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A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond

A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond

by Sabine Wilms PhD

Latest episode
Small Heart, Big Gallbladder

About this podcast

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 Chinese ideal of harmony between the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Leo Lok, our "purveyor of multiple perspectives," is a practitioner and independent scholar of Chinese Medicine. A native speaker/reader of Chinese languages, Leo is one of the rare clinician-scholars in the world who excels in researching and translating ancient Chinese medical literature into the English language.

Together, we offer courses on the Chinese healing arts and run the "Frolicking Fish Community" to provide deep, sustained engagement with our work and play. In a lovingly curated themed collection, we present you each month with the introductory "moongate," original translations, creative expressions, and audio and video recordings on the Chinese healing arts, culture and history, food and art, philosophy and religion, Qi cultivation, and more. In addition, the community forum offers connection, education, and inspiration.

We both love to inspire people and spread around some healing and loving vibrations. Here are our three main goals:
1. Bridge-building: We gather to explore the liminal sweet spot, in between Heaven and Earth, the distant past and the present moment, East and West, the clinic and the academy, the healer and the scholar, the discernible and the unfathomable, oral lineage and written text, and, ultimately, Yin and Yang.
2. Collaboration: The treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine is bigger than any single person's expertise, no matter how vast. We actively pursue and embrace a diversity of opinions so that we can collectively deepen our understanding. We always aim to approach our disagreements with curiosity and mutual respect, instead of defensiveness.
3. Authentic Transmission: Translation, from the past to the present, from Chinese to English, from texts to clinical application, etc., invariably involves an alteration and adaptation of the original message. How do we stay true to the wisdom and spirit of the ancient Chinese texts while still making sense to our modern English-speaking listeners? We invite you to consider the creative challenges of this task with us.

In addition to subscribing to this podcast, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter (at Happygoatproductions.com/connect), where we share resources like free articles, announcements of new courses or publications, updates on our work and life, little glimpses of love and joy and beauty, and occasionally Sabine's poetry and farm pictures.

Episodes

The newest 20 of 56 episodes

  • Small Heart, Big Gallbladder · 49 min · Season 5 Episode 7In 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…
  • Let's Get Spicy! · 56 min · Season 5 Episode 6What 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…
  • Moistening and Cooling for Fire and Smoke · 51 min · Season 5 Episode 5While 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…
  • When water doesn’t cut It… and… what’s with the coconut? · 48 min · Season 5 Episode 4In 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…
  • Hot-Cold Calibration for the Apex of Summer · 50 min · Season 5 Episode 3This 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…
  • Three Friends Springrolls: Sustainable Agriculture that Harmonizes Heaven and Earth · 50 min · Season 5 Episode 2In 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…
  • Expressing the Spirit of Springing and Sprouting · 1 h 6 min · Season 5 Episode 1Welcome 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…
  • Frolicking Fish: Our Vision for Adding Joy, Love, and Curiosity to Chinese Medicine Education · 48 min · Season 4 Episode 15What do you see missing in Chinese medicine education? How can we, Leo Lok and Sabine Wilms, with our unique combination of skills and resources, best support you as part of our…
  • New Year's Joy: Whales, Spring, and East-West Transmission in Pregnancy Care · 46 min · Season 4 Episode 14Happy new year of the Yang Fire horse to everybody! In this conversation, recorded on the eve of the Chinese New Year, Leo had set out to share his excitement about the work that…
  • Nurturing Pregnancy: Modulating the Center · 56 min · Season 4 Episode 14Most attention in the medical care of pregnancy focuses on preventing miscarriage in the tender first trimester, on the one hand, and on preparing for a smooth and safe labor and…
  • The slippery slope between discernment and judgment · 1 h 2 min · Season 4 Episode 13As we all know, when somebody passes judgment on another person, regardless of the validity of that judgment, it will close the door to effective communication and connection. At…
  • Playing with Qi and Other Tools of Self-Care · 49 min · Season 4 Episode 12We start off this episode by exploring the meaning of "tiao qi" 調氣, which is the title of one of the chapters in Sun Simiao's volume on Yangxing (self-cultivation and longevity)…
  • Confucian Willfulness? · 48 min · Season 4 Episode 11In today's conversation, I asked for Leo's help in exploring Confucius' teachings on social cohesion, authority, and the creation of harmony in self, family, society, and the…
  • Shades of Love in Buddhism · 1 h 7 min · Season 4 Episode 9In today's episode, I got to ask Leo to speak more specifically about the different kinds of love that are found in the Buddhist teachings. Together, we were able to explore how…
  • From Wittgenstein to Wenyanwen: Classical Reflections with Paola · 54 min · Season 4 Episode 10In this conversation, Leo and Sabine feature our friend Paola Campanelli, an international practitioner and graduate of Sabine's 2-year classical Chinese training program…
  • The Joys of Reading the Chinese Medicine Classics · 1 h 7 min · Season 4 Episode 8In this episode, we (Sabine Wilms and Leo Lok) invited the Spanish practitioner and teacher of Chinese medicine Manu Moreno to share with us his personal journey of learning…
  • Chanting for Protection · 55 min · Season 4 Episode 7In this conversation, we get pretty personal! In an honest exploration, we look at the intersection of Sabine's personal experiences, Leo's healing practices, and the power of…
  • Harnessing Anger for a Better World · 47 min · Season 4 Episode 6Chinese medicine practitioners are all too familiar with the common pathology of "Liver Qi Stagnation/Constraint." Partly related to feminine gender norms in both China and the…
  • The Power and Perils of Postpartum Care · 1 h 0 min · Season 4 Episode 5What do we (as in Leo and Sabine) mean when we say with great urgency and earnestness that postpartum care can heal trauma for multiple generations into the past and future? Why…
  • The Healing Magic of Ducklings · 53 min · Season 4 Episode 4Today'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…

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