In 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 I can make sure that the deep love I feel for my daughter, to use the example closest to my heart, does not turn into a suffocating blanket of mutual needs and wants, as conditional love between parent and child does all too often. Instead, unconditional love can become a powerful generative and regenerative force of healing, when it rests on the solid triple foundation of compassion, well-wishing, and equanimity. This same spiritual foundation can also save us from getting exhausted and disabled by sorrow, whether caused by a personal loss, by us witnessing the suffering of a friend or patient, or by our response, as empathetic beings, to devastating global news. With the support of community, we can find love and joy in that delicate dance between attachment and liberation.
In this conversation, Leo and Sabine feature our friend Paola Campanelli, an international practitioner and graduate of Sabine's 2-year classical Chinese training program. Together, we explore Paola's journey from philosophy to sinology to Chinese medicine, from her native Italy to China and Taiwan and ultimately to her current home in southern Germany. We discuss Paola's challenges and insights gained through studying classical Chinese, in a range of topics as wide as Paola's life experience, from German philosophy to language acquisition and the importance of grammar, to poetry and the power of beauty and song... We also touch on the value of collaboration in translation and the potential for future projects in a collective of translators that has been Sabine's vision for her Triple Crown Classical Chinese training program. If you want to know about Leo's relationship to Italian opera, make sure you listen to the end for a cliff hanger that I personally cannot wait to find out more about.Additional InformationTriple Crown Training Program — Translating Chinese Medicine - Dr. Wilms' 2-year training program in classical Chinese, starting every two years in September
In 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, practicing, teaching, and translating Chinese medicine. Manu generously introduced us to his childhood experiences, including his struggles with dyslexia, guidance from dreams and past-lives experiences, and connection to his family healing tradition, all of which eventually led him to drop everything and move to China. There, he immersed himself completely in the language and culture and ended up studying Chinese medicine in a rare combination of an institutional education and personal lineage transmission.Our conversation explored the importance of cultural immersion, the challenges of learning classical Chinese, and the role of traditional teaching methods in understanding the complexities of Chinese medical texts. We discussed how to strike a balance between the need for modern interpretation and our shared commitment to honoring traditional knowledge, and briefly contrasted Manu's two experiences of learning classical Chinese: First as a student among fellow Chinese students in China, and then as a participant in Sabine's training program in classical Chinese for Western practitioners.If this episode has whetted your appetite for learning classical Chinese yourself, you may want to consider enrolling in Sabine's two-year intensive training program that starts September 11, 2025 with the "Foundations" course. Find out more AT HER "TRANSLATINGCHINESEMEDICINE.COM" WEBSITE.Additional InformationTriple Crown Training Program — Translating Chinese Medicine - Dr. Wilms' 2-year training program in classical Chinese, starting every two years in September
In 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 intention. Specifically, we discuss the Surangama mantra and its protective and healing powers, and then consider the general impact of community healing through chanting and other ways of being present with a suffering person. We also briefly touch on ethical issues in practicing and training and transmitting intention in performative healing rituals like exorcism and chanting in the modern clinical context.Additional InformationShurangama Mantra in Sanskrit
Chinese 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 West that force women to suppress and deny their anger, it results from the inability to let the liver Qi flow freely. In light of the palpable tension in the air these days, which is erupting into violence all too often, whether locally, nationally in the US, or globally, Leo and Sabine consider the root causes and possible treatments. From a slightly different angle of cultural norms preventing men from accessing and expressing grief, how can we prevent such broken-heartedness from turning into violence or despair, and instead redirect this energy in righteous action, strength, and constructive acts of creativity? How can we stop the vicious cycle of trauma and violence in service of a better, kinder, and more tender world where we have learned to harness the power of our emotions constructively, instead of destructively?
What 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 is there such a gaping hole in our modern culture's attention to the deep exhaustion, isolation, dangers, and need for intentional recovery from childbirth? How can medical professionals utilize the many tools offered by Chinese medicine to address this hole, from diet and medicinal formulations to acupuncture and moxibustion, massage and sound healing, as well as by educating and empowering the patient and their supporters? What can each of us do to help the world rediscover the magic and bliss of childbirth and the precious first moments, days, and weeks of a newborn baby's life? And last but not least, what is the significance of Leo's insistence on "pampering," as opposed to just "care," and why does this phrase bring up painful emotions for Sabine and many of the participants in our info sessions that we have been running this past month?The deeper we go with this project of "postpartum pampering," the more aware we become of the importance of this topic. Please take a listen and then join us in thinking about it, talking about it with your communities, and, if it touches you as it did us, do something about the current lack of it in global culture but in the US in particular.Thank you!And if you care to learn more, join us for our course on Postpartum Pampering starting on June 1! FInd out more ON OUR PUBLIC INFORMATION PAGE HERE.
Today'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 who, like her, melt at the sight and sound of a baby falling asleep when enveloped by protective mama energy. And truly, it doesn't matter whether that "mama energy" is produced by the actual mama or by any human (or non-human) with a parental instinct.
Let'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 Chinese medicine, past OR present! Listen in as Leo Lok and I discuss traditional Chinese perspectives on strength training and exercise...Additional InformationSun Simiao's Gifts — Happy Goat ProductionsDr. Vonda Wright on the Mel Robbins podcastSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
For 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 of you to be curious, conscious, and perhaps a bit more cautious about the effect that the information you consume has on your precious life energy. Speaking from her personal experience, Sabine questions the usefulness of exhausting her Qi by pouring it into holding tension in her shoulders. Let's just say: It’s time to shake things up a bit around here and approach life with the irresistible smile of a babe in a game of peekaboo…Welcome to the Pebble in the Cosmic Pond podcast, where Season Four explores the Power of Kindness to bring you medicine from the sweet spot between Heaven and Earth, inspired still by old and new stories from China's healing traditions but really going wherever... Your hosts are Dr. Sabine Wilms, philosopher-poet, nerd, and goat herder, and Leo Lok, Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives. Additional InformationSlack Tide with Sabine on SubstackSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
What 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, explore the Power of Kindness to bring you medicine from the sweet spot between Heaven and Earth, inspired still by old and new stories from China's healing traditions but really going wherever we feel pulled. We are Dr. Sabine Wilms, philosopher-poet, nerd, and goat herder, and Leo Lok, our Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives. We start out this new season with what might strike you perhaps as an oddly celebratory offering, given the dark times we are currently experiencing at least in the US, if you follow the news. But it is the New Moon and the New Year of the Yin Wood Snake, of medicine and poison, of shedding skin and old self to make room for growth, of going deep into the mysterious darkness underground, of transforming and healing and honoring rest in cold Yin stillness until the Yang heat of the rising sun and spring Qi shall empower us to rise up, like bread, like singing, like kundalini energy. This episode is on “Love, joy, cold water swimming, and resilience.” Don’t blame me for this one. It was Leo’s idea to record right after I come home from one of my bitter cold naked ocean swims, to catch the euphoria flooding my system, share it with you, and explore it a bit. I have no idea if any of this makes sense to you, but if it brings a smile to your face, like swimming does to mine, and makes you want to pursue your own ways of lowering your stress level, finding joy, and restoring your equilibrium, heck yeah, it’s worth publicly exposing my quirkiness here. Desperate times call for desperate measures! My love goes out to my friends in the fires of LA, in the immigrant community in Tucson, and in all the other places where the doodoo is hitting the fan and where some of you are doing the damn hard work in the trenches. May this conversation somehow make a tiny bit of difference in your healing work by lightening your load! Let the tears flow and then crank the music and dance your heart out, not in spite of but because of it all!Additional InformationSlack Tide with Sabine on SubstackSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
In 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 are just three of my personal take-aways from this conversation (and I sure hope my simplification here is not misleading!):The meanings of "xing 性" and "ming 命" were never static and changed depending on the time, place, author's background, and rhetorical context. While Westerners always look for single terms to translate deep Chinese concepts like these, we may be better off just leaving them in Chinese to avoid misunderstandings.Compassion and the effort to alleviate suffering and be of service are the key to ethical cultivation and thereby transforming our karma.Wuwei does not mean sitting by the river meditating or "anything goes," but rather, if I may try to summarize here, spontaneously aligning with the Dao, which is the outcome of a lifetime of conscious and intentional cultivation, both ethical and physical.You will have to take a close listen to see if this shallow description correctly represents Jack's and Leo's deep pearls of wisdom.Enjoy! And thanks for listening. And then please share this podcast and episode if you liked it, and join the conversation over on our Facebook page.Additional Informationjack schaefer's websiteParting Clouds Daoist EducationSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
How 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 ethics to sex, can we find an underlying principle, and if so, what is it? How do we train ourselves, our colleagues, and future generations to dance the dance of Yin and Yang and find the sweet range between too little and too much? How do you learn, apply, and teach self-calibration, and why is compassion essential in all of this? Ultimately,what is Sun Simiao’s secret to personal cultivation in the pursuit of health and healing, or in other words, to “nurturing life” (yangsheng) or “nurturing our heavenly/innate/true nature” (yangxing)?Welcome to the Pebble in the Cosmic Pond podcast, where we share old and new stories about China's healing traditions and about medicine in Heaven and on Earth... ...and in the sweet spot in between. I am your host, Dr. Sabine Wilms, and I am joined, as usual, by Leo Lok, Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives. With this final episode, titled “Sun Simiao’s Secret to True Healing,” we now officially finish up Season Three where we have been considering a variety of perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性, to explore cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today on the basis of Sun Simiao’s writings. Stay tuned for what comes next!Additional InformationSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
Are 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, no matter where you are in the world, it may be a bit of a challenge right now to maintain a steady state of calm centeredness. Join us as we explore how to not drown or explode in our emotions but channel them into action. And as a special treat, if you listen all the way to the end of this episode, let Leo's beautiful healing voice wash all over you and cloak you in a mantle of support and compassion. Note: This is a spontaneous offering, not following our regular monthly schedule. We just feel an urgency to try and perhaps ease a bit of suffering with this conversation.
At 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 Cosmic Pond podcast, where we share old and new stories about China's healing traditions and about medicine in Heaven and on Earth... ...and in the sweet spot in between. I am your host, Dr. Sabine Wilms, and I am joined, as usual, by Leo Lok, Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives. With this last episode, titled “Every Breath We Take,” we conclude our Season Three where we have been considering a variety of perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性, to explore cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today on the basis of Sun Simiao’s writings.Today, we contemplate the different elements of healing, from intellectual knowledge to intuition, to laughter, to surrendering and adapting, and to calling in the support of our family lineage, community, and even divine and celestial forces. In this challenging time full of tension, discord, and instability, we hope that this episode brings you joy and laughter and encourages you to let your Qi flow a bit more freely. We are all in this together, after all!Additional InformationSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
How 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 perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性, to explore cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today on the basis of Sun Simiao’s writings from the seventh century.In this episode, we uncover yet another layer in the wisdom found in Sun Simiao’s work. We start out considering the relationship between the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Rather than seeing them as competing schools, we discover their power as a thick braid woven from three different yet beautifully complementary strands in early medieval China. Stay with us, if you want to find out how this braid helps me decide whether to watch the sunrise wedged in bed between my dog and cat in dreamy stillness or to get up and vitalize my qi and blood in the crisp fall air with an invigorating qigong session under the magical maple tree! And last but not least, Leo always reminds us to find joy and curiosity in this calibration process!Additional InformationSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
How 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 Pond podcast, where we share old and new stories about China's healing traditions and about medicine in Heaven and on Earth... ...and in the sweet spot in between. I am your host, Dr. Sabine Wilms, and I am joined, as usual, by Leo Lok, Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives. Today’s episode on “Finding Balance Between Stillness and Action” is part of our Season Three where we consider a variety of perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性, to explore cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today on the basis of Sun Simiao’s writings and in preparation for the course we will be teaching on this topic this fall.Listen in, as we discuss some of the gems from Sun Simiao’s introduction on the topic and their application to Leo’s clinical practice and Sabine’s current physical issue of an overworked body. We follow Sun’s lead to pursue the sweet spot in between too much and too little, between action and non-action, between exposure to and protection from seasonal change, between activity and rest, between Yin and Yang, and between innumerable daily acts of virtue and quiet contemplation. Reading this powerful synthesis of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism that comprises the core of Sun Simiao’s brilliance, we ask for his guidance.Additional InformationNurturing Our Nature CourseSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
Are 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 Chinese lullabies to Indian love songs to Krishna and Malay nursery rhymes? Or do you just feel a warm and fuzzy sense of elemental stillness and well-being and want to know more about the origin of this musical gift and how that might relate to the role of music in yangsheng and healing?Well then, listen to this conversation between Leo Lok and myself on “Singing as Yangsheng.” It is part of our Season Three where we shall consider a variety of perspectives on “Nurturing Our Nature” 養性, to explore cultivating health and longevity from ancient China to today on the basis of Sun Simiao’s writings and in preparation for the course we will be teaching on this topic this fall.Additional InformationNurturing Our Nature CourseSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
Welcome 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 topic starting in September. In this podcast season, and the course, we shall both present early and medieval Chinese writings and practices authentically and, at the same time, make sense of this material in our personal lives and in the contemporary clinical context.Our first conversation on this topic in the present podcast episode, titled “The balanced person doesn’t get sick” 平人者不病, starts with a critical exploration of the topic of yangxing in general, and specifically of the meaning of xìng 性 (“innate nature”). As usual, we try to balance the presentation of generalized default ideas with a more nuanced and textually rigorous way by differentiating between specific texts and contexts, authors, periods, and even passages within a single text.To demonstrate the importance of this approach, we look at the role of the emotions, and joy in particular, in self-cultivation and how this might have changed between the Han and Tang periods, and between the authors of the Neijing and Sun Simiao. Fortunately, our background in Chinese medicine can help us make sense of the complicated linguistic material by grounding the textual evidence and abstract ideas in the concrete physiological responses in the body, through pulse, Qi flow, complexion, the shine of the shen, and other markers. At the end of the day, we can evaluate the effect of any emotion by asking: Does it bring us closer to the ideal of píng 平, the healthy state of balance and dynamic equilibrium, or does it take us away from that? For this reason, we titled this episode 平人者不病 “The balanced person doesn’t get sick.” Isn’t this phrase from Suwen 18 a beautiful way to describe the essence of our medicine?I am your host, Dr. Sabine Wilms, and I am joined, as usual, by Leo Lok, Resident Purveyor of Multiple Perspectives at the Pebble in the Cosmic Pond podcast, where we share old and new stories about China's healing traditions and about medicine in Heaven and on Earth... ...and in the sweet spot in between.Additional InformationNurturing Our Nature CourseSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
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 and took five pages of notes, which I find impossible to condense into a paragraph for this introduction. I really hope you take the time to listen closely. Cynthia has such a beautiful healing presence and deep deep wisdom about healing, from her religious upbringing to her professional training, personal journey through suffering and healing, and Qigong practice. All these strands come together in her work of creating this healing cosmic consciousness space of oneness, or physiological coherence or Christ consciousness or, ultimately, unconditional love and peace and happiness, merged hearts, total acceptance and endless creativity. And to add the cherry on the top, Leo was able to connect Cynthia’s descriptions to some beautiful Buddhist concepts, from Nirvana to descriptions of breath cultivation to the Buddha’s command to stop the discursive, differentiating, analyzing mind and embrace emptiness. You are in for a real treat!Additional InformationMingjue Awakening: Book by Cynthia Li MDBrave New Medicine: Book by Cynthia Li MDCynthia Li MD – personlized medicine testChanneling the Moon, A Translation and Discussion of Qí Zhòngfǔ's "Hundred Questions on Gynecology," Part One — Happy Goat ProductionsSubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors
Cynthia 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 Autoimmune Disease”, and the recently published “Mingjue Awakening: Teachings on Pure Consciousness, Collective Field Qigong, and Energy Healing.” I hope you note down these titles and get a hold of both of them when you are finished listening to this podcast. I find them incredibly relevant to many of the most salient conversations in the field of Chinese medicine as practiced in the West. The links are also in the shownotes.This episode is the first half of our interview with Cynthia, with the second half to follow in two weeks. It seems to me like this whole conversation circled around Cynthia’s quest for the root: for the root causes of her patients’ conditions in her medical practice, for the root in her own healing journey, for the root in her qigong practice, and, in an unexpected turn, for the root in the Christian teachings she received from her Chinese parents. Most importantly, in the context of true healing, she suggests that we track down the sometimes hidden threads in each of our lives, including our traumas, that lead to our true inner work, in a playful way, like a scavenger hunt. Being both a traditionalist and a scientist who appreciates long-term observational study, her work seems to dance between the pursuit of the true, enduring essence and the creative manifestation and application thereof in the moment, whether she is looking at her medical or qigong practice, her life journey, her spiritual interest in Christ consciousness, or the authentic transmission of her teacher’s wisdom.Additional InformationMingjue Awakening: Book by Cynthia Li MDBrave New Medicine: Book by Cynthia Li MDCynthia Li MD – personlized medicine testChanneling the Moon, A Translation and Discussion of Qí Zhòngfǔ's "Hundred Questions on Gynecology," Part One — Happy Goat ProductionsTraditional Chinese GynecologySubscribe to my newsletter!Imperial Tutor Mentorship by Dr. WilmsHappy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors