Founder Stuart Alve Olson’s Birthday

The longtime protégé of Master T.T. Liang, Stuart Alve Olson (1950–2025) was a renowned teacher, translator, co-founder of the Sanctuary of Tao, and author of more than forty books on Taoist philosophy, health, meditation, and the martial and internal arts. He was born on September 22, 1950, in Moorhead, Minnesota, to a family of Scandinavian ancestry. One of nine siblings, Stuart had an interest in spirituality from a very young age.

Several experiences beginning in his youth led Stuart on a path of deep curiosity about the nature and way of things. Although he had many friends, he often spent his time reading about spiritual and unusual concepts and subjects, which was uncommon for someone his age and during those times.

In his twenties, Stuart’s spiritual searching became increasingly serious. One day, while browsing in a bookstore, he came across The Sutra in 42 Sections by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. He read the entire work that night and knew almost immediately that he wanted to study with Master Hsuan Hua. Within days, he was on a bus to California.

On Christmas Day in 1979, Stuart formally took refuge as a disciple of Master Hsuan Hua and received the disciple name Kuo Ao (果奧). He went on to reside at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Northern California, where he studied Buddhism, meditation, and other teachings under Master Hsuan Hua. Stuart always regarded Hsuan Hua as one of his main teachers and spoke of how thankful and blessed he felt for what he described as the extraordinary good fortune and privilege of having met and studied with him.

After returning to Minnesota in 1981, Stuart continued his Buddhist studies and participated in meditation sessions and Sutra lectures given by Dainin Katagiri Roshi at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis.

Around this period, Stuart’s determination to learn Chinese eventually led him to Master T.T. Liang, who was recommended to Stuart by one of his best friends, Vern Peterson. Vern was taking martial arts lessons with Liang and thought that introducing Stuart to his teacher might help his friend in his quest to learn Chinese. Stuart showed up on Liang’s doorstep unaware that this chance encounter would lead him further into protected teachings and continue to deepen and expand his spiritual cultivation.

In 1982, Stuart also began an extraordinary two-year Buddhist pilgrimage known as “Nine Steps One Bow,” starting from the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis and traveling toward the Nebraska border. The practice involved making a full bow or prostration after every nine steps as he made his way across the Midwest.

Following the pilgrimage, Stuart lived with Master Liang in his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for six years. Master Liang taught Stuart Chinese and helped him learn to read and translate old Chinese texts, providing a foundation that would eventually allow Stuart to translate and interpret difficult Taoist works himself.

For reasons that seemed destined, Master Liang had agreed to teach Stuart Chinese with the understanding that Stuart would also learn what Liang had to teach him. What followed was years of intensive study, practice, and daily life with his teacher. Stuart learned Taijiquan, Taoist philosophy and practices, Internal Alchemy, Praying Mantis Kung Fu, and many other methods and teachings. The relationship between them grew far beyond that of an ordinary teacher and student, and Master Liang came to regard Stuart as his adopted son.

After those six years of living together, Stuart and Master Liang continued traveling and teaching Taijiquan together throughout the United States for nearly a decade. Their relationship and the teachings Stuart received from Liang would profoundly shape the rest of Stuart’s life and work.

Over the next four decades, Stuart became a prolific author and translator, producing more than forty books on Taoism, meditation, Qigong, Taijiquan, Praying Mantis Kung Fu, Internal Alchemy, and the I Ching. His work combined decades of personal cultivation with what he had learned directly from his teachers and through his study and translation of Chinese texts.

In 2010, Stuart co-founded Valley Spirit Arts with his longtime student Patrick Gross to publish and preserve his writings. That same year, the Sanctuary of Tao was founded as a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to preserving and passing on the Taoist teachings and practices Stuart had spent his lifetime learning and cultivating.

Stuart was a wise and wonderful human being who taught compassion not only through his teachings but also in his everyday dealings with others. He was understanding, approachable, and willing to work with people from all walks of life.

Stuart is deeply missed, and the Sanctuary of Tao is infinitely grateful to be able to continue fulfilling his mission of preserving and sharing the teachings and practices that became the purpose of his life and that were passed down to him by his teachers before him.

—Suzanne Nosko