Ā Wu Wei Jing Zuo Fa)Ā compiled by Master Xu Zhenru (å¾ēå¦. Xu Zhenru). Derived from the work compiled by Hunyizi (ę··äøå).Ā Published and printed by Zhen Shan Mei Book Com...
Translation Ā© 2023 by Stuart Alve Olson
These translations of theĀ Scripture on Tao and VirtueĀ by Lao Zi (é å¾· ē¶ č č å) include the rare commentary by Taoist Immortal Bai Yuchan (ē½ ē č¾, 1194ā1229 CE), more popularly called the Jade Toad Immortal. Bai Yuchan was the fifth patriarch of the Southern Sch...
This overviewĀ provides some explanation and history on theĀ Yellow Court ScriptureĀ so that students will have some idea of the goal for learning it. The reason for practicing these teachings is to become an immortal, so it is important to understand whatĀ immortalityĀ means to a Daoist.
In the term āI...
This may sound like a contrary statement at first, but devoting yourself to single-mindedness about meditation can be unwholesome. Such a mindset doesnāt take into account the world as a whole. Normally, we are in a state of thinking, āI want this but I donāt want that.ā All day long we make decisio...
Sitting in meditation as done in Zuo Wang (Sitting and Forgetting) thereās really little to depend upon. I think this is why most people acquire real doubts about practicing meditation. We can go to many types of workshops and seminars to learn various things that seem to have some aspect of a tangi...
Over the years Iāve found myself drawn to stories about immortals. I think this attraction was due to having read Ge Hongās (č ę“Ŗ) fourth-century workĀ Master Who Embraces SimplicityĀ (ę± ę“ å, Bao Pu Zi ). In his book, Ge Hong makes credible arguments for the belief and existence of immortals, as well a...
For a long time now Iāve been wanting to tell this Taoist story about a young girl who wanted to learn Taoist magic and become an immortaless. It really has good advice about self-cultivation of Taoism and goes like this:
In the province of Sichuan there was a very rich man, who had a young daughte...
Originating sometime during the Tang dynasty in Shanxi province, this story is about an elderly man who sold herbal medicines in the marketplace of his village. Since no one in the village knew his name, they just called him the Old Herb Seller.
Wang Yu, a rich man in the village, was reserved, kin...
