Shows
A Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe Healing Magic of DucklingsToday's episode, which could also be called "the mother and child within each of us," explores the healing power of the heart through the joy that Sabine experiences when caring for her fluffy baby ducklings and goslings, or when sharing them as a healing tool with her community, old and young. Leo's direct observations and questions pierce right through to the heart of the matter, past any rationalizations: Why and how can we facilitate healing in ourselves and our communities? In this case, the answer is delightfully simple, at least for Sabine and for those human beings...2025-04-2852 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondStrength Training Part One: Medical and Cultural PerspectivesLet's talk about exercise, strength training, aging, and, yet again, the need for careful calibration. In today's conversation we explore the sweet range between taxing the body, enabling it to work harder, and building strength, on the one hand, and resting and honoring a more Yin approach to life, on the other. As the counterpoint to our dominant culture, which celebrates productivity, youth and physical prowess, and caffeine-fueled Yang-type accomplishments, many Chinese medicine practitioners tend to advocate for more of a Yin approach, in the tradition of the historical scholar-physicians' writings. But that is not all there is to...2025-03-2952 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondWork and Play in Dark TimesFor this episode, Leo Lok and Sabine Wilms explore how to find joy, practice self-care, and show up in meaningful ways during dark times. Starting with learning from animals and babies, somehow they keep coming back to resonance, rhythm, and movement, as the key to avoid getting stuck and immobilized by overwhelm. From dancing to drumming and swimming to swirling, they try to bring some lightness to the conversation, in addition to some useful tools, like the gentle life-giving penetrating breeze that showed up in Sabine's Yijing reading the night before. So they invite all...2025-02-281h 06A Pebble in the Cosmic PondLove, Joy, Cold Water Swimming, and ResilienceWhat do kindness and joy, swimming in cold water and sharing food, euphoria and resilience, coping mechanisms, COVID, community, compassion, and connection have to do with each other? How do we sustain our work and find joy in the face of suffering? Is it possible to make suffering lighter, without making light of suffering? What is the role and meaning of celebration when LA is burning and the roundups have started? How do each of us find the strength to keep going?Welcome to the Pebble in the Cosmic Pond podcast, where we now, in Season Four...2025-01-291h 05A Pebble in the Cosmic PondFinding your True Nature Through Living DaoismIn today's episode, Leo Lok and I are joined by Jack Schaefer, a practitioner of both Chinese medicine and Daoism as a living practice. In his role as one of the most active, passionate, and committed transmitters of Daoism in the West, he is the cofounder of Parting Clouds Daoist Education, along with his partner Josh Paynter. With Jack's help, we explore the connections and differences between the material compiled by Sun SImiao in the seventh century under the heading "nurturing our nature" yangxing 養性, and the living engagement with contemporary Daoist teachings in Jack's community of practitioners.Here...2024-12-311h 12A Pebble in the Cosmic PondSun Simiao's Secret to True HealingHow do you not only treat somebody successfully in the moment, but truly alleviate their suffering and get the effect of your action to stick, whether you use herbs or diet, needles or touch, or whatever? In medicine, farming, cooking, or any other area of expertise, how do we balance the need for detailed technical know-how with the cultivation of intuitive wisdom, embodied sensitivity, and even personal growth? In the midst of the plethora of tools offered by Sun Simiao in his writings on longevity, from diet to alchemy, breath work to movement exercises, sleeping positions to seasonal prohibitions, and...2024-12-021h 07A Pebble in the Cosmic PondHarnessing Emotional EnergyAre you feeling the turmoil of the world reflected in your own internal storm of emotions? Do you feel like you are drowning in grief or exploding in anger, tired from rumination, rattled by fear, or giddy with joy? Do your emotions sometimes keep you from being the powerful force for peace and justice and love and beauty in the world that you want to be?Or do you simply sense the potency and urgency of the current moment and want some company in riding this wave?If you are a sensitive person and have access to news...2024-11-1650 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondEvery Breath We TakeAt the end of the day, what does it mean to “nurture our true, innate, genuine, heavenly nature” and how is that related to healing and personal growth? When is the last time you have consciously savored each breath as an opportunity for transformation and restoration? How does fear hold us back from health and joy by literally tying up our precious Qi in knots that impede its free flow and healing power? And how do we untie those knots and encourage flow when we get to the end of our rope?Welcome to the Pebble in the Cosm...2024-11-0157 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe Sweet Spot for CalibrationHow do we decide in each moment on the best path towards píng 平 (“equilibrium” or “balance”) in the spirit of Chinese medicine? How do we calibrate our responses to external factors and decide between action and non-action? What do we use (and teach) as criteria for this process of actively cultivating or passively nurturing our True Nature? How do we promote an ever-growing self-awareness in our multiple roles as individuals, family and community members, and healers?Today’s episode on “The Sweet Spot for Calibration” is part of Season Three where Leo Lok and Sabine Wilms consider a variety of pers...2024-10-031h 04A Pebble in the Cosmic PondFinding Balance Between Stillness and ActionHow can we get better at listening to our body and aligning with the Dao? How can we compost harmful emotional energy into life-giving Qi in service of physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation? How can we use the tool of curiosity as an antidote to judgment and thereby change the flavor of our inquiries? How can we complete our nature through a hundred daily actions while at the same time allowing our spirit to settle in stillness? How can we steer away from exhaustion towards not just sustainability but restoration?Welcome to the Pebble in the Cosmic...2024-09-0357 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondSinging as YangshengAre you curious about the theme music for Season Three of our podcast and the sharp contrast to the obnoxiously gregarious Mexican accordeon music of the previous two seasons, which, I must admit, are a reflection of my own German heritage and decades spent in Hispanic culture? Do you recognize Leo’s beautifully serene voice and grasp the meaning of some of the words, but can’t quite catch what the whole passage is supposed to say? Are you fascinated by Leo’s multicultural background as a person of Chinese descent from Malaysia, so vividly reflected in his singing, from C...2024-08-0448 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe Balanced Person Doesn't Get SickWelcome to the first episode in Season Three of the Pebble in the Cosmic Pond podcast. For the next few months, we shall consider a variety of perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性: Cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today. This project is inspired by two things: First, Leo Lok's and my research in the volume on this topic in the seventh century text Beiji qianjin yaofang 《備急千金要方》 (Crucial Formulas to Prepare for Emergencies Worth a Thousand in Gold) by the famous medical author Sun Simiao. And secondly by our preparation for a course we will be teaching on this potent to...2024-07-1057 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondWhat Do Love, Qigong, and Christ Consciousness Have to Do With Healing?This episode, titled "What Do Love, Qigong, and Christ Consciousness Have to Do with Healing," is the second half of our conversation with Cynthia Li, a biomedical doctor in the Bay area who specializes in functional and integrative medicine. She is also a practitioner of what she calls “qigong consciousness healing” or “collective field qigong” and the author of two books: “Brave New Medicine: A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Disease”, and “Mingjue Awakening: Teachings on Pure Consciousness, Collective Field Qigong, and Energy Healing.” In preparation for publishing this interview, I listened to our conversation again...2024-06-2058 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondLooking for the Root, in Medicine, Qigong, and ReligionCynthia Li, our interview partner for this episode, is a biomedical doctor who I have been dreaming of asking questions for several years now, ever since our mutual friend Michael Lerner introduced me to her work. She is a biomedical doctor, specializing in functional and integrative medicine. She is also a qigong practitioner who studies and performs what she calls “qigong consciousness healing” or “collective field qigong.” She is the author of two books: an incredibly honest and courageous biography of her own intense healing journey published in 2019 and titled “Brave New Medicine: A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her...2024-06-0654 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondRelax! You're Okay!Today’s episode titled “Relax! You are Okay!” is the second part of Leo’s and my conversation with Cara Conroy-Lau, a Kiwi with a Chinese mom now practicing Chinese medicine and Buddhism in Canada. For this portion, we focus more specifically on the female perspective, both on the giving and on the receiving end of caring. I really appreciate Cara’s insistence on approaching Chinese medicine more light-heartedly as a playful exploration, as part of her culture, family traditions, and just life, rather than as “A THING” (in the sense of a big, serious, very special intellectual endeavor that we all ha...2024-05-221h 12A Pebble in the Cosmic PondOlives and PorridgeIn today’s episode on “Olives and Porridge,” Leo Lok and I are talking to Cara Conroy-Lau. Cara is a beautiful global border-crossing practitioner of Chinese medicine and Buddhism who has ended up in Canada at the Clear Sky Meditation Centre in Cranbrook, after growing up in Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan. I loved our conversation for how it revealed Cara’s courage and humility and dedication to her healing work, both within herself and in her community and family. Here are some of the questions that Cara shared some pearls of wisdom about, which I believe are rele...2024-05-0854 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondLiving and Teaching the Way of YinFor today’s episode on “Living and Teaching the Way of Yin,” Leo Lok and I are once again joined by Kris González, Chinese medicine practitioner and herbalist, whose personal experience of motherhood has been influenced by her Korean mother and her Mexican mother-in-law. In addition to her clinical practice, she is also an educator offering evocative courses on topics like embodied menstruation, holistic breast care, the alchemy of perimenopause, spirit-heart-womb transformation through the somatic womb path, and sacred vaginal ecology, to name just some of her juicy offerings. Check out her gorgeous website “Thewayofyin.com” to get a sense of...2024-04-231h 07A Pebble in the Cosmic PondYangsheng By and For WomenWelcome to Season Two of “The Pebble in the Cosmic Pond” where we focus on 2nd generation immigrant Asian voices by, for, and about women in that sweet spot in between traditional Asian wisdom and contemporary Western embodiment. Joining Leo and myself for our third episode on Season 2 is Kris González, Chinese medicine practitioner and herbalist, whose personal experience of motherhood has been influenced by her Korean mother and her Mexican mother-in-law. In addition to her clinical practice, she is also an educator offering evocative courses on topics like embodied menstruation, holistic breast care, the alchemy of pe...2024-04-0950 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondAttuning and Releasing with Ramona In Season 2, titled “Over the Moon?”, we feature the voices of second-generation immigrant Asian women on female health. We explore the creative sweet spot in between the traditional Asian kitchen table wisdom that they have inherited from their mothers and aunties, and their personal and professional experience in contemporary North America. In this Episode two on “Attuning and Releasing,” we continue our conversation with Ramona Deonauth, a Chinese medicine practitioner of Indian heritage in San Diego who is finishing up a doctoral dissertation on menstrual education at Yo San University in Los Angeles. Now we get to d...2024-03-2536 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondOver the Moon with RamonaOnce again, Leo Lok and Sabine Wilms are here to bring you old and new stories about China's healing traditions and about Medicine in Heaven and on Earth... ...and in the sweet spot in between. In a special twist for Season 2, evocatively titled "Over the Moon?", they focus on second generation immigrant Asian voices by, for, and about women's health, as the sweet spot between traditional Asian wisdom and contemporary Western embodiment. And yes, they do realize that they need help with this theme since both Leo and Sabine are first, not second, generation immigrants in the...2024-03-1039 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondIntroduction to Season Two on "Over the Moon?"In a special twist for Season 2, we feature second generation immigrant Asian women’s voices on female health. We explore the creative sweet spot in between the traditional Asian kitchen table wisdom on women’s health that they have inherited from their mothers and aunties, and their personal and professional experience in contemporary America. Before we get to interview these women in our official episodes, here is a little introductory conversation where Leo and I explore this topic and ask questions like “Where does traditional women’s knowledge on female health come from and how is it transmit...2024-03-0742 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondOccupational Hazards in Chinese MedicineWhat is the relationship between your personal practice of yangsheng and your clinical efficacy? Is it important, or even relevant, for a practitioner of Chinese medicine to embody the ideas of Yangsheng? In other words, can you be a good healer of others if you can’t take care of yourself? Are the short lifespans of many historical and contemporary Chinese medicine practitioners due to their failure to practice self-care? Or could it be related to the Wounded Healer pattern, to the fact that they started out with and were inspired by their own frail bodies?Considering oc...2024-02-101h 03A Pebble in the Cosmic PondEating for Old Age: The Lost Art of Chinese Food TherapyToday’s conversation is inspired by Leo Lok’s ideal of “Bodhisattva Math,” which is a great reminder for us to focus on topics in Chinese medicine that have the most impact on alleviating unnecessary suffering with the least amount of effort! In this context, Sun Simiao reminded us already in the seventh century that food is essential for human survival but can be medicine or poison. As he put it: “Anything that contains Qi without exception has the potential to provide food and thereby safeguard life. And yet, if we eat it without awareness [of its specific effect], i...2024-01-111h 07A Pebble in the Cosmic PondQuestioning Our FiltersMedicine, like any other skill or knowledge system, needs to be rooted in both subjectivity and objectivity. By valuing either one over the other, we deprive ourselves of an essential part thereof. Can traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy help us find a more balanced way of making sense of the world than the cold, rational, evidence-based cause-and-effect thinking of biomedicine and modern science? As Greg Bantick, our special guest on today’s episode of A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond puts it with his wonderful clarity: The act of failing to examine our filters is not benign, but dangerous, an...2023-12-1355 min
You Are Medicine!What is a Healer? Interview w/ Sabine WilmsWhat did it mean to be a healer in ancient times and how is it different now? Listen in as Thuy discusses this topic with Sabine Wilms, PhD, medical anthropologist, writer and translator of ancient Chinese medical texts. Their discussion spans wide reaches of time and space as they attempt to make meaningful and relevant ancient wisdom to our modern times, discovering the deeper meaning of healer and healing. —Podcast Theme & Episode Music by:Laura Inserra laurainserra.com—You Are Medicine! affirms your innate healing powers and interconnectedness, offering health and healing wisd...2023-12-0757 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondMore on Compassionate PracticeWhat makes somebody a master physician? What can we learn from historical texts about some limitations and possibilities, strengths and weakness of Chinese medicine that are no longer visible in the modern clinical context, especially as practiced in the West? How can we acquire and transmit skills to adapt Chinese medicine more flexibly, beyond the now standard “perfumed, candle-lit privileged context of the so-called worried well” (in Daniel Altschuler’s words) in order to serve patients in dire need who may not have access to standard health care? Wouldn’t YOU want to try and to save a patient sufferin...2023-11-131h 14A Pebble in the Cosmic PondCompassionate Practice, from Seattle To Taiwan to NepalHow does the training and practice of Chinese medicine change depending on one’s location? What is the difference in patient expectations, scopes of practice, and lineage versus institutional training and licensing? And what is really behind this supposed contrast between biomedicine, perceived as instantly effective and ideal for emergencies and serious conditions, versus Chinese medicine, supposedly being slow medicine, for chronic conditions, and too often seen as a benign complementary treatment?In today’s episode of A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond, titled “Compassionate Practice, from Seattle to Taiwan to Nepal,” my collaborator Leo Lok and I are ta...2023-11-1339 min
A Pebble in the Cosmic PondHealing Soundbath for the World by Dr. HoodCatching up on the news this morning, I felt a strong need to do something so I got in touch with my friend and colleague Dr. Brenda Hood, whose tuning forks are magical. I just felt like the world had a little need for some of her healing magic, and she was happy to oblige. So here is yet another spontaneous recording session, created in response to the horrendous things happening for far too many of us locally, nationally, globally, and cosmicly.As the image associated with this episode shows, the sound of Dr. Hood's singing bowl...2023-10-2319 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondCultivating the IneffableToday’s conversation started out with an innocuous email I sent to Leo, requesting that we explore that aspect of any good healer’s practice that is challenging to speak about and analyze rationally, let alone measure, certify, or transmit. And yet, we all know how powerful a healer can be, not because of their technical expertise but because of something else. What is this something else? In today’s episode, we once again look at the Chinese medicine classics for insights. Our journey takes us in several different directions, all in order to avoid the danger of lit...2023-10-151h 04A Pebble in the Cosmic PondMay Guanyin Ease Our SorrowThis episode is a spontaneous response to the intense sorrow that I see so many of my friends in multiple places of the world experiencing right now, whether directly or indirectly. So I have invited my dear friend Leo Lok for a conversation about suffering, sorrow, Guanyin, compassion, and processing and transforming emotions. We invoke the healing power of religious maternal figures in both of our life histories, from the Virgen de Guadalupe in the American Southwest to the Bodhisattva Guanyin/Kannon all over East Asia, to the Virgin Mary in my native Bavaria. With their assistance, we explore...2023-10-141h 14A Pebble in the Cosmic PondTruth East and West and in BetweenHow do we cultivate the ability to hold two opposite experiences of reality at the same time and thereby somehow get closer to the truth in between? How do we overcome the limitations of language in describing the ineffable while still appreciating its analytic function? If we can use language in communication with others like multiple fingers pointing at the moon, to literally “round out” all of our understanding, how do we handle alternate voices that may not even be pointing at the moon but at the sun or at birds flying by? And how is this issue relevant to t...2023-09-1552 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe Yellow Emperor's Broken HeartWhat does it mean when the Yellow Emperor mourns and why might that matter to you? Does he “lord it over” his subjects and discuss medicine and needles because the exploitation of a healthy population yields more taxes? Or does he love and care for the people like a parent for their children and is heartbroken about their suffering? How do we read and translate a text like the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic that was compiled two thousand years ago but references figures from what was even then a mythological past of many centuries earlier? What tools do three...2023-08-161h 02A Pebble in the Cosmic PondFood as MedicineA quote from Sun Simiao (translation by Dr. Wilms):“When a person’s body is balanced and harmonious, you must merely nurture it well. Do not recklessly take medicinals, because the strength of medicinals assists only partially and causes the persons’ organ Qi to be imbalanced, so that they easily contract external trouble. All things that contain Qi provide food and thereby preserve life. Nevertheless, eating them unawares has the opposite effect. The common people use them daily without awareness, and so they hardly recognize when water and fire draw near... For this reason, food is able to expel...2023-07-1755 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondResponsibility Versus FaultAs just one example of the dynamic polarities, and the sweet spot in between, that we so love in Chinese medicine, this episode explores the difference between responsibility and fault. How does our perspective shift when we consider placing or accepting responsibility as opposed to faulting ourselves or others in our attempts to explain outcomes that we do not like? Can we perhaps see responsibility as an opening to healing, to stepping forward into a better future, to repairing past damage, while fault keeps us mired in the past through toxic judgment and blame? What is the...2023-06-181h 02
A Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe True Medicine of YangshengIn this episode of "A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond," I am joined by my two dear friends Leo Lok and Z'ev Rosenberg. Both are experienced practitioners of Chinese medicine in the US with a strong classical foundation and shared commitment to not only practicing but also LIVING Chinese medicine. It is fascinating to me to hear how they arrive at their shared ideals from very different backgrounds, as a New York Jew (Z'ev) and a Malaysian Chinese Buddhist (Leo). As usual, today's conversation takes us in some unexpected directions as we talk about medicine as...2023-05-1953 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondPebble in the Cosmic Pond TrailerThis is just a short trailer to introduce you to our podcast.Here are some RESEARCH LINKS: Additional InformationSubscribe to my newsletter!Translating Chinese Medicine: Dr. Wilms' website for learning classical ChineseImperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors 2023-04-2002 minA Pebble in the Cosmic PondJust a goofy bonus thing... to make you laugh...2023-04-2001 min
A Pebble in the Cosmic PondThe Circle and the KiteIn this inaugural session of the podcast, my co-conspirator Leo Lok and I introduce our new podcast by comparing it to two activities: flying a kite and completing a circle. Find out how we use these two metaphors to explore different directions for future conversations, such as:the fertile relationship between oral lineage transmission and textual transmission, between Heaven and Earth, and between planting ourselves in solid ground and catching the wind of inspiration to fly high;the parallels between Buddhist transmission from India to China many centuries ago and the current transmission of Chinese medicine to the...2023-04-201h 06