Michael Lawrence McGrath

My Daoist practices began in 1993 with Master Wei Lun Huang in Boston. I studied his Yang Style Taiji with him and one of his disciples for a number of years before I moved for work to various places ourside of Massachusetts. I began teaching in 2006, but fearing my practice was becoming stale and wanting to deepen it, I decided to seek another Master.

I belonged to a Zen Buddhist Monastery for several years, but my practices remained Daoist. So, I went in search of a new Daoist Master, and decided that China would be the best place for that search. I packed a toothbrush and a change of underwear and went to the other side of the world to the Wudang Mountains. That is where I found the Five Immortals Temple, on White Horse Mountain, in Hubei Province.

My journals with daily entries for my first year in China provided the recollections I recount in the book. It is the story of my temple stay that first year - - why I went, what I did, what I thought I had learned, and what I have lived since. By the way, that was in 2015, and I was 65 years old.