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A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Sabine Wilms PhD
Tune in every New Moon for inspiring, joyful, and informative conversations with Sabine Wilms and Leo Lok on transforming ourselves, our communities, and the world, in the spirit of traditional Chinese medicine, spirituality, and philosophy. Separating fact from fiction, we aim to bring you medicine from China's distant past, translated here to meet YOUR needs today, in your personal practice, in your community, and in the clinic.Sabine Wilms, PhD, is a medical historian, recovering university professor, and author and translator of more than a dozen books on the Chinese healing arts, from gynecology and pediatrics to medical ethics and materia medica, published by Happy Goat Productions. In addition to writing, she runs the only advanced 2-year classical Chinese training program for practitioners of Chinese medicine and contributes insights from her checkered past as a biodynamic goat farmer and musician, all under the banner of her favorite phrase, “cosmic resonance,” a.k.a. the Chi
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- Yesterday48 min
Dreaming in Chinese medicine and beyond: butterflies and bears, astral travel, and group chats with the ancestors
This month's episode is a welcome chance to explore one of my personal favorite topics of inquiry: dreaming. It is inspired not just by my love for napping under my gnarled maple tree or watching butterflies transform, but because we have noticed a lot of interest and questions in our community. So we try our best to introduce our listeners to the many and varied perspectives on dreaming that are found in Chinese traditional culture. Here are just a few angles that we play with in this conversation:Guided by Zhuangzi's famous butterfly dream, we look at dreaming and waking as potent metaphors for the limited human ability to perceive the true nature of reality, or the cosmic Dao, amid the ceaseless transformations in the perceptual realm.Going way back to the ancient Shang dynasty, we explore dreaming as a portal through which we can access special knowledge for purposes like divination; receive supernatural gifts like rituals, medicinal knowledge and substances, and sacred texts; and connect with entities that we are unable to communicate with in our waking life, from ancestors to astral deities to talking trees.We celebrate dreaming as a space for joyous liberation from the waking realm of ordinary human constraints.We briefly touch on the potential use of dreams for medical diagnosis, as expressed in the medical literature. Here we emphasize the dominant perception of dreams as pathological manifestations of excess Qi that is disturbing the healthy equilibrium needed for calm, restful sleep.We touch on Tibetan dream yoga and the human ability to intentionally cultivate the ability for lucid dreaming and to communicate in a sort of "group chat" with other participants in one's dreamscape, whether dead or alive.In the context of traditional self-cultivation practices, dreaming offers the practitioner a liminal space beyond conscious control, with potentially both positive and negative effects.Lastly, dreaming can be a cause of pollution and then require ritual purification or even drastic exorcisms if the dreamer becomes possessed and the entity refuses to leave.We conclude our conversation by exploring the place of dreaming in the modern clinic, both in terms of the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of dreaming and in terms of its limits due to cultural differences and the unchangeable fact that at the end of the day, dreaming has always been and will always be a private experience ... unless you join the psychic grannies' group chat, that is!Additional InformationShare your thoughts on this episode!Join the Golden Koi SchoolSubscribe to our newsletter!Frolicking Fish Community — Happy Goat Productions
- Oct 9, 202648 min
Small Heart, Big Gallbladder
In this conversation, Sabine and Leo unpack the meaning of a supposed Sun Simiao quote: "Wish for a small heart and a big gallbladder!" To understand the multiple layers of possible meanings, especially as applied to the physician and the ruler, we draw on the significance of "heart" and "gallbladder" in traditional Chinese medicine, classical philosophy, and literary and modern Chinese language.What does it mean when we describe a person as having a "small heart" or "big gallbladder" in Chinese?And in contrast, what does it mean to say the same thing in a Western language?How are associations about the liver and the gallbladder or "gall" possibly universal, and how do they differ?To what extent are these attributes of human personality inborn or cultivated?What is their connection to medical ethics?We touch on Zhuangzi's "heart fasting," Xunzi's views on the gallbladder as a descriptor of human personality, Buddhist mindfulness and meditation, and even the qualities of decisiveness and presence as attributes of a good healer.After listening to this episode, we hope you let us know your thoughts in our free discussion forum at FrolickingFish.com and consider joining us for deeper explorations by becoming a member of our Golden Koi School.
- Sep 11, 202655 min
Let's Get Spicy!
What do mint, radish, and burnt plastic have in common? How do you explain a physical sensation to somebody without a shared language or experience to fall back on? How did the arrival of chile pepper from the Americas change the meaning of "spicy" in the old world? Does it make sense to refer to a smell or a physical sensation of Qi movement as "flavor"? Is the lung special?So many questions, and so many possible answers that only lead to more questions! Argh.... once again, we invite you to join us as we explore a translation conundrum that has been bothering us quite a bit lately: how do we understand and describe, or even translate, the flavor xīn 辛, associated with the lung and metal among the five dynamic agents. The conversation moves beyond dictionary definitions into lived experience, sensory language, and the body’s felt response to taste, aroma, and the movement of Qi.We play with the terms acrid, pungent, spicy, and aromatic, but ultimately reject each one. Along the way, we examine how herbs and foods associated with this flavor, like garlic, mint, radish, cinnamon, and cardamom, fit into the picture and what they have in common.The discussion also widens into culture and food systems: why chili peppers became central in regions like Sichuan, Hunan, Vietnam, Thailand, and India; how climate, scarcity, and preservation shaped culinary traditions; and how soup, fermentation, and spice function as both nourishment and medicine.Ultimately, we determine that the concept of wèi 味 covers not just flavor (its usual translation), but taste, smell, and the deeper bodily response in the movement of Qi that Chinese medicine tracks through the lens of the "Five Flavors" or wǔwèi 五味, as experienced when a substance comes into contact with the tongue, the nose, or the throat.
- Aug 13, 202650 min
Moistening and Cooling for Fire and Smoke
While it may not feel like it yet, August 7 was the official beginning of fall, marked by the seasonal node lì qiū 立秋 in the traditional East Asian agricultural calendar. At the same time, most people in the northern hemisphere have already had to deal with smoke from wildfires in this exceptionally dry and hot summer in one form or another, and at least for Sabine in the Pacific Northwest, fire and smoke season is far from over. For Leo in Vietnam, on the other hand, the burning of trash is a constant and inescapable reality of daily life. In this episode we are therefore considering how we can mitigate this unpleasant and even dangerous reality with the tools of Chinese medicine. Here are some questions we considered:How do we support our own bodies and those of our family and community members most effectively?How do we balance the benefits of universal formulas for smokey times in a practical one-size-fits-all approach with the requirement to address each individual person's unique constellation of signs and symptoms and strengths and weaknesses?What are some links between the burning macrocosm and our suffering bodily microcosms?How can we differentiate individual physical responses to air pollution, such as dry versus phlegmy cough, and use that information in treatment?How do we weigh the benefits of purified indoor air against the need for movement, and exposure to sunshine and social interaction?On a deeper level, what are potential healthy adaptions to the way in which a permeable human body responds to an outside environment that has become toxic?How do we use substances like cucumber, mint, lavender, marshmallow, pears, aloe, seaweed, jellies, and pig skin to cool, moisten, uplift, lubricate, and unbind constraint?Lastly, how can we tap into the collective wisdom of an active, ever-changing medical tradition that spans millennia and continents, all in service of relieving suffering?If this episode has tickled your curiosity, we continue this conversation in an enticing medley of video recordings, original translations, written posts, and ongoing member discussions in our Golden Koi School membership. For this month, we explore the semantic range of 毒 dú (poison, toxin, venom), with special attention to its meaning in early Chinese alchemical versus medical texts, discuss the power of Pig Skin Decoction (Zhufutang 豬膚湯), share jelly recipes, explore the cultural meaning of the Monkey Month, and more.... We hope you consider signing up at happygoatproductions/frolickingfish.com.Additional InformationLearn more about the Frolicking Fish Community!Join the Golden Koi School
- Jul 14, 202647 min
When water doesn’t cut It… and… what’s with the coconut?
In light of the many unprecedented heatwaves striking the northern hemisphere in this year of a super El Niño summer, this episode of The Pebble in the Cosmic Pond is dedicated to summer-heat, and to the human physical, cultural, culinary, and medical responses to it. Using Sabine’s continued experiences in Vietnam as our starting point, we consider heat as a factor both internal and external, physiological and pathological, macrocosmic and microcosmic, and we look at the therapeutic role of fluids, and water in particular. Here are some questions we address:How do we know whether sweating is too little, just right and healthy, or too much? What are the key diagnostic signs for a differential diagnosis?When and how do we stop or prevent, or conversely initiate and promote sweating?What are the benefits and dangers, possibilities and limitations, of the most common popular practice of replenishing fluids and cooling the body by drinking cold water?What can we use instead of water to replace fluids lost through sweating? To consider just two traditional Vietnamese options, what is the different physiological effect of consuming cold sweet and sour fruit drinks versus light clear warm or hot soups?When, how, and why can we use watermelon, mango, citrus, and passionfruit, or even a Gin and Tonic?For our professional Chinese medicine listeners, what are the indications and contraindications and key diagnostic signs for the traditional Chinese treatment goal of lì shuǐ 利水 “disinhibit water,” beyond promoting urination to eliminate internal heat?Last but definitely not least, what’s with the coconut?As always, consider signing up for the Golden Koi School to dive deeper.
- Jun 15, 202650 min
Hot-Cold Calibration for the Apex of Summer
This month's conversation is inspired by Sabine' experience of managing a heat wave in Vietnam with more or less successful adaptive skills, to put it diplomatically. In order to prevent overheating, or overcooling for that matter, and to benefit from adaptations like air conditioning, protective clothing, iced fruit juices, or hot soups, the key is, as always, calibration on the basis of discernment. But what does that look like in the context of running errands in a heat wave in June in Hoi An, Vietnam? What is the pivoting point between healthy, normal sweating and uncontrolled outpouring of precious jin fluids that rob the body of a necessary resource? How do we know whether, when, and how external heat or cold are beneficial or damaging to a specific body at a specific time and place? When and how can we harness the healing power of the sun's Yang Qi, yet avoid its life-threatening intense heat and radiation? When we are exposed to excessive external heat, do we consume hot or cold drinks to restore the body's equilibrium? How can we gently support an older and somewhat depleted European body used to the cold climate of the Pacific Northwest as it struggles to adapt to the high heat and humidity of a Vietnamese summer? How does the individual human body's microcosm interact with the macrocosm of both Heaven (the sun in particular this month) and Earth (the geography and climate in our immediate external environment)?Always my favorite question, what can we learn from the locals?And my least favorite but essential inquiry, where do we just have to realistically accept the limits of adaptation and hide in an air conditioned room? Last but not least, one question that we actually do answer in this podcast: What's Leo's single most effective trick to quickly yet gently replenish fluids depleted by excessive sweating?As our listeners will be able to tell, we definitely have more questions than answers this month. If you are intrigued by this conversation and want to help us try and disentangle some of the many loose ends, we would love to have you join our "Golden Koi School." There we offer a historical case of heat damage treated with ice cream, watermelon, and shigao (gypsum),;discuss replenishing soups in more detail; dive deeply into fluid physiology by differentiating between jīn 津 (thin, superficial, quick-moving Yin fluids) and yè 液 (thick, deeper, slow-moving Yang fluids); translate the original source for Ding Zhi Wan (Will-Settling Pill), and so much more.
- May 17, 202649 min
Three Friends Springrolls: Sustainable Agriculture that Harmonizes Heaven and Earth
In today's episode, which actually was recorded with both of us on the same continent, and even in the same area, near Danang, Vietnam, we consider ancient agricultural traditions. In the spirit of our new season, this is again more of a travelogue than a nerdy Chinese medicine podcast. Let us know how you like this direction for our podcast.After a quick stop in the Swiss Alps, we explore specifically the sustainable organic farming practices that have been celebrated for centuries in the vegetable island of Tra Que near the ancient Vietnamese port city of Hoi An. From crop rotation to fertilizing with seaweed and buffalo "poo" (as my local guide called it), raising fish in the watering ponds, and extensive shading with palm fronds or loofah trellises, the fecundity of the place really impressed us. For Sabine in particular, the skill and expertise in tending the ubiquitous flower and vegetable gardens just made me so happy and truly showed the value of an unbroken farming tradition. It also gives us hope for the future of humanity that there are places all over the world where humans have lived and, more importantly, CONTINUE to live in a way that does not destroy our natural environment but treasures and shapes it sustainably. We have so much to learn from such places and cultures!So what's the story of the Three Friends Springroll that Sabine learned to make in her cooking class? Well, you'll have to listen to the podcast to find out (:And if you want to learn how to make rice pancakes and hear more about our travel adventures, Vietnamese cinnamon, and the benefits, dangers, and treatments for overconsumption of raw fruits, why don't you check out our new Frolicking Fish Community? There we offer a monthly selection of educational, inspiring, and joyful videos, translations, and discussions for the Chinese medicine community and beyond...
- Apr 17, 20261h 6m
Expressing the Spirit of Springing and Sprouting
Welcome to this first episode of our new Season Five on “Expressing the Spirit of Springing and Sprouting”! While we haven’t settled on a formal name for this season yet, we want to focus on renewal, play, joy, and paying attention, as a counterweight to the heaviness, suffering, and fiery chaos that is affecting so many of us these days, directly or indirectly!How can we uplift our spirits while also showing up to the best of our ability in these dark times? What is the appropriate place for joy in the midst of suffering, and how and where can we find it? What’s your own source of joy and wonder and magic? Where do you find pleasure, share love, provide comfort, create beauty, and elicit smiles in your circles of family and friends?For Leo and myself, food and connecting to nature are two easy places to start, so that is what we are focusing on in today’s conversation. In particular, we are playing with the Chinese theme for the spring season, namely “sprouting.” Leo shares some deeeelicious suggestions for northern and southern East Asian bean sprout dishes, while I am busy picking and chopping and processing my beloved nettles, to go into noodles, soups, pickles, and my daily evening tea. Beyond that, our conversation meanders casually to explore the need for personal calibration as each of us adapt the standard written advice in Chinese medicine and calendrical arts to our local environment and lifestyle. We compare notes on what spring rejuvenation looks like in different parts of the world, from east to west, north to south, and even high mountains to the sea. Ultimately, we want this conversation to inspire you to pay attention to the small sources of joy in your corner of the universe, whether it is the first wiggly earthworm of the season, delicious local sprout dishes, ecstatic dancing, or a goose sitting on eggs. Basically, we want to lift your spirit a bit, share a couple of stories, and remind you of the need to smile and love and eat and breathe, no matter what you are confronting in your daily life. Hopefully we succeed in sending out some healing vibrations, which you can in turn pass on to your local folks, like the pebbles in the cosmic pond that we all are.If you want to dive deeper into some of these topics and explore the traditional Chinese cultural background, foods, clinical gems, medical Chinese language and literature, and more springtime musings, we invite you to join our brand-new Frolicking Fish Community. Here we offer you the opportunity for a deep, sustained engagement with our work and play in a lovingly curated themed monthly collection with the introductory "moongate," original translations, creative expressions, and audio and video recordings, plus a community discussion forum as a space for connection, education, follow-up, and inspiration. Please check it out at happygoatproductions.com and, while you are there, sign up for our newsletter to get notified of new episodes and other offerings. And, as always, please rate, review, and share this podcast wherever you can, and check out the show notes if you want to learn more. Thank you for listening!Additional InformationSubscribe to our newsletter!Frolicking Fish Community — Happy Goat Productions
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About A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond
Tune in every New Moon for inspiring, joyful, and informative conversations with Sabine Wilms and Leo Lok on transforming ourselves, our communities, and the world, in the spirit of traditional Chinese medicine, spirituality, and philosophy. Separating fact from fiction, we aim to bring you medicine from China's distant past, translated here to meet YOUR needs today, in your personal practice, in your community, and in the clinic.Sabine Wilms, PhD, is a medical historian, recovering university professor, and author and translator of more than a dozen books on the Chinese healing arts, from gynecology and pediatrics to medical ethics and materia medica, published by Happy Goat Productions. In addition to writing, she runs the only advanced 2-year classical Chinese training program for practitioners of Chinese medicine and contributes insights from her checkered past as a biodynamic goat farmer and musician, all under the banner of her favorite phrase, “cosmic resonance,” a.k.a. the Chi
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