Lately I’ve been teaching counting the breaths. It's one of the oldest and simplest meditation methods there is. Count the inhalations. Count the exhalations. Count both. Count to 10 (or any of the numerous variations I’ve been teaching) and start over. If you lose track, simply return to one and tr...

 In this video, I’m demonstrating a way of training that combines two of our main practices: the 16-Posture Before Heaven Taiji Form and the Taiji Ruler.

On the left side of the screen, I perform the Before Heaven 16-Posture Taijiquan Form in its standard empty-hand version. On the right side, I pe...

Stuart used to write a section for the newsletter called A Few Words. I thought I would continue the tradition in my own way with A Few More Words.

I dream about Stuart all the time. In the dreams, we’re talking, working on classes, planning things, or just interacting normally. Then, somewhere in ...

In Taoist teachings, Internal Alchemy refers to a process of transformation of your body, mind, and spirit that cannot be forced, accelerated, or manufactured through effort alone.

Yet for many people, the language of spiritual awakening assumes that striving and self-improvement are oriented towar...

Stuart taught us that spiritual cultivation must always combine practice with study. He wasn’t saying theory matters so you can sound smart or explain things intellectually. He was saying that theory gives the practice its internal alignment. He often repeated the line:

“Theory without practice is ...

Stuart used to talk about the Laying the Foundation stage as men restoring Jing to the kidneys and women restoring or settling the Blood in the womb. This stage sounds simple on paper, but in practice it’s one of the hardest stages for people to truly enter. Many students hover around it for years, ...

Most people are first drawn to Taoist internal arts because something about the practices feels exciting or mysterious. They hear about energy cultivation, spiritual awakening, and immortality, and are curious, if not positively determined, to achieve such states. That curiosity and desire are good....

This begins a new series of reflections on what it means to be a cultivator, a sincere practitioner of Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, meditation, Taijiquan, and Qigong. Each article will explore the inner realities of practice, the living transmission of our lineage, and the art of integrating cult...

When I think about Stuart and everything we went through with him in his illness and death, what keeps coming up for me is the image of the lotus and the mud.

All our lives, we’re trained to look at the lotus in people—their greatness, their strength, their shining moments. We want to see them at t...

I met Stuart in 1992—more 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 Liang’s and Stuart’s 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...