A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond

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.

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.

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.

Lastly, please join our FREE Frolicking Fish Community and visit the podcast page there to let us know your thoughts.

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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.

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.

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...

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!

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What 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 beloved Chinese medicine community? What is the right and ethical balance between academic education, joyful entertainment, curious exploration, and creative play? And last, but not least, how can we harness the wonders of technology to create a community that spans continents, languages and cultures, medical and religious paradigms, and millennia of textual resources?

A tall order this is, indeed, but we had fun tossing these questions around while we are in the final stages of building our new project, the "Frolicking Fish Community." In this podcast, we are inviting you to join us for a brainstorming session, in the spirit of integrity, connection, curiosity, and play.

Of course we hope to entice you to join our community and give us constructive feedback on the answers we are looking for.

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Happy 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 we have been doing on our upcoming course on "Nurturing Pregnancy." Sabine got distracted right at the beginning of our recording session by two grey whales passing by and then returning to feed outside her window, as the biggest (literally!) and most amazing sign that spring is truly arriving here on Whidbey Island. So this podcast meanders a bit, between Sabine's attempt to share the joy and love of a spring day, Leo's desire to share some insights on pregnancy care with Chinese medicine, and our serious contemplation of the challenges in this specialized field that Western practitioners of Chinese medicine encounter:

We discuss the very unfortunate lack of access to the precious primary sources, historical and contemporary, that reflect the top quality of care that is common in East Asia. Then we explore the difficult clinical reality for practitioners in the West, surrounded as they are by a culture that considers both traditional Chinese medicinal treatments and acupuncture either as dangerous or as ineffective. We lament the unnecessary suffering resulting from the fact that patients in the West are reluctant to lean on their Chinese medicine providers during this tender period, when there is so much Chinese medicine can do! This stands in sharp contrast to China, where pregnant patients often turn to traditional Chinese medicine for addressing common pregnancy symptoms as a safer and more effective alternative to biomedical treatments. Inspired by our close collaboration these past few months in building our upcoming course on "Nurturing Pregnancy," we truly want to help our listeners see the clinical potential in this area as a very potent path for alleviating suffering and sharing "tender loving care," which is ultimately what all of our work is about.

May we all spread the love!

Most 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 delivery in the last trimester. But what about the middle?

In this episode, Leo and Sabine delve into over 2000 years of medical literature on this topic in China to look at the therapeutic potential of the middle trimester in pregnancy. We start out by zooming in on the two formulas for the fourth and fifth months of pregnancy cited by Sun Simiao "in case of injury to the fetus/pregnancy," analyzing their key ingredients title for the intended treatment strategy: "Modulating the Center Formula" and "Making the Center Peaceful Formula," respectively.

We then explore ways to achieve these goals by more accessible and possibly safer means, such as by substituting maiya (sprouted barley), breath work, and daoyin to facilitate the free flow of Qi through the channels.

Lastly, we take a step back to discuss the unique challenges of caring for not just one but two bodies during pregnancy, as two distinct constellations of Qi, which in turn are interacting with the external environment as mediated through the mother's body. It gets pretty complex but then again, "shaving off mounds and filling in sinkholes," as Zhang Lu puts it so succinctly in his commentary on the formula for "modulating the center" (tiaozhong) is actually not rocket science. It truly is our greatest joy and passion to show practitioners at all levels that you've got this and there is truly something that every one of us can do to support our pregnant friends.