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. His breathing and clarity remained excellent right to the end, and every doctor who examined him noted that his vitals were strong until very near his passing. 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 to live well — with spirit awake. In this, he succeeded.

Devotion and Sacrifice

Another important piece is that Stuart cultivated very intensively in his younger years. He reached a level of realization and attainment that allowed him to see the Tao clearly and transmit it to others. 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 if not 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.

In the Company of Teachers

It’s also important to remember that Stuart never claimed to be perfect or beyond being human. He trusted the Taoist teachings themselves to point the way, not his image. In this, he 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. Master T. T Liang, Stuart’s main and closest teacher, passed away at age 102; however, he did deal with health issues that would come up, particularly in his old age. 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.

Most people believe Taoist practices are simply for health and longevity, even physical immortality. But Stuart and his teachers focused on spiritual immortality, using physical longevity practices to ensure they had enough time and energy to awaken their spirit, which Stuart had accomplished long ago. He had a really strong spirit.

What We Can Learn

For us, it opens a path. 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.