POPULARITY
5 episodes with Classical Chinese
4 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
2 episodes with Classical Chinese
3 episodes with Classical Chinese
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/language
While other ancient nonalphabetic scripts—Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Mayan hieroglyphs—are long extinct, Chinese characters, invented over three thousand years ago, are today used by well over a billion people to write Chinese and Japanese. In medieval East Asia, the written Classical Chinese language knit the region together in a common intellectual enterprise that encompassed religion, philosophy, historiography, political theory, art, and literature. Literacy in Classical Chinese set the stage for the adaptation of Chinese characters into ways of writing non-Chinese languages like Vietnamese and Korean, which differ dramatically from Chinese in vocabularies and grammatical structures.Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? How did it come to be used to write non-Chinese languages? And why has it proven so resilient? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture. Written in an approachable style and meant for readers with no prior knowledge of Chinese script or Asian languages, it presents a fascinating story that challenges assumptions about speech and writing. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies
China is accelerating the digitalization of ancient texts and boosting access to oracle bone script data, aiming to integrate cultural heritage with digital Chinese, officials said on Monday.中国正加速推进古籍数字化进程并扩大甲骨文数据开放，旨在将文化遗产保护与数字中文建设相结合。The Ministry of Education, the National Language Commission and the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a guideline to promote the digitalization of the Chinese language and characters. The focus is on developing national language resources and large-scale Chinese language models to support artificial intelligence.有关部门周一表示，教育部、国家语言文字工作委员会及中央网信办已联合发布《关于推进语言文字数字化的指导意见》，重点开发国家语言资源和大规模中文语言模型，为人工智能发展提供支持。The guideline aims to establish a national corpus and strategic language resources information database by 2027. By 2035, the country hopes it will have significantly expanded the presence of the Chinese language in global digital and generative AI scenarios.该指南提出，到2027年将建成国家语料库和战略语言资源信息库；至2035年，中文在全球数字化场景及生成式人工智能领域的应用影响力将显著提升。Liu Peijun, head of the Department of Language Information Management at the Ministry of Education, said the guideline calls for the digitalization of linguistic and cultural heritage, while promoting the construction of a national digital language and script museum.教育部语言文字信息管理司司长刘培俊表示，该指南要求推进语言文化遗产数字化，同时推动建设国家数字语言文字博物馆。It emphasizes advancing key technologies for ancient text digitalization, enhancing the accessibility of oracle bone script data and launching a multilingual digital education program to facilitate Chinese language learning globally, Liu said at a news conference.刘培俊在新闻发布会上强调，需重点突破古籍数字化关键技术，增强甲骨文数据的可获取性，并启动多语种数字教育计划，助力中文教育的全球化发展。A key aspect of this initiative is the development of large-scale linguistic data resources. The guideline outlines a plan to build a national corpus with extensive Chinese language datasets to support AI applications.该计划聚焦大规模语言数据资源建设。根据指南要求，将系统性构建国家语料库，整合海量中文数据集，为人工智能应用提供支撑。Among the pilot projects, Beijing Normal University has launched a large-scale Classical Chinese language model, an AI-driven initiative that sets a new benchmark in the field, Liu said.在试点项目中，北京师范大学已推出大规模文言文语言模型。刘培俊指出，这一人工智能驱动的举措为该领域树立了新的标杆。Kang Zhen, vice-president of BNU, said the university has developed a range of digital language databases, including a comprehensive holographic Chinese character database, a digital resource of the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, and repositories for ancient inscriptions and handwritten texts.北师大副校长康震表示，该校已构建包括全息汉字数据库、《说文解字》数字资源库，古代铭文及手写文本库在内的系列数字化语言数据库体系。These resources have played a crucial role in linguistic research and cultural preservation, Kang added.康震补充称，这些资源对语言研究和文化保护发挥了关键作用。The university's AI Taiyan, a Classical Chinese large language model trained with 1.8 billion parameters, has been designed for high-accuracy interpretation of ancient texts, supporting tasks such as word and phrase explanations, as well as classical-to-modern Chinese translation.该校研发的文言文大语言模型“AI太炎”基于18亿个参数训练出来的古汉语大型语言模型，专为高精度古籍解读而设计，可支持字词释义、文言文与现代汉语互译等任务。China is also spearheading the construction of a new national corpus to strengthen linguistic infrastructure in the AI era, said Wang Hui, deputy head of the Ministry of Education's Department of Language Application and Administration.教育部语言文字应用管理司副司长王晖表示，中国正带头建设新型国家语料库，以强化人工智能时代的语言基础设施。"Currently, most linguistic datasets remain limited to single-text formats and specific academic domains, lacking the scale and diversity required for AI applications," Wang said.王晖指出，当前语言数据资源仍主要集中于纯文本形态与特定学术研究领域，在数据规模与类型多样性方面存在明显不足，难以满足人工智能技术发展的多维需求。The department has begun planning for the corpus this year, seeking to launch two flagship databases, the Chinese civilization corpus for AI-assisted teaching and research, and the Chinese grand reading system corpus, Wang said.王晖表示，该司今年已启动语料库规划，计划推出两大核心数据库：一是支撑人工智能辅助教学研究的中华文明语料库，二是中华经典诵读系统语料库。oracle bone script甲骨文national corpus国家语料库the National Language Commission国家语言文字工作委员会strategic language resources information database战略语言资源信息库cultural heritage文化遗产ancient text digitalization古籍数字化benchmarkn.标杆spearheadv.带头;先锋
A Christmas message from President-elect Donald Trump accuses Chinese soldiers of illegally operating the Panama Canal. We have more on the canal's importance to the United States, and China's influence over it. Classical Chinese dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts is kicking off its 2025 world tour, undeterred after receiving threats to its Atlanta performances. Trump's transition team is reportedly preparing to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). Trump has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing. How does U.S. investment contribute to advancing the Chinese military? The key is U.S. investments in Chinese companies. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV
Gina Martin is a founding mother and High Priestess of Triple Spiral of Dún na Sidhe, a pagan spiritual congregation in the Hudson Valley, New York State, US. She is a ritualist, teacher, healer, mother, and writer of sacred songs.Gina is a practitioner of Classical Chinese medicine and a Board certified licensed acupuncturist.The author of the When She Wakes trilogy: Sisters of the Solstice Moon, Walking the Threads of Time and She is Here. The backstories of the Thirteen for girls aged 8-80: Kiyia – Daughter of the Horse; Autakla – Daughter of the Seal; Maia – Daughter of Fire; and her newest book Io – Daughter of the Wild Hunt is out very soon. Her book of chants – WomEnchanting is available from her website.All Gina's books are 60% off on Kindle from 1-4th August. Buy the When She Wakes trilogy signed with digital goodies for a 10% discount for the month of August from Womancraft Publishing.Follow Creative Magic on InstagramReceive bonus content and extended episodes for just $3 on PatreonSign up to my Peaceful Patterns 2 e-course We talked about:The three creative acts of her lifeThe somatic magic and nature of writingHow her characters pester herMagic realism in her work…and lifeThe many varied spiritual influences on her practice and creativitySigil magic and the weirdness of trying to put it into wordsBecoming her own body of work - her tattoosHer creative processWriting groupsSelf publishing and publishingBeing a channelWriting spiritual books – ritual and ceremonyCreative collaboration within and between creative disciplinesResistance and regretsMaternal pride and envy – when our parents are the reason we cannot createIn the Extended Episode…We reminisce about our trips together to ancient sites in Crete and NewgrangeThe books that most influenced her as a writer – the author of The Road to Avalon is Joan Wolf.A deep dive into channeling, hearing voices and mental illness.Access extended episodes for just $3 on www.patreon.com/lucyhpearceAbout your HostLucy H. Pearce is the author of multiple life-changing non-fiction books, including Nautilus Award silver winners Medicine Woman, Burning Woman, and Creatrix: she who makes. Her other titles include Amazon #1 bestsellers: Moon Time, Reaching for the Moon, The Rainbow Way and Crow Moon. Her other books include: She of the Sea, Full Circle Health, Moods of Motherhood and she is the co-author and illustrator of The Kitchen Witch Companion. Her writing focuses on women's healing through archetypal psychology, embodiment, historical awareness and creativity.Lucy founded Womancraft Publishing, publishing paradigm-shifting books by women for women, in 2014.lucyhpearce.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
From the 2022 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference; a young dance student shares their experience in improving in cultivation while studying Classical Chinese dance. She finds her performance improves not only from hard work and training, but also in letting go of her attachments to fame, gain, and jealousy. This and other stories […]
In this episode I am once again joined by Mattias Daly, Taoist practitioner and translator of ‘Taoist Inner Alchemy', published by Shambala. Mattias recounts the unusual circumstances that saw him travel to a remote monastery to meet Abbess Liu Yuanhui, under whom he would begin intensive training in meditation. Mattias discusses Taoist meditation and its relationship to magical powers, psychic abilities, and other unusual meditation experiences. Mattias then pulls back the veil to reveal the history and evolution of Taoist inner alchemy, referencing classical texts to contextualise and explain the Golden Elixir, differing ideas of the goal of alchemy, and the various ways in which the practice was undertaken. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep251-taoist-inner-alchemy-mattias-daly-2 Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics include: 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Meeting Abbess Liu Yuanhui 03:23 - Recruited to rescue a wealthy son 08:10 - Miraculous cure through Buddhist ritual 11:38 - First visit to Abbess Liu's monastery 13:05 - Initial intensive training with Abbess Liu 16:19 - Attachment to unusual meditation experiences 19:05 - Siddhi and magical power in Taoism 24:00 - Influence of Kung Fu novels 26:06 - Ge Guolong's commentary Huang Yuanji's The Oral Record of the Hall of Joyous Teaching 30:30 - History and evolution of Taoist inner alchemy 34:58 - Sexual interpretations of Taoist inner alchemy 36:30 - Disagreement about the goal of inner alchemy 39:29 - What about physical immortality? 42:08 - Mechanism of alchemy 45:43 - The Nameless Master and physical secretions 48:26 - Text alteration and philological considerations 52:02 - Achieving the Goku moment 52:53 - Why close reading of classical texts is a necessity for practitioners 56:34 - How to read early texts 58:24 - Is facility in Classical Chinese necessary? 01:00:50 - What is the Golden Elixir? 01:03:48 - Mattias shares some of his translations about Golden Elixir 01:06:07 - Decoding alchemical symbols and metaphors 01:10:08 - Confusion about sex 01:12:09 - How to go about practicing? … Watch the previous episode with Mattias Daly: - https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep244-taoist-adventures-mattias-daly - To find our more about Mattias Daly, visit: - https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/mattias-daly.html … For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com … Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James
An up to $10 million award for information that could help the FBI find seven Chinese hackers is being offered. The hackers allegedly breached email accounts belonging to millions of Americans. Among the targets are White House officials, 2020 presidential campaign staff members, and Western lawmakers. China is filing a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization, that's over what it calls Washington's discriminatory rules on electric vehicles, but Beijing left out what prompted the U.S. move. Chinese real estate giant Evergrande says it won't continue with a U.S. plan to restructure its billions in debt. The company is closely rooted to the health of China's economy and remains in crisis. And the beauty of Classical Chinese dance—collides with bomb threats. We look at the latest escalation in an ongoing disruption campaign believed to be orchestrated by the Chinese regime against a New York-based arts company. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV
Jen Sonstein Maidenberg, M.A. is a writer, researcher, and dreamwork practitioner. She received a B.A. from The George Washington University and an M.A. from the Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing Program at Bar-Ilan University. Her full professional bio may be found on LinkedIn. Jen has been independently studying dreams, dream therapy, and alternative healing for more than 20 years. She is currently training and working as a Natural Dreamwork practitioner. JEN'S LINKS: https://jenmaidenberg.com/ https://jenmaidenberg.medium.com/ https://www.patreon.com/jenmaidenberg Online and in person (in New Jersey), Jen guides individuals interested in remembering, excavating, and exploring their dreams. Jen supports individuals seeking to engage with their dreams as a way of expanding and deepening their experience with waking life. Clients choose to work with Jen for a variety of reasons, including a desire to increase dream recall, understand “strange” dreams or paranormal experiences, heal old wounds, feel more alive and connected in waking life, or mend relationships with themselves, their loved ones, or people who have passed. See Dreamwork for more information, or read recent posts to learn more. Related Studies and Practices Other related areas of Jen's expertise, study, or practice include watercolor painting, Jewish chanting, Kabbalah, Hebrew, Classical Chinese medicine, embodiment work, attachment trauma and healing, mindful communication, astrology, psychic and intuitive development, reincarnation, paranormal encounters, consciousness, and time travel. Music Credits: Track: Wandering — JayJen [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: • Wandering — JayJen | Free Background ... Free Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/wandering FOLLOW Magic Is Real (Host Shannon Torrence) on Instagram: @realmagicshannon If you'd like to support Magic Is Real by becoming a Patreon, here is the link: / magicisreal111 Email me at magicisrealshannon@gmail.com with viewer questions you'd like for me to answer in a YouTube short or to pitch your own story to me for an episode. TO BOOK A MEDIUMSHIP READING WITH ME, just email me! Thank you so much for your love and support! Please like, share, comment, subscribe and spread the word! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shannon-torrence/support
Last time we spoke about the end of WW1 and China's bitter experience at the Paris Peace conference. Yes it WW1 brought a lot of drama to China. Yuan Shikai and later prominent figures like Duan Qirui took the poor habit of making secret deals with the Japanese that would very much bite them in the ass later in Paris. The Chinese delegation came to Paris hoping to secure major demands, most notably to solve the ongoing Shandong Problem. Instead they quite literally found out there were secret deals between China and Japan that completely hindered their war aims. To add insult to injury the western powers, notably Britain had also made secret double dealings with Japan. In the end Japan got her way, China did not, it was so embarrassing the Chinese delegation did not bother signing the Treaty of Versailles. Things could not possible get any worse eh? #92 The New Culture Movement Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. To say this is a big event in Modern Chinese history is certainly an understatement. I have to acknowledge over on my personal channel the Pacific War channel I made an episode on this topic. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I am very glad I tackled it. It was the first time a large portion of Chinese audience members came forward and thanked me for covering the subject. I was honestly a bit baffled, the episode picked up steam, I thought, hmmm why is this getting views, its a rather boring, non battle more political episode. Well case and point, this story is really the birth of modern China. If you go searching for books on this subject you will find so many of its impact on just about every facet of China today and even on other nations. Now there is two major subjects at play here, the May fourth movement and the New Cultural movement. I am going to do my best to try and cohesively tell this, but its a rather difficult one to be honest. For the sake of cohesion and to be blunt while writing this I just don't think I will manage to fit both subjects into one episode, I first am going to tackle what exactly the “New Cultural Movement” was and I am guessing I will have to leave the May Fourth Movement for next episode. The New Cultural Movement is intertwined with the May Fourth Movement, or you could call it the progenitor. In essence it was a progressivist movement that sprang up in the 1910's and would continue through the 1920's criticizing traditional Chinese ideology and promoting a new culture. This new culture was influenced by new age science and modern ideals. It's during this period you find many of China's big scholars start speaking out and making names for themselves. Now we have been talking in length about numerous issues that hit China during the 1910's such as WW1, Yuan Shikai's craziness, secret deals getting leaked to the public, the Shandong Problem, the Treaty of Versailles and all of these summed up were just more and more humiliation for China. The people of China were fed up. The people of China wanted change. Now its hard to encompass all that was sought out, but there are 6 large themes of this New Cultural movement that I shall list. The first change the public wanted was because of their outdated writing system, they wanted a more vernacular one. Second the confucian based tradition patriarchal family model was very outdated and it was a hindrance against individual freedom and women's rights. Third the people wanted China to be a real nation, one amongst the other nations of the world, not stuck in its Confucian model. Fourth the people wanted China to adopt a more scientific approach to things rather than the traditional confucian belief system. Fifth, the Chinese people wanted democracy human rights, all of the enlightened values other nations had. Lastly China had always been a nation who looked at the past rather than towards the future, this had to end. Now before we hit each of these lets summarize a bit of this time period, the environment and feeling of the day. The Qing Dynasty had fallen during the Xinhai revolution seeing the rise of Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai stamped down on all opposition, this included intellectuals also, many were exiled. There of course was a lot of animosity to Yuan Shikai, he was after all the guy who for a lack of better words, stole the leadership from Dr Sun Yat-Sen and he crushed the second revolution. One of these intellectual exiles found himself in Tokyo, Zhang Shizhao, there he founded a political magazine called The Tiger. The Tiger ran for about a year in 1915 and would have a significant impact on other political journals in China. The Tiger was known for probing political questions of the day, its writers often grappled with how underlying cultural values and beliefs shape politics. It inspired others to write similar magazines, notably, Chen Duxiu Now also in 1915 as we know, the Twenty-One Demands were issued, Yuan Shikai was forced to sign the Thirteen demands and all of this got leaked to the public. In 1915, Chen Duxiu founded the magazine “Jinggao qingnian” “New Youth”and he would have future intellectuals as editors of it such as Li Dazhao, Hu Shih and Lu Xun. In its first issue titled Jinggao qingnian literally translate as “letter to Youth”, it encouraged young people to “be independent and not enslaved, be progressive and not conservative, be in the forefront and not lagging behind, be internationalist and not isolationist, be practical and not rhetorical, and be scientific and not superstitious.” Chen Duxiu advocated for science and democracy, these would become rallying cries often in the form of “Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science”. This would spring forth more literature like “Xinchao” “the Renaissance” founded by the Renaissance Society in 1918 whose members included Beijing students directly inspired by Chen Duxiu, Hu Shih and Li Dazhao. The Renaissance promoted western political and social ideology, encouraging the youth of China to embrace progressive politics. The New Youth was by far the most influential magazine. In 1917 Chen Duxiu and Zhang Shizhao moved to Beijing University where they became acquaintances and alongside others built up a community that would usher in the New Culture Movement. At this time the intellectual powerhouses were Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing and Shanghai which had a booming publishing industry. Many scholars who would contribute to the New Culture movement would be found at Peking University such as Cai Yuanpei, who served as president of the University in 1916. Cai Yuanpei was a colleague of our old friend Li Shizeng whom both founded the Diligent Work-Frugal Study movement, sending worker-students to France. It was Cai Yuanpei who recruited those like Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Hu Shih. Chen Duxiu served as the dead of the School of Arts and Letters at the university; Li Dazhao became its librarian and Hu Shih helped translate and perform numerous lectures. These men would lead the fight for “baihua wenxue” or the Vernacular Literature Movement. Yes there's a lot of movements in this episode. Now Baihua is a form of written Chinese based on the numerous varieties of Chinese spoken in the country vs, “classical Chinese”. This probably sounds a bit confusing, but think of it this way. Going all the way back to the Shang dynasty a process of creating Chinese characters was gradually standardized by the time of the Qin dynasty, so thats 1200 BC to 206 BC. Over the following dynasties the Chinese calligraphy is created, however what also occurs is the evolution of language. The Chinese language branched off into numerous dialects, thus all over China people are speaking different but related forms of Chinese, yet the way they write is using this “classical Chinese writing”. As you might imagine, by the time of the 20th century, the classical chinese writing is so vastly different from what people are speaking, by this time its Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and many many more. Classical Chinese had become extremely outdated. Chinese intellectuals in the early 20th century were looking to reform the literary system. Two of the big proposals that came about were to simplify Chinese characters and create a Chinese writing system using the latin alphabet. Professor at Peking University, Qian Xuantong was a leading figure on the Latinization movement. Chen Dixiu on the topic of Chinese characters had said “backward, difficult to recognize, and inconvenient to write”. He blamed them for China being stuck in conservatism and having lacked modernization. There was a movement to switch to pinyin to spell out Chinese characters, for those who don't know Pinyin is alphabetically written Chinese, aka the only way Craig is able to read most of his sources haha. The plan to formalize this never occurred, but there was a real fight for it. Many scholars began writing in Baihua, one of the most famous works was Lu Xun's “A Madman's Diary”. In essence it was a short story criticizing early 20th century Chinese society, trying to challenge its audience into conventional thinking vs traditional understanding. The story has Lu Xun's madman seeing family and village members around him performing cannibalism which he has attributed to some confucian classics. Basically he implies China's traditional culture was mentally cannibalistic. Building somewhat on this theme, Chen Duxiu wrote in the New Youth how Mr. Confucius needed to be replaced by Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy. Meanwhile Hu Shih argued “a dead language cannot produce a living literature”. He further argued a new written format would allow the Chinese people with less education to read texts, articles, books and so forth. It was classical Chinese that was holding the less educated back. Basically he was criticizing how scholars basically held a monopoly on information. Hu Shih was highly praised for his efforts, one man named Mao Zedong would have a lot to say about how grateful China should be to him. Mao Zedong of course was a assistant at Peking University's library at the time. Now alongside the battle to change the written language of China, there was a feminist movement as well. Women suffered greatly under the traditional system. Prior to the 20th century Women in China were considered essentially different from Men as you can imagine. Confucius argued that an ordered and morally correct society would refrain from the use of force. Violence and coercion were deviant and unwelcomed. Instead a correct person would aim to become “junzi” meaning gentleman or a person of integrity. For society to remain stable, it was crucial correct hierarchies were established. Servants obey masters, subjects obey rulers, children obey parents and women obey men.The association of Women with Yin and Men with Yang, two qualities considered important by Daoism, still had women occupying a lower position than men in the hierarchical order. The I Ching stated “Great Righteousness is shown in that man and woman occupy their correct places; the relative positions of Heaven and Earth”. Women of course were supposed to be submissive and obedient to men, normally forbidden to participate in politics, military and or communal aspects. The traditional Confucian led Chinese society simply valued men over women. To get into the most hardcore aspect of this, did you know China had a near 2000 year history of female infanticide? It was written by many Christian missionaries arriving in the late 16th century to China that they witnessed newborns being thrown into rivers or in the rubbish. The primary cause of this practice was poverty, shortages of food. Confucianism influenced this practice quite a bit. Male children were to work, provide and care for their elders, while females were to be married off as quickly as possible. During the 19th century “ni nu” to drown girls was widespread, because of the mass famines. Exposure to the elements, strangulation, tossing a child into a basket and casting it off were normalized. Buddhists would build these things called “baby towers” for people to dump children at. Later on in 1930, Rou Shi a famous member of the May Fourth movement would write a short story titled “A Slave-Mother” portraying how extreme poverty in rural communities led to female infanticide. Hell turn the clock even more to the 1970's and we got the One-Child Policy where females were often aborted or abandoned. Alongside this infant girls at the age of 5 or 6 would often have the feet bound, a centuries old practice that would increase their marriageability. This hobbled them for life. When women married, their families pretty much abandoned them. Often this marriages were arranged and the new wife could expect to be at the autocratic mercy of her mother in law henceforth. If her husband died there was great social pressure for her to remain unmarried and chaste for the rest of her life. It goes without saying, suicide rates in China were the highest among young women. During the late 19th century the ideal woman was “xiangqi liangmu /a good wife and loving mother”. During the early 20th century the new ideal was becoming “modeng funu / modern woman”. Women wanted to pursue education and careers outside the home. Whether it was by choice or a financial necessity, Chinese women increasingly left the domestic sphere. They entered the workforce in all available forms, typically but not limited to factories, offices, and the entertainment industry. Yet the traditional social norms limited their opportunities in work, education and politics. Women according to the traditional system were not supposed to make speeches in the streets. But those like Liang Qichao began calling for the liberation of women, to let them be educated, allow them to participate in Chinese society. The confucian social order held the hierarchy of husband over wife, but within the New Culture Movement that criticized Confucianism and traditions, now there was a deep want for women to be seen as human beings, as independent people who should become actors in the public sphere. When those like Chen Duxiu began writing and lecturing about tossing aside the old and looking at the new, this also included women. Thus the New Culture Movement had a large aspect of gender equality and female emancipation. There was also the aspect of dress. By the 1920's women would abandon traditional garments of embroidered hip or knee length jackets and trousers. They began wearing short jackets, skirts and the qipao, a one piece dress. Unlike the traditional women's clothing that hung loosely around the body, the Qipoa was form fitting. A women's suffrage movement began, though it would take some time. So you might be seeing the theme here, the old, traditional, confucian past, was needing a new replacement. The written language needed to be updated, women needed to be more equal to men. How about the nation of China itself? The New Culture leaders wanted to see China as a nation amongst nations, not one culturally unique. They began doing what many nations did around the turn of the century, they looked outwards. They looked at foreign doctrines, particularly those that emphasized cultural criticism and were nation building. Many of these intellectuals were the lucky few who went abroad, received foreign educations. They took western and Japanese ideas, seeing what could be used to create a new model for China and her vast population. Many were enthralled by President Woodrow Wilson's 14 points and ideals of self-determination. The Xinhai revolution had ushered in a Chinese nationalist spirit which demanded resistance to foreign impositions and the elimination of domestic autocracy. They had overthrown the Manchu, now they wanted to overthrow the global powers who had been encroaching upon their nation since the mid 19th century. So many of these intellectuals had hoped with the end of the war would come an end to their national disgrace. The intellectuals argued China's failure to modernize was caused by both external and internal factors. Externally, foreign powers had been encroaching upon China for decades. Foreign powers had gone to war and defeated China, forcing her to sign unequal treaties. Internally China's economy, social system and cultural values were holding her back. This brought forward the need for a “new culture” to kick start the development of a new state. They argued China needed educational and social progress to remedy the states diplomatic weakness and endemic poverty. China's economy, social fabric and international standing needed to be improved, and the answer was programs of public education. Yet to do so, the less educated needed to be able to read and participate, ie: vernacular writing. Liang Qichao was a huge influence on ideas to build China as a modern state. He created the “Xinmin Congbao / new citizen”, a biweekly journal first publishing in Yokohama Japan back in 1902. The journal covered numerous topics like politics, religion, law, economics, geography, current affairs and such. Basically Li Qichao was showing the Chinese public never before heard theories. Liang Qichao got Chinese people to think about the future of China. What did it even mean to identify as Chinese? He allowed more Chinese to look out into the world, so they could see many different paths and ideas. There were countless, Darwinism, liberalism, pragmatism, socialism all these new “isms” could be the tools to a realization of a strong and unified China. And of course there was Marxism, many Chinese laborers who went to Russia saw first hand what the Bolsheviks had accomplished. The principal of Peking University, Cai Yuanpei would resign on May 9th, 1919 causing a huge uproar. What once united all these intellectual New Culture movement types, gradually changed after the May fourth movement. Hu Shih, Cai Yuanpei and liberal minded intellectuals urged for protesting students to return to their classrooms, but those like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao urged for more radical political action. Marxist study groups would form and with them the first meetings of the Chinese Communist Party. This is of course a story for future podcasts, but it should be noted there would be a divide amongst these intellectuals as to how China should be “modern”. Li Dazhao for example advocated for fundamental solutions, while Hu Shih criticized such thinking “calling for the study of questions, less study of isms”. Those like Chen Dixiu and Li Dazhao would quickly find followers like Mao Zedong. Now the overall theme here has been “toss out Confucius!” but it was not all like that. Part of the movement much like the Meiji restoration, was to usher in some new, but to incorporate the old so to not lose ones entire culture. For those of you who don't know I began my time on youtube specifically talking about the history of Tokugawa to Showa era Japan. The Meiji restoration was an incredible all encompassing hyper modernization, that for the life of me I can't find a comparison to. But an interesting aspect of it was the “fukko / restore antiquity”. It often goes unmentioned, but the Japanese made these enormous efforts to crop out the outside influences such as Confucianism, Buddhism and such, to find the ancient cultures of their people. This eventually led to an evolution of Shintoism, thus Japan not only wanted to adopt new ideas from the rest of the world, they wanted to find the important aspects of their own cultural history and retain it, make sure they did not lose what made them Japanese. The same can be said of China here. Yigupai or the “doubting antiquity school” was a group of scholars who applied a critical historiographical approach to Chinese historical sources. They took their ancient texts and really analyzed them to see what was truly authentic, what should be kept. Hu Shih initiated the movement. He had studied abroad and was deeply influenced by western thinking and argued at Peking University that all Chinese written history prior to the Eastern Zhou, that is the second half of the Zhou dynasty needed to be carefully dissected. Many were concerned with the authenticity of pre-Qin texts and began questioning the writers of past dynasties. There was also Gu Jiegang who formed the “Gushibian / Debates on Ancient history” movement and published magazines of the same name. Later in 1922 there was the Critical Review Journal, involving numerous historians. Their work dismantled many beliefs or at minimum cast some doubt on ancient textual writings that had been around for millennia. For example there was the belief Yu the Great or Yu the Engineer who was the first to make real flood control efforts during the Xia Dynasty was an animal or deity figure. There was the notion of peaceful transition of power seen from the Yao to Shun dynasties, but the group found evidence this was all concocted by philosophers of the Zhou dynasty simply to support their political philosophy. They were basically detectives finding the bullshit in their ancient history and this had a profound effect on the current day thinking. The doubting antiquity group's proved the history of China had been created iteratively. Ancient texts had been repeatedly edited, reorganized, hell many had fabricated things to make ends meet for themselves, you could not take their word at face value. They argued all of the supernatural attributes of historical figures had to be questioned, a lot of it was not possible and thus not authentic versions of their history. But the group also were victims of their own criticisms. Many of them would criticize parts of antiquity history simply to get rid of things they didn't like or that got in the way of current day issues. There was also another element to the doubting antiquity movement. Students were pushed to look over things in ancient Chinese history, chinese folklore that Confucian schools dismissed or ignored. Within the background of the Twenty-One Demands, the Sino-Japanese Treaty, the double promising of Britain and other secret deals made over the future of China had angered her people greatly. The common people of China did not feel represented nor heard at all. Japan was encroaching upon them in Manchuria and now Shandong. Their leadership were either making secret deals to secure their own objectives, or they were completely powerless to other nations and crumbling, such as the case at Versailles. With so many students and laborers going abroad witnessing the civilizations of other nations in the west and Japan, they yearned for the things those people had. Democratic and egalitarian values were at the very forefront of the New Culture Movement. Western science, democracy, bills of rights, racial equality, equality of opportunity, opportunity to venture into politics, the list can go on, these were things alien to China. The people began to enchant the masses with such ideas, while simultaneously criticizing traditional Chinese ethics, her customs, literature, history, philosophy, religion, social and political institutions and such. Liberalism, pragmatism, utilitarianism, anarchism, socialism, communism were thrown around like yardsticks so the people could measure China's traditional culture against them. How did such “isms” match up? Within the current crisis in China which one of these isms might benefit them the most? Overall the movement kept up the greatest theme of needing to look forward. China had always looked to the past. They had suffered so immensely, they were after all enduring the century of humiliation as it would famously become known. It was humiliation after humiliation. How could they change so the past would stop haunting them? Things like the Boxer Protocol, how could China rid itself of these humiliating indemnity payments? Britain's Opium had ushered in a poison that still plagued them, how could they finally rid China of it? The war and encroachment of nations like Britain, Russia and Japan, how could they stop them from continuing these actions? China could not stay the way she was anymore, she had to change. Thus overall within every facet of the movement's ideology, they kept emphasizing to stop looking in the past for answers for today. Today would require looking abroad and within and it would not be easy. This episode and I do apologize it must be all over the place for you, encompasses a lot of the thoughts and feelings, but its part of a great event known as the May Fourth movement of 1919. China is basically for the first time really going to try and adopt fundamental changes, to become a real modern state. If it were not for lets say, the descent into warlordism, perhaps the Chinese Republican dream could have been started in 1919. Regardless, China will see an incredible amount of change in a short amount of time. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The New Culture Movement saw numerous intellectuals rise up and challenge the prevailing social and political order of their nation. They tried to give the public new answers to old questions, and above all else hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. It was to be a arduous journey, but students would be the vanguard into a new age for China.
Today Mason welcomes the remarkable Peter Galle onto the show. Peter is a practitioner of true Classical Chinese medicine, one of many exceptional individuals keeping the practice of this lost healing art present and alive in the current diluted culture of Westernised appropriation. Peter and Mason go deep in this episode, inviting us to acknowledge with gravity, the enormous value the sensory faculties of sight, smell, taste, touch and perception hold in the fruitful practice of healing, regardless of the modality. Both men share their knowledge and insights passionately, many of which are heavily influenced by the Huang Di Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor's Classic Of Internal Medicine, a seminal text on Chinese medicine that captures the root intention of the Classical approach. Peter speaks from the heart, with care and diligent reverence for those who walked before him, whose path of mastery was apprenticed in alignment with the original guidance of this ancient craft. Covering all manner of topics; including the challenges practitioners face when working to harmonise complex pathologies, the importance of honouring lineage and working with classical texts, why self-cultivation and self-care are crucial aspects for the longevity of the healers' practice, developing perceptual sensitivity and the acuity and discipline that is required to accurately read the body and its subtle cues, plant medicine and the indigenous use of Cannabis in China and so much more! This episode is rich and valuable, a truly insightful listen for all, especially those in communion with the practices of Chinese medicine. Peter & Mason discuss: - The difference between commercialised Chinese medicine and true Chinese medicine. - The challenges faced by practitioners in treating complex illness. - The magic and interconnectedness of plants in healing. - The importance of self-cultivation for practitioners. - The layers of the body and disease in Chinese medicine. - Honouring the lineage and working with classical texts in Chinese medicine. Resource guide Guest Links Peter's Website Peter's Instagram Mentioned In This Episode Stephen Harrod Buhner Books Related Podcasts Qi Cycles And The Dao with Jost Sauer - Acupuncturist (EP#48)Lifestyle Medicine with Acupuncturist Jost Sauer (EP#63) Connect With Us: SuperFeast InstagramSuperFeast FacebookSuperFeast TikTok SuperFeast Online Education Check Out The Transcript Below: https://www.superfeast.com.au/blogs/articles/chinese-medicine-beyond-the-surface-with-peter-galle-215
This review book talks about classical Chinese poems, which are a part of Chinese culture. These poems have been memorized and passed down through generations. Famous lines from these poems are often quoted in conversations and speeches. The book focuses on a type of classical Chinese poem called Shi, particularly those from the Tang Dynasty. The book features a unique bilingual format that captures the rhythm and meaning of each poem. By including Hanyu Pinyin, readers can appreciate the beauty of the poems while also learning how to pronounce and understand the Chinese characters. The author also explains the poems in a manner that makes reading classical Chinese poems easy and enjoyable.
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Late Classical Chinese Thought (Oxford University Press, 2023) is Chris Fraser's topically organized study of the Warring States period of Chinese philosophy, the third century BCE. In addition to well-known texts like the Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Mencius, Fraser's book introduces readers to Lu's Annals, the Guanzi, the Hanfeizi, the Shangjun Shu, and excerpts from the Mawangdui silk manuscripts. Beginning with a chapter on "The Way," or the dao, Late Classical Chinese Thought explores topics in metaphysics, metaethics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of language and logic. By focusing on topics rather than texts, the book aims to show how philosophical discourse happened in the philosophically productive period of the third century. Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff.
A young Taiwanese practitioner shares her experiences learning classical Chinese dance, learning to work with others, and cultivating her Xinxing. Original Articles:1. Upgrading My Xinxing While Learning Classical Chinese Dance
Co-hosts Ian Sabroe and Dieter Declercq talk with Prof Guo Liping and Prof Vivienne Lo about the cross-cultural medical and health humanities and their collaborative work on film and the Chinese Medical Humanities. Prof Guo Liping is Professor of English, Director, Centre for Narrative Medicine of Peking University Health Science Centre, Vice Dean, School of Health Humanities, Peking University. Her research interests include narrative medicine and medical humanities education. She's vice editor-in-chief of the Chinese journal of Narrative Medicine. Prof Vivienne Lo is a Professor in the department of History and the convenor of the UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity. She also teaches the Ancient and Medieval history of China and has specialist modules in the History of Asian Medicine and Classical Chinese medicine at BSc and MA. Vivienne's core research concerns the social and cultural origins of acupuncture, therapeutic exercise, and food and medicine. She translates and analyses manuscript material from Early and Medieval China, and publishes on the transmission of scientific knowledge along the so-called Silk Roads. She has a long-term interest in visual cultures of medicine and healthcare. Current projects include a history of nutrition in China.
My guest on this episode is Gina Martin, founding mother and High Priestess of Triple Spiral of Dún na Sidhe, a pagan spiritual congregation in the Hudson Valley of New York. She is a ritualist, teacher, healer, mother, and writer of sacred songs. Her When She Wakes series, which includes the titles Sisters of the Solstice Moon, Walking the Threads of Time, and She Is Here, are published by Womancraft publishing. She is the curator and composer of WomEnchanting: a Compendium of Sacred Songs and Chants. Gina is also a practitioner of Classical Chinese medicine and a Board Certified licensed acupuncturist. She lives as a steward of the land that previously held a village of the Ramapough Lenape where people can come together now to remember the Old Ways. On this episode we discuss:How Gina's early experiences in the Catholic church informed and shaped her views on ritual and ceremonyGina's relationship with the Sacred Feminine, and why she feels like despite it all, she often needs to be dragged out into the light as a celebrant of the Goddess (plus some of her experiences in doing so)Gina's "When She Wakes" series, including her inspiration behind it, and the often ephemeral line between fiction and realityHer understanding of time, and how this appears in her book series, particularly book twoHow the language we speak defines our realityAnd much more! Show Notes If you'd like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history.I'm so excited to announce the launch of the Home to Her Academy, a school dedicated to seekers of Sacred Feminine wisdom! To learn more and register for my upcoming class, "Home to Herstory, Home to Your Story," please visit www.hometoheracademy.com. And while you're there, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming classes.My book, “Home to Her: Walking the Transformative Path of the Sacred Feminine,” is available from Womancraft Publishing! To learn more, read endorsements and purchase, please visit https://womancraftpublishing.com/product/home-to-her/. It is also available for sale via Amazon, Bookshop.org, and you can order it from your favorite local bookstore, too.Please – if you love this podcast and/or have read my book, please consider leaving me a review! For the podcast, reviews on iTunes are extremely helpful, and for the book, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are equally helpful. Thank you for supporting my work!You can watch this and other podcast episodes at the Home to Her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hometoherGot feedback about this episode or others you've heard? Please reach out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hometoher/ ), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/hometoher)You can learn more about Gina and her work at her website: www.ginamartinauthor.com. You can also follow her on Instagram @ginamartinauthor and Facebook @Gina Martin AuthorGina mentioned Vatican II; here's some basic background information on this shift in the Catholic Church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_CouncilWe also discussed the book The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and referred to some controversy around it. Content warning - these article refer to child sexual abuse. More context here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/27/sff-community-marion-zimmer-bradley-daughter-accuses-abuse.
How and why could learning classical Chinese make you a better clinician? Here are a couple of possible reasons: Reading the Chinese medicine classics directly, instead of modern textbooks about them, facilitates a more direct and hence authentic transmission, thereby giving you maximum clarity and efficacy through precise diagnosis and treatments rooted in the Chinese medicine paradigm. It enriches your medical vocabulary by introducing you to concepts that simply don't exist in Western languages or the biomedical paradigm, such as “Triple Burner” or “Gate of Life,” “Bi impediment syndrome,” or even Qi and Yin/Yang. By providing access to untranslated highly specialized information, it is certain to blow your mind and expand your tool chest.Last, but definitely not least, however, reading the classics will invariably remind you why you chose this path in the first place, rekindling your love for the Dao, reinspiring you and creating a space for not just professional but also personal cultivation, and for promoting virtue inside you, your community, and your patients. Emphasizing the lofty ideal of “harmonizing heaven and earth,” the classics call on us to practice Medicine with a capital M. -----------------------------Study Classical Chinese with Sabine, visit www.translatingchinesemedicine.com to learn more and register.Sabine has a wonderful collection of work that she's translated, visit Happy Goat Productions to add her books to your collections of treasure on Chinese medicine.Looking for a steady drip of thoughtful and clinically useful material and methods, sign on with the Imperial Tutor some nourishing mentoring.Love podcasts? Of course you do, you listen to Qiological! Sabine's new podcast A Pebble in the Cosmic Pond is a collaborative effort with Leo Lok and other friends. Tune it and enjoy!
Chinese feminists and revolutionaries were active before and during China's 1911 Revolution. Qiu Jin wore men's clothing, was ahead of her time by writing in Standard Chinese instead of Classical Chinese and in making speeches to engage all ages in the struggle for women's rights and women's education. These women believed that women had to seek their own rights, rather than depend on men.Wu Shuqing imagined and then created the Women's Revolutionary Army, which fought at Hankou and Nanjing during the 1911 Revolution.Films and plays have been made about Qiu Jin. But more should be known about Wu Shuqing whose life after the revolution is not really known.Women's rights and education have improved since then. And women have led the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan. But on the mainland, the Chinese Communist Party is currently run exclusively by 24 men and no women. Qiu might be disappointed.Please fill out the listener survey here .Image: "Tomb of Qiu Jin, 2022-07-30 02" by Siyuwj is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 我們是怎麼認識的? How did we meet? 撿酒瓶 jiǎn jiǔ píng - pick up wine bottle 碎 suì - broken 默契 mò qì - tacit understanding 閒聊 xián liáo - have small talk 試水溫 shì shuǐ wēn - (lit.testing the waters) refers to to take a trial run - 我們是好朋友嗎? Are we good friends? 喇低賽 lā dī sài - (a Taiwanese slang) means to chat casually or idly 扯 chě - to talk about, to chat 戀情 liàn qíng - romantic relationship 投資 tóu zī - investment 開戶 kāi hù - open an account 股票 gǔ piào - stocks 大戶 dà hù - big investor 資本 zī běn - capital, funds 證券商 zhèng quàn shāng - securities firm, brokerage 契合 qì hé - fit, match, be in harmony - 為什麼我們想要開始做播客? Why did we want to start a podcast? 被雷打到 bèi léi dǎ dào - (lit. struck by lightning) means suddenly struck with an idea 跟...相比之下 gēn...xiāng bǐ zhī xià - compared with... 露臉 lù liǎn - show one's face 吻合 wěn hé - coincide; conform to 初衷 chū zhōng - original intention; initial aim 障礙 zhàng ài - obstacle; barrier 制式 zhì shì - standard; regular; uniform 文言文 wén yán wén - Classical Chinese 氣質 qì zhì - elegance, grace 階段 jiē duàn - stage; phase - 為什麼我們不繼續一起合作了? Why did we decide to stop working together? 探索 tàn suǒ - explore 技能 jì néng - skills 專注 zhuān zhù - focus 聽眾 tīng zhòng - audience 鼓勵 gǔ lì - encourage 個人 gè rén - individual 回饋 huí kuì - feedback 忠誠 zhōng chéng - loyalty 本業 běn yè - one's main or primary job or profession 全職 quán zhí - full-time 正職 zhèng zhí - regular job 辭掉 cí diào - to resign or quit (from a job) 暫停 zàn tíng - to pause 收穫 shōu huò - gain, benefit Follow me on Instagram: fangfang.chineselearning Follow Tingting on Instagram: ting.ting.tai I hope you like today's podcast! Got feedback? I'd love to hear it! Rate my podcast show or leave me a review! Learn Chinese Podcast | Chinese Listening Practice | Learn Taiwanese Mandarin | Chinese Learning Podcast
The oil of Connection & Mercy Episode Summary: This “Oils A-Z” with Ariana Harley, Louise Rose ND, Mica Carew ND, LAc, Will Wan L.Ac., MSOM, Dipl.O.M. (NCCAOM) in a deep dive into Marjoram - ‘The oil of Connection and Mercy' Don't miss: Merciful Marjoram~ ‘The oil of Connection and Mercy' : an unsung Hero ⁃ Dõterra's Marjoram comes from Egypt, and is known for love potions from Aphrodite ⁃ Dr. Louise shares philosophies on fragrance energetically and how Marjoram is Moving & Relaxing at the same time ⁃ Marjoram is extremely relaxing to all smooth muscles ~ think all spasm-y pain: from large muscles to menstrual cramps and migraines ⁃ Softening, relaxing, strengthening, and supporting all at the same time- the feeling of being Held! ⁃ As the oil of Connection, Marjoram is the support needed for mental & emotional burnout: it promotes trust and connection ⁃ Dr. Mica coins this as ‘Merciful Marjoram': provides courage and fortitude to honor and follow your inner voice and truth ⁃ Marjoram enhances intuition: place on your Third Eye- it helps to stop the mind's ‘over-riding' tendencies - it cuts through the B.S. of your Mind ⁃ Don't miss the Marjoram Clearing with Dr. Mica! ⁃ Will Wan explains from a Classical Chinese medicine perspective how Marjoram cuts through Everything: it is able to move through with ease, any constraint or obstacle, leaving softness & sweetness ⁃ Moves Blood and Qi, it is a Yang herb with Yin within; Anchors Shen disturbances of mental and emotional states ⁃ Will Wan uses Marjoram extensively in is ultra marathon training ⁃ Pro Tip: Marjoram + DDR + DeepBlue stick on heel/feet for plantar fasciitis Grab the Protocols and Recipes: Visit https://www.hellovisionary.life and be sure to subscribe to our email list... You will be sent an email with the video recording of this call and any important protocols and resources given out. How to get your own doTERRA oils & supplements: If you would like to purchase one of the oils or wellness products we have mentioned, please speak with the person who invited you to the call so you can get them at the best price. We recommend that you start with your doTERRA wholesale account. You can pick out any items you like, and if they add up to $150, then you will get the account fee of $35 waived. Please reach out to the person who shared this podcast with you for guidance or email one of us. If you do not have a connection to Doterra, please email arin@jasmineandjuniper.com. About the Hosts: This podcast is a collaborative effort between doTERRA Presidential Diamond Aisha Harley, doTERRA Blue Diamond Dr. Josie Schmidt, and doTERRA Blue Diamond Arin Fugate . They are the founders of the Visionary Leaders Collective. Connect with us: Aisha Harley- aishaharley.me FB- https://www.facebook.com/aisha.harley Ariana Harley - https://www.arianaharley.com/ Josie Schmidt- FB Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/josie.h.schmidt Arin - https://msha.ke/jasmineandjuniper/ Contact Email: ariningraham@gmail.com Welcome to the Visionary Leaders Podcast Here you will gain the knowledge you need to bring essential oils, plant medicine and wisdom, supplementation, and functional medicine into your life. We have a weekly show: “Learn to be the Healer in Your Home” where we hear stories from our community on how they integrated essential oils, supplementation, and functional medicine into their lives as a pathway to healing. Once a month we publish a show called “Oils A-Z” with Ariana Harley, Louise Rose ND, Mica Carew ND, LAc, Will Wan L.Ac., MSOM, Dipl.O.M. (NCCAOM). Each month on Oils A-Z, Ariana and our wonderful Essential Wellness Practitioners take us on a deep-dive into the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits of different essential oils. Learn more about our community at hellovisionary.life Our website is https://www.hellovisionary.life. This is where all of our resources live. You can learn how to use essential oils in your home and how to share oils with your community through webinars, phone calls, and other resources. Please take a look around, and make sure to join us every Monday on live Zoom. Call info here. Find us here: Community Education Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/essentialwellnesspdx/?ref=share_group_link YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC63D4FzSvaJwfkDrJe5y5zw Website: https://www.hellovisionary.life
Philosophy of action in the context of Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the contemporary Western philosophical narrative. Classical Chinese philosophers began from the assumption that relations are primary to the constitution of the person, hence acting in the early Chinese context necessarily is interacting and co-acting along with others -human and nonhuman actors. Mercedes Valmisa's Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action (Oxford UP, 2021) is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers in order to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency -what the author has denominated "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin). As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action also conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires great capacity of self and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response, which allows the agent to co-raise courses of action ad-hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to deal with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines, opening a brand-new topic in Chinese and comparative philosophy. You can find her very teachable essay "We are interwoven beings" on Aeon here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Philosophy of action in the context of Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the contemporary Western philosophical narrative. Classical Chinese philosophers began from the assumption that relations are primary to the constitution of the person, hence acting in the early Chinese context necessarily is interacting and co-acting along with others -human and nonhuman actors. Mercedes Valmisa's Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action (Oxford UP, 2021) is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers in order to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency -what the author has denominated "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin). As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action also conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires great capacity of self and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response, which allows the agent to co-raise courses of action ad-hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to deal with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines, opening a brand-new topic in Chinese and comparative philosophy. You can find her very teachable essay "We are interwoven beings" on Aeon here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
Philosophy of action in the context of Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the contemporary Western philosophical narrative. Classical Chinese philosophers began from the assumption that relations are primary to the constitution of the person, hence acting in the early Chinese context necessarily is interacting and co-acting along with others -human and nonhuman actors. Mercedes Valmisa's Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action (Oxford UP, 2021) is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers in order to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency -what the author has denominated "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin). As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action also conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires great capacity of self and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response, which allows the agent to co-raise courses of action ad-hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to deal with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines, opening a brand-new topic in Chinese and comparative philosophy. You can find her very teachable essay "We are interwoven beings" on Aeon here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
Philosophy of action in the context of Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the contemporary Western philosophical narrative. Classical Chinese philosophers began from the assumption that relations are primary to the constitution of the person, hence acting in the early Chinese context necessarily is interacting and co-acting along with others -human and nonhuman actors. Mercedes Valmisa's Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action (Oxford UP, 2021) is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers in order to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency -what the author has denominated "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin). As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action also conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires great capacity of self and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response, which allows the agent to co-raise courses of action ad-hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to deal with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines, opening a brand-new topic in Chinese and comparative philosophy. You can find her very teachable essay "We are interwoven beings" on Aeon here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Philosophy of action in the context of Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the contemporary Western philosophical narrative. Classical Chinese philosophers began from the assumption that relations are primary to the constitution of the person, hence acting in the early Chinese context necessarily is interacting and co-acting along with others -human and nonhuman actors. Mercedes Valmisa's Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action (Oxford UP, 2021) is the first monograph dedicated to the exploration and rigorous reconstruction of an extraordinary strategy for efficacious relational action devised by Classical Chinese philosophers in order to account for the interdependent and embedded character of human agency -what the author has denominated "adapting" or "adaptive agency" (yin). As opposed to more unilateral approaches to action also conceptualized in the Classical Chinese corpus, such as forceful and prescriptive agency, adapting requires great capacity of self and other-awareness, equanimity, flexibility, creativity, and response, which allows the agent to co-raise courses of action ad-hoc: unique and temporary solutions to specific, non-permanent, and non-generalizable life problems. Adapting is one of the world's oldest philosophies of action, and yet it is shockingly new for contemporary audiences, who will find in it an unlikely source of inspiration to deal with our current global problems. This book explores the core conception of adapting both on autochthonous terms and by cross-cultural comparison, drawing on the European and Analytic philosophical traditions as well as on scholarship from other disciplines, opening a brand-new topic in Chinese and comparative philosophy. You can find her very teachable essay "We are interwoven beings" on Aeon here.
Podcast Takeover Time! - I let two YouTube subscribers take over my channel and interview me about my journey in learning classical Chinese medicine and how it's different to TCM. Waleed & Yassin have been on a journey to discover what Classical Chinese medicine is and they are directly interested in studying the same system that I learned - ICEAM Ok, so Waleed & Yassin have their own YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/@UCzliuDMatV8zfMhl5_BctBg There are the full-length interviews with my teacher, Laurie Ayres and I would highly encourage you to check out their channel and give it a subscribe. It's hard when you first get started, and they literally launched their channel this week. Leave a comment letting them know Chinese medicine podcast sent you there :) Finally this is not a paid promotion by ICEAM or Waleed & Yassin's channel. I am doing this because i truly believe everything I've said in this interview and I hope that other TCM'ers and Chinese medicine enthusiasts may discover the wonderful world of Classical Chinese medicine as I have, so I am happy to promote this system /course and the endeavors of Waleed and Yassin through their investigation of (as they say) "old school Medicine" . :) ICEAM course info: 1) UK The course we are discussing is starting a new intake in the UK and in Australia. UK course details: Course info, details, price, signup: https://www.iceam.org/venue/iceam-utrecht/ Contact for the course: Laurie Ayres: lauriehayres@gmail.com or Lettie ldewit@utrecht.iceam.org The UK course will start on May 27th &2 8th They also have a few intro lectures before that, signup is via Lettie: 23rd Mar – An Introduction to the Classical Treatment of Menopausal Issues 5th Apr – Essential Aspects of Systematic Clinical Practice – And An Introduction to the Tian Lineage 19 Apr – An Introduction to the Treatment of Shao Yang & the San Jiao – Huang Qin & Chai Hu Herb Methods & Their Associated Formulas ____ 2) Australia : Australia Course details: there is a new course starting up in Australia, via Brisbane. I am hoping (not 100% sure i can get to it, but working on clearing my schedule :) to get myself to this new introductory event event and would be happy to connect with any subscribers who are thinking of starting up the course, feel free to contact me and we can catch up in Brisbane. study time & party time! https://www.iceam.org/live-course/brisbane-elementary-aspects-of-canonical-chinese-medicine/ CONTACT Marie Hopkinson (Clinic/Consultations): MARIE HOPKINSON, Registered Chinese Herbalist and Acupuncturist in Australia (AHPRA) Consultations for treatment (individual) please head to : http://www.bespokemedicine.net/patients Phone (AUS ONLY) 08 9275 1999 - for patients inquiries only. Email drmarie@bespokemedicine.net - do not send advertising etc things to this email. it won't be answered. Facebook: fb.me/bespokemedicine IMPORTANT: This video, as with all videos on the The Chinese Medicine Podcast are NOT a replacement for a health professional diagnosis. While Marie may answer your questions, all answers are not of a professional consultation level - it is impossible to check your pulse through the internet, hence Chinese medicine cannot be practiced properly through the internet. If you have any undiagnosed symptoms, or changes in your health condition The Chinese Medicine Podcast urges you to see your own doctor, GP, Chinese medicine practitioner, acupuncturist or other health professional as appropriate. If it is an emergency call 000 in Australia. If you are unsure if this advice is appropriate for your individual situation ask your own practitioner before applying any diet or lifestyle techniques /concepts discussed in this video. Marie Hopkinson and The Chinese Medicine Podcast wishes you the best of health and improvement in your own health journey. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marie-hopkinson/message
The Qing Empire (1636-1912) ruled over one of the largest land empires in the world. Its territories encompassed not only what is considered today to be China proper and Manchuria, but also Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia. Its subjects were composed of people belonging to different identities, of which Manchu, Han, Mongol, Tibetan, and later Uighur became the most important groups. As an empire that was composed of a small conquering elite, how did the Qing manage these different identities as its empire expanded and stabilized? What changes occurred over time? What legacy did the Qing leave on the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in terms of how they dealt with ethnic minorities? To help answer these question, we invite Professor Pamela Crossley to talk to us about how history and identity were constructed and weaved into Qing imperial ideology. Contributors Pamela Crossley Professor Pamela Crossley is the Charles and Elfriede Collis Professor of History at Dartmouth University. She specializes in the history of the Qing Empire and modern China, although her research interests also span Inner Asian history, global history, history of horsemanship in Eurasia, and imperial sources of modern identities. She is the author of eight books and numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, and her book A Translucent Mirror is the winner of the Joseph Levenson Prize of the Association of Asian Studies. Additionally, she has also written commentaries for major newspapers and magazines. Yiming Ha Yiming Ha is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current research is on military mobilization and state-building in China between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on how military institutions changed over time, how the state responded to these changes, the disconnect between the center and localities, and the broader implications that the military had on the state. His project highlights in particular the role of the Mongol Yuan in introducing an alternative form of military mobilization that radically transformed the Chinese state. He is also interested in military history, nomadic history, comparative Eurasian state-building, and the history of maritime interactions in early modern East Asia. He received his BA from UCLA and his MPhil from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Credits Episode no. 17 Release date: March 3, 2023 Recording location: Hanover, NH/Los Angeles, CA Transcript (by Yiming Ha and Greg Sattler) Bibliography courtesy of Prof. Crossley Images Cover Image: A page of the Pentaglot Dictionary (Yuzhi wuti qing wenjian 御製五體清文鑑), a dictionary of the major languages of the Qing compiled towards the later reign of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century. The five languages are Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Chagatai (now known as Uighur). (Image Source) The Stele Commemorating the Victory over the Dzungars, erected by the Qianlong emperor either in the 1750s or 1760s to commemorate the Qing victory over the Dzungars in the Xinjiang region. The stele featured four languages. On the front side are inscriptions written in Classical Chinese (by the Qianlong emperor himself) and Manchu, while the reverse side features inscriptions in Mongolian and Tibetan. (Image Source) The Capture of Tucheng, a painting commemorating a Qing victory during the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan (1856-1873). Note the five colored banner that were flown by the Qing troops. The alternate version of this flag (with the colors rearranged) later became one of the early flags of the Republic of China, with each color representing an ethnic group. Red for the Han, yellow for the Manchus, blue for the Mongols, white for the Hui (Muslims), and black for the Tibetans. (Image Source) References Bovington, Goardner, "The History of the History of Xinjiang" in Twentieth-Century China, 26:.2 (April, 2001): 95-139. Bulag, Uradyn The Mongols at China's Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity (2002, Rowman & Littlefield) Crossley, "The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China" in Aviel Roshwald, ed, The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism: Volume One: Patterns and Trajectories over the Longue Durée (2022, Cambridge), 301-328. Crossley, Helen F. Siu, Donald S., Sutton, ed., Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ehtnicity and Frontier in the Early Modern China (California, 2006) Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imeprial Ideology (1999, California). Elliott, Mark, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China (2002, Californai) Perdue, Peter. C, ."Empire and Nation in Comparative Perspective: Frontier Administration in Eighteenth-Century China" in Journal of Early Modern History, 5:4 (2001, 282-304. Jonathan D. Spence, Treason by the Book (2002, Viking). Wu, Hung, "Emperor's Masquerade: 'Costume portraits' of Yongzheng and Qianlong" in Smithsonian Libraries, 1995, p. 25-41.
On this week's episode of the Be Loud About What Matters podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Chris Linscome. Over the course of the next hour, Chris opens up about his healing journey and what he's learned about health, his decision to leave Naturopathic medical school, and his vision for himself and his family in the coming years. Chris is a writer, former naturopathic medical student, current truck driver, soldier, husband and father, and truth and meaning seeker. In 2021 he walked away from medical school, unwilling to sacrifice his integrity and principles for an education and medical career. He formally studied Christian history and theology for several years in Chicago and England before deciding on a medical career. While attending Columbia University in NYC for his premedical studies, Chris seriously considered monastic life, staying at a monastery in a discernment process for a brief time. Eventually, his patriotic impulse led him to enlist in the United States Army, where he served as an airborne infantryman in the 82nd Airborne. Chris started his studies in Classical Chinese medicine and Naturopathic medicine in Portland, OR in 2017 but voluntarily left after the madness of 2020 and beyond. He has been enjoying a slow and deliberate unbecoming in this season of life while he continues to write and be thankful for the beautiful, unexpected journey. Connect with Chris on Instagram here Connect with Chris on Telegram here Check out Wellness Goods Co. here Dr. Thomas Cowan's Book - Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness Chris' Interview on The Way Forward Podcast with Alec Zeck
In this episode, Alec sits down with one of the best all-around dudes he knows, Chris Linscome, to discuss the illusion of authority, governments, voting, voluntaryism, and how we can make real, lasting change in this world. We both highly recommend checking out Larken Rose's book, The Most Dangerous Superstition, which you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/10836816 Chris is a writer, former naturopathic medical student, current truck driver, soldier, husband and father, and truth and meaning seeker. In 2021 he walked away from medical school, unwilling to sacrifice his integrity and principles for an education and medical career. He formally studied Christian history and theology for several years in Chicago and England before deciding on a medical career. While attending Columbia University in NYC for his premedical studies, Chris seriously considered monastic life, staying at a monastery in a discernment process for a brief time. Eventually, his patriotic impulse led him to enlist in the United States Army, where he served as an airborne infantryman in the 82nd Airborne. Chris started his studies in Classical Chinese medicine and Naturopathic medicine in Portland, OR in 2017 but voluntarily left after the madness of 2020 and beyond. He has been enjoying a slow and deliberate unbecoming in this season of life while he continues to write and be thankful for the beautiful, unexpected journey. For all of our links, visit: https://www.flowcode.com/page/thewayfwrd For more on The Way Forward, please visit https://thewayfwrd.com Do you run a freedom-oriented or holistic health-oriented business? Join our FREE business directory here: https://thewayfwrd.com/directory-form/ Join our membership here!: https://thewayfwrd.com/membership-sign-up/ Like this episode? Then you'll love The Way Forward's new membership platform! For $17/month or $150/annually, you get: * SOURCE: a freedom & health-oriented business directory * exclusive discounts with partner brands and products * exclusive podcast episodes * courses + workshops * community calls + Q&As with guests * past and future in-person event footage * past, present, and all future livestream event footage * live breathwork sessions, kundalini yoga, and meditations * exclusive content from Alec Zeck, Garret Kramer, Mollie Engelhart, Brandon Bozarth + more Sign up for our membership at: https://thewayfwrd.com/membership-sign-up/ Follow The Way Forward on telegram: https://t.me/thewayforwardformankind Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/T.Way.Forward Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.way.fwrd/ Sign up for our newsletter: https://thewayfwrd.com/newsletter/ We stream our podcasts live every Wednesday. Watch live at: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWayFwrd Unite: https://unite.live/channels/the-way-forward/the-way-forward Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/a3s3CiyELVd8/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/TheWayFwrd ** This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without express written permission. The purpose of this presentation is to convey information. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure a condition; nor is it to be considered medical or legal advice, opinion or recommendation. This information is presented in the spirit of service for all.
This podcast you are listening to is the soundtrack of the 6th episode of HOW TO READ CHINESE POETRY VIDEOS. In the last few episodes, we have learned about the tonal patterns of regulated verse and some of their cosmological underpinnings. In the next two episodes Professor Jonathan Stalling will delve further into the cultural systems that both gave rise to and later sustained these regulated verse practices for over 1500 years. In the first of these two episodes he will explore the emergence of the 知音 “zhiyin,” a community drawn together by their devotion to create and refine what came to be called 韵学 “yunxue” or “the study of rhymes” leading to the creation of rhyme books and later rhyme tables that allowed poets from across distinct dialects and regional accents the ability to compose regulated according to shared standards. Stalling will take us deep into the phonological rules of Classical Chinese rhyme studies through a unique approach because he has reorganized 8000 monosyllabic English words into "rhyme tables" by following all of the essential phonological rules present in Classical Chinese “yunxue.” This episode will be followed next week by another that build upon our knowledge of the rhyme table tradition so that we can compose and properly recite regulated verse in modern Chinese and English. Click the link to watch the video and subscribe to our channel: https://youtu.be/gqyPMJ3fYaQ.
Classical Chinese medicine recognizes the Heart (心 Xin) as a central organ to our being. It's seen as holding the sovereign position as the emperor of the kingdom (i.e., the body). The Heart is where the Shen (神), the spirit, resides. It's what gives us discernment and consciousness. In a way, phrases like “follow your heart,” “home is where the heart is,” and “from the bottom of my heart” seem to pay homage to the spiritual and coherent nature of the Heart. But how does this influence our work in the clinic?In this conversation with Josephine Spilka, we discuss the importance of being in coherence, acting from a place of presence amid impermanent stories, staying true to our capacities, and setting boundaries in the clinic. Josephine also touches on the influence of the eight extraordinary channels and their connection to the Zheng Qi. Listen into this discussion on coherence, and the need to honor our faculties, integrity, and capacity in any clinical encounterMentioned in this episode:Tell us how you feel about Qiological
In the first instalment of the new season of Talking Strategy, Paul and Beatrice are joined by Dr Peter Lorge, Associate Professor of Premodern Chinese and Military History at Vanderbilt University. The enigmatic Chinese text that took its definitive form in the third century BC was not discovered in Europe until shortly before the French Revolution and, significantly, by a French missionary. The document's thoughts on strategy – such as the ideal of winning without giving battle – diverged strongly from those of the battle-obsessed West. Barely remembered for centuries, Sun Tzu's ideas went through a staggering renaissance in the 20th century, inspiring Mao Zedong and strongly impacting Western thinkers who were struggling to come to terms with the Chinese Communist insurgency's triumph in China and the US defeat in Vietnam. Sun Tzu's approach is that of a rationalisation and planning of warfare. His text advocates evaluating a conflict ahead of time, supposing that one can know its dimensions with reasonable accuracy, and largely excluding contingency. Famously, it says that one should know oneself and one's enemy, by implication also foreseeing the outcome of all military exchanges. The text thus falls into the category of those, like Christine de Pizan's and Machiavelli's works, that argue in favour of prudent planning in the belief that this can minimise risk and uncertainty. Dr Peter Lorge is an Associate Professor of Premodern Chinese and Military History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author or editor of nine books, most recently The Beginner's Guide to Imperial China (2021), and perhaps most famously The Asian Military Revolution: from Gunpowder to the Bomb (CUP 2008). Dr Lorge has two forthcoming books: Documents From Early Chinese History, a sourcebook for premodern Chinese history written with Scott Pearce, and Sun Tzu in the West: The Anglo-American Art of War, which explores both the writings of Sun Tzu and the impact they have had on Western thinking, especially in the last half-century.
Have you or someone you know been in this situation? You have a pain in your stomach and go to the doctor, who prescribes a pill to treat you. But it has a side effect—it raises your blood pressure—so you get another pill to treat that. Then you feel a little lethargic and another pill is prescribed. And before you know it, you're on a treadmill of pills and never ending doctor's appointments, and you feel no better than when you first sought out help. It's situations like this that lead people to seek out alternative treatments and practitioners like my guest, Dr. Judyth Shamosh, an expert in Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicines. In this lively discussion, Judyth talks about how she treats a variety of conditions and explains:•What herbs can do for you•How to use herbs properly•What's wrong with Western medicine•Why more people in the West are embracing Eastern medicine•The first thing a practitioner looks at when dealing with a patient•The remedies that might surprise you•The role dreams play in your health•When to seek out an eastern medical practitioner If we don't have our health, we have nothing. Learn how to keep your body in optimal condition—and what do to when it's not—in this engrossing episode of Dream Power Radio. Judyth Shamosh Ph. D., has been a clinical practitioner since 1994. Founder of Greenfingers Herbal Medicine Clinic, she practices Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicines and teaches apprentices. She has served on the governing council of the American Herbalist's Guild, Arizona Herb Association, and RainStar University College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and been adjunct faculty of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Dr. Judyth has also worked as assistant curator of the Phoenix Art Museum, geologist, archaeologist, and yoga instructor. With her background in the hard sciences and expertise in Eastern (Ayurvedic and Classical Chinese) and Western herbal medicines, Dr. Judyth is known for her ability to clearly demonstrate how modern physics validates the principles of ancient Eastern medicine. This makes Eastern medicine principles easier to understand and therefore more acceptable for the Western analytical thinker. Because Eastern medicine is phrased in metaphorical language, the descriptions of observed effects and how they are applied are often difficult and daunting for the Western mindset. In her foundational book, The Physics & Poetry of Eastern Herbal Medicine, she clearly reveals how the problem-solving systems-methods of Eastern medicine is comparable to modern physics. Both of these fields use metaphorical language to explain their theories and are, therefore, phrased in the poetry of our everyday experiences. Dr. Judyth's intention is to eventually bring the valuable principles of Eastern medicine into the mainstream of modern health care. Website: https://judythshamosh.com/ Want to know why dreams are the fastest and clearest way to understand yourself? Sign up here for a complementary Dream Discovery Session with me and never leave your dreams on your pillow again!https://calendly.com/thedreamcoach53/30min
Are ghost stories real? And why do people write and read ghost stories in early medieval China? Prof. Robert Ford Campany, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair of Humanities, from department of East Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University will shed light on a distinctive Chinese narrative genre called "zhiguai"(志怪) or Chinese strange writings. Prof. Campany is among the first group of scholars to systematically trace, study and theorize this Chinese narrative genre.Recommended readings:Robert Ford Campany, A Garden of Marvels: Tales of Wonder from Early Medieval China, University of Hawaii Press, 2015. (primary text)—Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China, University of Hawaii Press, 2012.—To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents, University of California Press, 2002.—Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China, State University of New York Press, 1996.Judith T. Zeitlin, "xiaoshuo" in Franco Marretti ed. The Novel, Vol.1 For aficionados of Classical Chinese language: 中國古代志怪小說選一中國古代志怪小說選二This episode is able to be delivered to you in high quality because of Prof. Campany's generous donation to the show.This podcast is sponsored by Riverside, the most efficient platform for video recording and editing for podcasters.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
Let us welcome my good friend and colleague, Dr. Alex Heyne - for an epic conversation on traditional herbalism and Classical Chinese medicine. Guest: Dr. Alexander Heyne is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncturist and Entrepreneur practicing in Los Angeles, California. Learn more at: Alexheyne.com Host: Dr. Bogdan is offering FREE 15 min naturopathic phone consults for Oregon residents struggling with anxiety and depression: Holisticpsyche.com Herbal Hour: Natural Health Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcast player - be sure to subscribe to support the natural health community!
Joel Sahleen was the Director of International Engineering and Principal International Engineer at Domo, Inc. He specializes in the internationalization and localization of distributed, cloud-based, software as a service application, and in the development of cost-effective, data-driven product internationalization and localization programs. Now he continues his professional life as Internationalization Engineering Manager - Platform at Spotify. Before getting involved in tech, Joel served as a Teaching and Research Fellow in the Departments of East Asian Languages and Literature and Religious Studies at Stanford University, where he helped run the Classical Chinese program, and taught courses on early Chinese philosophy, history, and religion. Joel is passionate about advancing the internationalization and localization of the internet and frequently speaks at industry conferences and events. He lives outside Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, two sons, and two dogs. KEY TAKEAWAYS International Engineering lays the foundations of internationalization and localisation. It functions as a bridge. There are some important metrics that should be tracked in order to develop the system and do the better for your international journey. Everything is linked to each other; however, we should also know their differences. BEST MOMENTS “International Engineering is a term we use for our team because our team kinda straddles the boundary between internationalization engineering or getting the software ready to be localised you could say and localisation engineering which is developing all the infrastructure and the automation necessary to get text from the application hold out of the application and send translation and then return and integrated into the build.” “We found that not only is that the language issue that people need to be able to use our product in different languages but there are also very many regional differences, for example, date formatting, number formatting, and the internationalization is really aware that happens. We believe that's important.” “Some of the metrics we track are around registered international users, people have who actually gone in and said ‘I want to use this product in another language or locale. And then we track the activity on our side of people who are using the product in other languages and locales. We actually have a great kinda combined metric that we use that we call ‘localisation fit' where we look at the browser language that people are accessing our product in and then we look at the language that they actually use the product in, and we see where those match up and those don't. That can rebuild a lot of opportunities for us into where we should go next.” “Software development is more than internationalization, internationalization is more than localisation, localisation is more than translation, and translation is just more than language.” ABOUT THE HOST Levent Yildizgoren, the author of 'Good Business in any Language', is an award-winning entrepreneur, localisation professional, and a PRINCE2 qualified project manager. CONTACT METHOD Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leventyildizgoren/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yildizgoren IG: https://www.instagram.com/levent.yildizgoren/ ABOUT THE GUEST Joel Sahleen is now Internationalization Engineering Manager - Platform at Spotify. Joel is passionate about advancing the internationalization and localization of the internet and frequently speaks at industry conferences and events. CONTACT METHOD https://www.spotify.com/ VALUABLE RESOURCES Do you have any questions about translation, localization, or international growth? Visit TTC website: https://ttcwetranslate.com/ Are you curious about how ready you are to go global? Take TTC wetranslate's Scorecard: https://global.scoreapp.com/ Take your business global with the 5-step LINGO modal! Purchase 'Good Business in any Language' on Amazon now: https://cutt.ly/2ORR
One San Francisco poet, writing in the early 20th century, wrote something that no other poet ever said in the history of Chinese literature (probably): having money is more important than having sons! This is a huge statement that runs against much of traditional Chinese thinking. But, this anonymous poet, though writing in a mixture of Cantonese and Classical Chinese, is an American, so it makes sense. Join Rob and Lee for their look at this poem published in either 1911 or 1915 in San Francisco's Chinatown.
Information Morning Moncton from CBC Radio New Brunswick (Highlights)
Audery Yuan is a Moncton-based artist.
Dr. Laura welcomes Dr. Kevin Preston, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Vernon, BC, and facilitator of intimate healing retreats, such as The Collective Heart Retreats. Drs. Kevin and Laura talk about the heart as a portal into our connection and healing, and why group retreats can be so transformative and a powerful way to tap into healing tribal energy. Dr. Kevin shares how he stays grounded and centered in the work that he does with patients and clients - tuning into their heart energy while facilitating a deeper level of healing. He shares how the heart is our life force, and how what we feel and think can affect our auric field. There is so much infinite wisdom and simple yet powerful truths that Dr. Kevin shares throughout this episode. Dr. Kevin is hosting a one day mini retreat called Yangstice: A day of transformational healing, harnessing the power of Summer Solstice! Coming together to thrive once again in community through connection and building the potential of humanity. June 18th, 2022 in Armstrong, BC. For more info: YANSTICE What You'll Hear In This Episode: Kevin talks about how he got into Chinese Medicine as an athlete and witnessed the power of traditional and progressive healing arts. Kevin's patients and clients teach him to stay curious and that many of the things we view as impossible are indeed possible, and happening to humans right in front of us every day. Group retreats offer many benefits and can shift transformation in a way that's quicker and leaves the individual feeling more rooted and deeply held. Nature is a grounding force that Dr. Kevin comes back to, time and time again. Dr. Kevin shares a beautiful mantra told to him by Levi, a wise elder. “May all good things naturally drift towards me, just for today.” Resources that Dr. Kevin has learned from, such as the Heart Math Institute. Guidance is all around us. Sometimes, we just have to ask for it. Dr. Kevin's retreats are deeply powerful. You will leave with practices and tools that you can take with you and apply to your everyday life. Quotes: “When we go into retreats, I'm still blown away, no matter how many events I've done, how much transformation can actually take place. And I love that it just inspires me to continue to do more because I see what's possible.” - Dr. Kevin “I've been through this recalibration of what's important.” - Dr. Kevin “A community can help us carry things too big and can create shifts that normally wouldn't happen.” - Dr. Kevin “We want that vulnerability and connection. We want to see our own truths. We want to be intimate with who we truly are. And yet we do all these things to try and separate ourselves from that.” - Dr. Laura “The physical is just the tip of the iceberg.” - Dr. Kevin “Your heart is your life force.” - Dr. Kevin “What we feel and how we're thinking affects our heart field and auric field.” - Dr. Kevin Take Dr. Laura's Free Quiz! — What's your Divine Feminine Sovereign Style? This quiz will help to reveal your soul-guided sovereign style so that you can harness your feminine spark with more confidence and courage than ever before. The quiz is quick but the results are epic — potent, robust, and exactly what you'll need to harness your unique feminine style in a way you've never done before. Get ready to speak your truth, walk in your fire, and own your gifts like never before. 10-Week Signature Program for Women: ROOTS + The Sisterhood ROOTS will help you tap into your feminine superpowers and remember who you are, why you are here, and why it matters. This dynamic program walks through intuition, connecting with your inner knowing, healthy boundary-setting, personal core values, finding your voice, speaking your truth, expansion, self-compassion, identity, your future self, and the frequency of your rise. You were never meant to do this alone. Are you ready to do the best work of your life? Sovereignty, Self-Compassion, and Standing In Your Personal Power. It's time to walk your path. Get on the WAITLIST here. Continue On Your Journey: Soul Inspired Gurl / Instagram / Book A Coaching Discovery Call With Me Dr. Kevin Preston Website | Yangstice | Instagram Dr. Kevin's Bio: Bringing a new way of healing based on 5000 years of research, Dr. Kevin Preston lives for creating health and vitality in others. Dr. Preston trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine, with a background in science and kinesiology. He continued to branch out by engaging in many different courses, seminars, and philosophies; which range from epigenetics, biological medicine, homeopathy, Classical Chinese medicine, to other teachings from more esoteric lineages and spiritual paths. Dr. Preston has been in practice for over a decade and owns a wellness clinic in Vernon, BC. His key focus has been on treating chronic conditions, unknown illnesses, mystery syndromes, and optimized performance. He is very passionate about helping people thrive beyond what they thought was possible. Kevin likes to collaborate with those he works with by creating a safe space for transformation and growth. He sees wellness created through a multifaceted approach that brings together a balance of the mind, body, and spirit. He continues to synthesize many modalities into a unique and progressive healing system, which includes acupuncture, herbal medicine, toxicity profiling, epigenetic re-patterning, teaching, and energy work. In addition, Dr. Preston facilitates intimate healing retreats that have a focus on removing obstacles in our cellular biology to unlock the hidden potential within our DNA. The retreats and courses he creates often have a beautiful focus on meditation, breath-work, ancient wisdom, and unblocking the energetics of the body bringing about deep healing and release. Dr. Preston's intention of total immersion into health often creates dynamic shifts forward for those on the path of realizing their full potential.
"I've listened to rain all my life. My hair's white now, and I still don't know night rain on a spring river." - Lu YuLINKS:More on this book and where to purchase it here: https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-new-directions-anthology-of-classical-chinese-poetry/?source=searchMy upcoming show at Susan Inglett Gallery: https://www.inglettgallery.comMy website: www.robynoneil.comMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robyn_oneil/?hl=enMe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Robyn_ONeilHandwritten Notes: https://www.instagram.com/handwrittennotesontv/Erin Whitehead's Instagram: @girlwithatail
Judyth Shamosh, Ph.D. is a systems herbalist and has been a clinical practitioner since 1994. She practices Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicines. In this episode I chat with Dr. Judyth about her new book The Poetry and Physics of Eastern Herbal Medicine. They discuss the following: Dr. Judyth's journey with Eastern medicine. The science and poetry of the experiential effects of the five elements. How Western culture is held captive by materialism and denying the poetry of experience. The systems view of life. The feedback loops which occur in nature and in our body. The future of medicine. * Visit Dr. Judyth's website judythshamosh.com * Thanks to New World Ayurveda for sponsoring this episode. For more information go to newworldayurveda.com. * Visit Colette's website www.elementshealingandwellbeing.com Online consultations Private at-home Digestive Reset Cleanse tailored to you Educational programs - Daily Habits for Holistic Health Have questions before you book? Book a FREE 15 min online Services Enquiry Call * Join the Elements of Ayurveda Community! * Stay connected on the Elements Instagram and Facebook pages. * Thanks for listening!
— According to Ayurveda, before the beginning, or what science calls The Big Bang there was Awareness of Oneness. Within the original Awareness of Oneness, arose a desire to experience itself that created Duality of Awareness or Experience. This Duality-Awareness of Experience created the energy of friction and the manifestation of Energy or Prana. Some of this manifested Energy condensed becoming matter. To understand matter, one needs to experience it, and so this trinity, Awareness, Experience, and Energy/Matter came into being, with the result, our physical universe with its diverse attributes. Ayurveda is a vital science and art-healing system that provides guidance for living in harmony with our inner, microcosmic, and outer, macrocosmic, environments as well as other beings around us. Its way of teaching us is very poetic, because life is poetic, with much more going on between the lines and the wave-particles of potential matter than is readily apparent by just the energy-material "facts" of the wave-particles themselves. This is said with the understanding that our minds manufacture fact. ". . we develop the fact by giving it further order, form and structure. Ayurveda is unique in that it clearly informs us how to live in harmony with Nature. It is the "wisdom of living." One may call it the original ecological worldview where the fundamental interdependence of all living systems is primary. Ayurveda encompasses all aspects of life—our physical bodies, our thoughts and emotions, our spiritual connections, our relationships and inter-relationships to each other and the other living systems in our environment. Ayurveda teaches us how to maintain a dynamic harmony with these concepts to maintain and regain our health. Valeria Teles interviews Judyth Shamosh, Ph.D — the author of “The Physics & Poetry of Eastern Herbal Medicine: How Modern Physics Validates Eastern Medicine.” Judyth is a Systems Herbalist who has been a clinical practitioner since 1994. Founder of Greenfingers Herbal Medicine Clinic, she practices Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicines and teaches apprentices. She has served on the governing council of the American Herbalist's Guild, Arizona Herb Association, and RainStar University College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and been adjunct faculty of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. A yoga instructor and poet, she also was an assistant curator for the Phoenix Art Museum and worked in geology and archeology. To learn more about Judyth Shamosh and her work, please visit: judythshamosh.com — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.
Turning Season: News & Conversations on Our Adventure Toward a Life-Sustaining Society
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienThat's a favorite quote of my guest Judyth Shamosh, which she relates to seeing each person's health as a whole system, and as part of even larger whole systems. How can we really understand a cell by looking at it only once it's been removed from the body it was part of? Removed from the pattern of life in which its true nature is expressed?Judyth is an herbalist, trained in Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicine, as well as in modern physics. Her role in The Great Turning involves practicing and teaching herbal medicine and systems thinking. Exciting for me, of course, because these are passions of mine as well. I see all holistic medicine, and especially medicines that use therapies which are low-impact on the ecosystem, as ways to serve both personal and global healing.Judyth has been practicing since 1994, and has held multiple leadership and teaching positions including with the American Herbalist's Guild and Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. She's brought together much of her wisdom in her new book, The Physics & Poetry of Eastern Herbal Medicine: How Modern Physics Validates Eastern Medicine, which is geared toward herbalists and other medical professionals, as well as laypeople. Click Play above to hear us talk about her book, and so much more. You'll also hear:an intro from me about the idea that some approaches to medicine "just suppress symptoms," and how to understand when Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine practitioners say things like, "cold and damp is stuck in your body"how ancient medical wisdom and the new language of modern physics are giving us ways of seeing what it takes to have a life-sustaining societyhow even herbal medicine and plant-based diets need to be looked at in context, as parts of whole systems, if they're going to truly support health and sustainabilityand some practical info about how to eat healthfully with the six tastes, or flavors, according to Ayurvedic medicine (like how sweet foods can make us more "heavy and damp," and why we need bitter and sour foods too)Be sure to check out the Turning Season resources page as well, to find ways to keep learning and, if you'd like, take a quick, simple action in support of The Great Turning by donating to one of the organizations I'm highlighting right now:the Rainforest Information Centre (also currently collecting signatures on a petition to protect Ecuador's rainforests)TreeSistersand the Nonviolent Peaceforce.Show notes & more links: turningseason.com/episode11
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Book review of "Mengzi", published by Anonymous on March 12, 2022 on LessWrong. Book review of “Mengzi: With Selections From Traditional Commentaries”, trans. Bryan W. Van Norden This is a review of a classical Chinese philosophical text with a heavy focus on virtue ethics and politics. I don't have any knowledge of Classical Chinese, I'm not a philosopher, and I'm not very virtuous. You may instead want to read the SEP entry on Mengzi, or just buy the book and read it – 2300 years of Confucian scholars can't be wrong! Introduction The Confucian or Ruist tradition within Chinese philosophy seems underrated in the West. Everybody likes Buddhism and Daoism. People particularly love pretty-sounding mistranslations of the Daodejing by authors who don't know any Chinese. People love Zen (or Chan, in the Chinese reading of the character). People have even heard of Zhuangzi and/or a butterfly. But almost nothing from Confucianism has percolated into the popular culture. Everyone knows there was a guy named Confucius who went around saying wise stuff, but nobody even knows any of the aphorisms (even though they're often great), let alone actually reading any of the Confucian canon. I think the explanation for this is pretty obvious. Eastern philosophy really started taking off in the West during the 60s. But at that time, there was just no market for a philosophy saying you should obey your parents and elder siblings, be loyal to the state, patiently study old books, and cultivate temperance and good manners. That's still going to be unappealing to a lot of people today (especially to LessWrong readers, who are probably more likely than average to distrust authority, to dislike formal schooling, and to think there is little value in tradition). But I think Confucian philosophy does offer an interesting perspective that is of increasing value. After all, it was developed by and for highly educated scholars who also wanted to have a real-world impact. These were people who were carefully trained from a young age to excel at high-stakes standardized tests that determined their entire future. They studied hard to become intellectuals, yet at the same time wanted to do good in the real world. It even turns out many of them (increasingly so in the Song-Ming period) were interested in mindfulness meditation, with a focus on personal effectiveness rather than the Buddhist focus on enlightenment. After their years of study, they ended up in practical careers, and had to stand in front of powerful officials and try to persuade them to do good, against the forces of corruption and political expedience. I think there may be something of interest to learn from this tradition. And van Norden says: "When people ask me which Confucian classic to read first, I answer without hesitation: the Mengzi." Review of the Book Itself As a Text The book itself consists of a translation of the text of the Mengzi, followed by translations of selected traditional commentaries on the Mengzi. Those commentaries are essential, as Van Norden points out. First, people for many centuries learned the Mengzi alongside its commentaries; and second, many common interpretations of Mengzi in fact come from the commentaries but are often mistakenly read into the text itself. It helps to have them there. A particularly important commentary is that of Zhu Xi, who lived in the 12th century AD, and usually gets compared to a Chinese version of Thomas Aquinas. The Mengzi along with his commentary became one of the four books that formed the basis of the Chinese civil service exam for many centuries to come. Van Norden also throws in his own commentaries from time to time, which has to be fun for a scholar of Confucianism – he gets to participate in this ancient textual tradition. The translation is extremely clear and rea...
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Book review of "Mengzi", published by Anonymous on March 12, 2022 on LessWrong. Book review of “Mengzi: With Selections From Traditional Commentaries”, trans. Bryan W. Van Norden This is a review of a classical Chinese philosophical text with a heavy focus on virtue ethics and politics. I don't have any knowledge of Classical Chinese, I'm not a philosopher, and I'm not very virtuous. You may instead want to read the SEP entry on Mengzi, or just buy the book and read it – 2300 years of Confucian scholars can't be wrong! Introduction The Confucian or Ruist tradition within Chinese philosophy seems underrated in the West. Everybody likes Buddhism and Daoism. People particularly love pretty-sounding mistranslations of the Daodejing by authors who don't know any Chinese. People love Zen (or Chan, in the Chinese reading of the character). People have even heard of Zhuangzi and/or a butterfly. But almost nothing from Confucianism has percolated into the popular culture. Everyone knows there was a guy named Confucius who went around saying wise stuff, but nobody even knows any of the aphorisms (even though they're often great), let alone actually reading any of the Confucian canon. I think the explanation for this is pretty obvious. Eastern philosophy really started taking off in the West during the 60s. But at that time, there was just no market for a philosophy saying you should obey your parents and elder siblings, be loyal to the state, patiently study old books, and cultivate temperance and good manners. That's still going to be unappealing to a lot of people today (especially to LessWrong readers, who are probably more likely than average to distrust authority, to dislike formal schooling, and to think there is little value in tradition). But I think Confucian philosophy does offer an interesting perspective that is of increasing value. After all, it was developed by and for highly educated scholars who also wanted to have a real-world impact. These were people who were carefully trained from a young age to excel at high-stakes standardized tests that determined their entire future. They studied hard to become intellectuals, yet at the same time wanted to do good in the real world. It even turns out many of them (increasingly so in the Song-Ming period) were interested in mindfulness meditation, with a focus on personal effectiveness rather than the Buddhist focus on enlightenment. After their years of study, they ended up in practical careers, and had to stand in front of powerful officials and try to persuade them to do good, against the forces of corruption and political expedience. I think there may be something of interest to learn from this tradition. And van Norden says: "When people ask me which Confucian classic to read first, I answer without hesitation: the Mengzi." Review of the Book Itself As a Text The book itself consists of a translation of the text of the Mengzi, followed by translations of selected traditional commentaries on the Mengzi. Those commentaries are essential, as Van Norden points out. First, people for many centuries learned the Mengzi alongside its commentaries; and second, many common interpretations of Mengzi in fact come from the commentaries but are often mistakenly read into the text itself. It helps to have them there. A particularly important commentary is that of Zhu Xi, who lived in the 12th century AD, and usually gets compared to a Chinese version of Thomas Aquinas. The Mengzi along with his commentary became one of the four books that formed the basis of the Chinese civil service exam for many centuries to come. Van Norden also throws in his own commentaries from time to time, which has to be fun for a scholar of Confucianism – he gets to participate in this ancient textual tradition. The translation is extremely clear and rea...
Most foreigners learning Chinese rely on textbooks written specifically for foreigners, but what about textbooks written for native speakers, can't we use those to learn Chinese too? Link to article: The benefits of using 语文/國文 textbooks to learn Chinese https://www.hackingchinese.com/benefits-using-语文國文-textbooks-learn-chinese/ #learnchinese #textbooks #语文 #國文 #chinese John' article about learning Classical Chinese: https://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-classical-chinese-is-for-everyone-no-seriously/ The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners: https://www.hackingchinese.com/10-best-free-chinese-reading-resources-beginner-intermediate-advanced/ 866 digital textbooks for expanding your Chinese: https://www.hackingchinese.com/866-digital-textbooks-for-expanding-your-chinese/ Listen to this and other episodes on your favourite podcasting platform, including Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify and YouTube: https://www.hackingchinese.com/podcast More information and inspiration about learning and teaching Chinese can be found over at https://www.hackingchinese.com Music: "Traxis 1 ~ F. Benjamin" by Traxis, 2020 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
Join us for a fantastic and insightful Interview with Laura Stuvé, BodyIntuitive. Dr. Laura Stuvé is a Ph.D. molecular biologist and co-creator of BodyIntuitive Mind-Body Medicine. Laura's longtime interest in the how the mind...our belief systems, psychology, stresses and emotions, impact the health of the body, led her to develop BodyIntuitive, working with Dr. Janet Galipo. BodyIntuitive weaves together 21st century science and Classical Chinese medicine to provide integrative healthcare practitioners effective and efficient East-West intuitive medical strategies to transform their clinical practices. Laura spent 26 years in basic research in human molecular genetics in academia and the biotechnology industry, before shifting her focus full-time to mind-body medicine. For the past 17 years, Laura has been practicing and teaching mind-body medicine and courses of her own design. bringing paradigm-changing scientific discoveries into the hands of healthcare practitioners to make a difference in their efficacy of chronic disease treatment. She is an inspiring instructor who makes epigenetics, the microbiome, and intuitive medicine accessible to all. References from this episode: BodyIntuitive is Astounding - free lecture Elemental Reset - January 29, 2022 BodyIntuitive Focus - March 18-20, 2022 Recommended Resource: Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality by Dawson Church
I believe conversations are an art form and can be incredibly potent medicine for transformation. The best conversations I've had are the ones that occur without an agenda, are filled with curiosity, and a deep listening for the invitation into a deeper inquiry where wisdom can often arise and nourish everyone who engages. To me, this conversation feels like one in which my guests and I embark on a conversation that deepens, opens, and expands - nourishing all of us as we go with plenty of laughter and just the right amount of irreverence. I especially loved this podcast episode because Taran and Lukas came without any agenda. These two men are wonderfully alive and deeply comfortable in their own skin. We cover lots of ground: * How we were parented as well as how we parent. * How our appetite for curiosity and wrestling with questions grew over time. * How religion influenced us. * “Bowling outside the bumpers,” which we describe as being socially “acceptable” and acting within the boundaries of society. * How Taran and Lukas describe their work in Chinese Medicine and what it's about for each of them. * How they guide their clients to express coherence in the body. * Different forms of Chinese Medicine and how they each practice. * How Chinese Medicine differs and can complement Western Medicine. * Acupuncture as an avenue for healing. * Orienting ourselves to explore and embrace curiosity and mystery. I share my own story written the night before as I sat with my daughter called “Advice from a Caterpillar” and how it relates to everything we were exploring. Taran Rosenthal is a dad, Classical Chinese medicine practitioner, lifelong mover, and co-host of the Apricot Jam podcast. He is endlessly curious and immensely grateful to be kin to all beings. Lukas Wolf is an acupuncturist, herbalist, and martial artist in Brooklyn, New York. His days can pretty much be summed up as: punch, kick, heal, rinse, repeat. Both Lukas and Taran have their own podcast called Apricot Jam - be sure to listen!
Navigating the world of further study for Herbalists and Chinese medicine practitioners can be a tough one - where to start? Hopefully this episode will bring some clarity this for students of TCM, new graduates of TCM, practitioners who've been in business a long time but searching for something better for their patients AND even to our majority of listeners who are patients of those practitioners - give you some insights into what dedicated practitioners like Collin go through to become a respected teacher in the industry. It was such a pleasure to interview fellow colleague, Collin Campbell. Collin has been practicing Chinese Medicine for 15 years, and has devoted his career thus far to Classical Chinese medicine. In addition to his private practice, as part of training to become a fellow of ICEAM, Collin has seen over 1000 patients supervised by Dr Arnaud Versylus as part of his fellowship training. Some of the topics we discuss are the differences between studying TCM and Classical Chinese Medicine, the typical journey that many Chinese medicine practitioners take in their quest to learn Classical systems of Chinese medicine. ICEAM Is a pulse-based system of herbal medicine, we discuss how this relates to what ICEAM practitioners are taught. This is not a paid promotion or sponsorship. CONTACT DETAILS: If you are interested in studying Chinese Medicine with ICEAM in this new program, call Collin on : 777 344 1275 Or email : ccampbell@newyork.iceam.org More info: https://www.iceam.org/venue/new-york/ COLIN CAMPBELL'S CLINIC: https://cliniccampbell.com/ FOLLOW Chinese Medicine Podcast on social medial: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chinesemedicinepodcast Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chinesemedicinepodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinesemedpodcast AUDIO - find us on Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts in audio-only format CONTACT THE PODCAST (MARIE) chinesemedicinepodcast@gmail.com CONTACT MARIE HOPKINSON MARIE HOPKINSON, Registered Chinese Herbalist and Acupuncturist in Australia (AHPRA) Consultations for treatment (individual) please head to : http://www.bespokemedicine.net/ Email drmarie@bespokemedicine.net Facebook: fb.me/bespokemedicine IMPORTANT: This video, as with all videos on the The Chinese Medicine Podcast are NOT a replacement for a health professional diagnosis. While Marie may answer your questions, all answers are not of a professional consultation level - it is impossible to check your pulse through the internet, hence Chinese medicine cannot be practiced properly through the internet. If you have any undiagnosed symptoms, or changes in your health condition The Chinese Medicine Podcast urges you to see your own doctor, GP, Chinese medicine practitioner, acupuncturist or other health professional as appropriate. If it is an emergency call 000 in Australia. If you are unsure if this advice is appropriate for your individual situation ask your own practitioner before applying any diet or lifestyle techniques /concepts discussed in this video. Marie Hopkinson and The Chinese Medicine Podcast wishes you the best of health and improvement in your own health journey. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marie-hopkinson/message
Kampo is Japanese herbal medicine influenced by the classical Chinese tradition. In this episode, renowned Kampo and Shiatsu practitioner Nigel Dawes and I discuss all things related to its practice and so much more. Nigel began studying Kampo in Japan forty years ago and has been practicing and teaching ever since. He is the founder of the London College of Shiatsu and NY Kampo Institute, the latter of which he still runs today. His most recent book published in 2020 by Singing Dragon is entitled Fukushin and Kampo and discusses the topics of abdominal diagnosis and herbal medicine. Here we talk at length about the culture of traditional Japanese medicine and the influences of Han Dynasty Chinese classical texts such as the Shang Han Lun. We also explore both the energetic and physical aspects of harashin and fukushin abdominal diagnosis, compare the Japanese styles of herbal medicine and acupuncture practice to those of China, and touch upon the topic of Shiatsu. Nigel also narrates some of his personal journey living and studying in Japan and learning in hospitals in Beijing. For the enthusiast of Asian medicine, this is a fascinating interview of unique styles, including their modern-day practice and their roots. Please enjoy this episode of Pacific Rim College Radio with Nigel Dawes. Episode Links: KampoHerbology.com Fukushin and Kampoby Nigel Dawes Learning Links: School of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at PRC Online Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine courses at PRCOnline Student Clinic at PRC
What if you could resolve your anxiety - for good? In this short episode you'll hear two inspiring stories and learn: * The important relationship between your Heart and Kidneys, and how disharmony between these two systems can lead to anxiety and panic attacks * How our constitutional meridians can help us find our expression and overcome psychological disorders, including anxiety * How resolving anxiety can help connect you to your life purpose Once you've listened visit acenterfornaturalhealing.com/anxietyrelief to let us know one step you could take to prevent or alleviate anxiety in your life. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.setarehmoafi/ https://www.instagram.com/salvadorcefalu/ https://www.instagram.com/acenterfornaturalhealing/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/setareh.moafi https://www.facebook.com/salvador.cefalu.9 https://www.facebook.com/acenterfornaturalhealing
Brandt Stickley is an Assistant Professor in the College of Classical Chinese Medicine, National University of Natural Medicine, and a Visiting Professor at Dragon Rises College of Oriental Medicine, Pacific Rim College, Five Branches University, Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences, Yo San University and Maryland University of Integrative Health. As a Senior Instructor and Board member of Dragon Rises Seminars he teaches Shen-Hammer Pulse Diagnosis. Brandt is a graduate of Cornell University and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has worked closely with Dr. Leon Hammer for 20 years, and is considered an authority on the model of Chinese medical Psychology developed by Dr. Hammer. In his own development of this school of thought, he has relentlessly pursued a synthesis of Classical Han and Tang Dynasty herbal medicine and acupuncture, Chinese magical medicine, philosophy and religion, with concepts of psychosomatic medicine, body-oriented psychology, neuro-phenomenology, process-oriented philosophy, imaginal, integral, and consciousness studies. He brings all of these disciplines to play in striving to intend the impossible as a clinician, teacher, writer and speaker. In theory and in practice, Brandt's work seeks to establish Classical Chinese medicine as a vital psychosomatic and physiosemiotic current in the evolution of consciousness and the alleviation of suffering. Big thanks to our sponsor The Apricot Grove! Eternal gratitude to Bart Matthews for our amazing intro music! Check out our FB page if you roll like that. For books! https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=59079037
Dr. Simon Feeney's journey along the virtuous path of classical Chinese medicine and healing has been far from ordinary. His integrity and purist approach to everything he does, has successfully set a new standard for wholesale Chinese Herbs in Australia, with the establishment of his company/clinic Empirical Health six years ago. Purity, Quality, and Potency are the principle values of Empirical Health; The first and only Australian certified organic Chinese herb wholesaler dedicated to Dao Di principles. A Physician in Classical Chinese Medicine, Acupuncturist, extensively knowledgable herbalist, and ongoing devoted scholar (20 years) of ancient medical Burmese scriptures, Simon's passion for upholding essential ancient knowledge is evident in everything he does. Like all journeys of the heart, Simon's is full of incredible stories; Stories of ancient manuscripts with cures for Leprosy, herbal preparations to treat malaria, being held at gunpoint in the name of preserving ancient teachings, and quests of translating bygone measurements for 2000-year-old formulas used in the Han Dynasty. In this potent conversation, Simon and Mason discuss the preservation of Classical Chinese medicine through lineage, the institutionalisation of TCM (where it's lacking), concocting ancient formulas, species identification when it comes to Dao Di, and the reverence for classical Chinese medicine as a complete system. Tune in for ancient knowledge and so much more. "If that herb's not available, what are we going to do? How are we going to adapt? Chinese medicine's beautiful like that, all of a sudden new things evolve, and that's the nature of Chinese medicine. It's still evolving. But it's not evolving as the western mind thinks about evolving, in the sense of, "Right, all that stuff's behind me, I need to forge forward into the darkness. No, it's evolving based on history". - Dr. Simon Feeney Host and Guest discuss: Pulse diagnosis. The Han Dynasty. Chinese herbalism. Energetics of herbs. Availability of herbs. Plant identification. Administration techniques. Therapeutic alkaloid testing. Quality discernment of herbs. Dao Di (original growing region) principles The evolving nature of Chinese Medicine. Genetic testing and proper identification of herbs. The current Chinese medicine renaissance in the west. Dosage; The right dose, for the right person at the right time. Who is Simon Feeney? Empirical Health's Director, Simon Feeney continues to pursue his lifelong passion for the study of Traditional Medicine under a Theravadin Buddhist Monk, who has been guiding his learning for the past 20 years. Simon's commitment to fusing ancient knowledge with contemporary insight inspired his formal studies in Melbourne, Australia at the Southern School of Natural Therapies, where he completed his Bachelor's Degree of Chinese Herbal Medicine and Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. Along with his studies in the classical Chinese Medicine works of the Han Dynasty (200BC) and the refined art of Traditional Japanese Acupuncture, Simon is also a trained Bowen Therapist. Having studied intensively under one of Melbourne's leading Chinese Medicine gynaecologists. He has a special interest in chronic conditions, internal medicine, sub-clinical health, and other ‘hard to treat' conditions. For the last 20 years, Simon has been working closely with his teacher to understand a number of scriptures from Burma (now called Myanmar). These writings, dating as far back as 500 AD, largely pertain to monastic order as well as ancient medical knowledge and further underpin Simon's dedication to preserving the integrity of the ancient ways for modern application and translation. Simon has travelled extensively through Thailand and Myanmar in documenting these texts and assisting in the preservation of this essential ancient knowledge to understand, use, and appreciate in the modern world. Simon has completed an extensive post-graduate education including a specialist course in Canonical Chinese Medicine under the internationally acclaimed educator and physician Dr. Arnaud Versluys Ph.D. director of Institute of Classical East Asian Medicine (ICEAM). He is a member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society and a registered member of the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency (AHPRA). His extensive knowledge as a herbalist came from him spending endless hours working through ancient texts identifying doses of various herbs, deciphering and translating those that were successfully used centuries ago into modern applications, yet have been largely lost in modern times. His growing prominence has now extended from Chinese Medicine physicians to also include a number of veterinarians who have sought out formulas for use in their animal clinics. Simon's life journey and his long-standing passion for helping people has also involved him working with a non-profit organisation and temple, that will help build a library to hold rare and ancient manuscripts. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST Resources: Facebook Instagram Empirical Health Empirical Health Shop empiricalhealth.com Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We'd also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus we're on Spotify! Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:01) Simon, thanks so much for joining me. Simon Feeney: (00:03) You got it. Thanks for the invitation. Mason: (00:04) Absolute pleasure. In the flesh no less. Simon Feeney: (00:06) I know. First time, hey. Mason: (00:08) Yeah. Simon Feeney: (00:08) I don't know. Yeah. Mason: (00:09) You're coming down from Brisbane? Simon Feeney: (00:11) Yeah, just been up at a conference, so coming back down through here and thought I'd stop in and take up the invitation, and it all worked out beautifully. Mason: (00:18) Yeah, getting the practitioner gang back together. Simon Feeney: (00:20) Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's always good to be amongst some colleagues and shoot the breeze and connect after such a long time of separation, and so it's been very nice, very rewarding for everyone, I think. Mason: (00:32) So I love your company. Simon Feeney: (00:35) Thank you. Mason: (00:37) Yeah, I know- Simon Feeney: (00:38) Ditto. Mason: (00:38) Thank you. I don't know if it's an unusual friendship or not the... I was very curious about your company when it came up, and you've established it with such authority, and I have so many friends who are acupuncturists, and they were telling me when you first came on the scene, and just how relieved they were that you were bringing Chinese herbs of this quality to Australia because you go to Chinatown, you go and pick up your cistanche, whatever, anything you kind of like, or your formulas, and you're like, "I assume they're clean and pure." Simon Feeney: (01:21) Well, sometimes you have to pick out cigarette butts or a piece of plastic or something. That used to be what it was like, literally it was like that. I mean, when I trained with my first herbalist, he had his big display, and he was a real traditionalist so he said, "If you can't identify anything, you shouldn't be using it." So he had no names. It wasn't in alphabetical order. It was just depending on how much he used it. But it used to be that he had a bottle of, like a little container, that used to put all the bits that he found into the thing that was just rubbish. Mason: (01:53) That's amazing. Simon Feeney: (01:53) Yeah, because it was much less regulated back... There still is no regulation for the quality of Chinese herbs in Australia still to this day. Mason: (02:02) This is loose. Simon Feeney: (02:03) So we have to set our own standards. Mason: (02:06) I mean, I guess there are... Again, it sits in a grey area. Technically, it is regulated, but because it's such an underground world and operation in business, it's not really enforced. Simon Feeney: (02:22) No, it's not. That's right. I mean, the practise of it is, but the quality is not regulated. You've got these companies in Taiwan and in China now, but there is no official regulation for the quality, but once you start treating patients and you start wanting these herbs for, your kids are born and your wife is pregnant, then you want to have some sort of assurity that they are good quality, and that you're not doing any damage. Do no harm is the foundation of all clinical practise. That's what started the journey for me, so looking for that kind of quality. Mason: (03:06) And I guess the most obvious one that comes up is pesticides- Simon Feeney: (03:10) Huge [crosstalk 00:03:10]. Mason: (03:10) ... and I think everyone can relate to that in their immediate consciousness [crosstalk 00:03:15]- Simon Feeney: (03:15) Yes. Mason: (03:18) When I started the company I was obsessed, and so that's why I went and sourced herbs that I wanted, but then started to talk to people who, like this woman, she's pregnant. I want to give this to my mom who just had an aneurysm. Simon Feeney: (03:32) That's right. Mason: (03:33) All of a sudden, your level of... Simon Feeney: (03:34) That's serious stuff. Mason: (03:35) It's serious shit. Simon Feeney: (03:36) Yeah, it's really... Yeah. Mason: (03:36) Don't muck around. Simon Feeney: (03:37) Yeah. No, you're talking about young foetuses. You're talking about the beginning of life, so you don't want to be doing any damage whatsoever, and you want to be assured, assured 100% with no doubt, that what you're doing is safe and not only effective, but primarily safe. Mason: (03:56) One thing I'm liking though is the self-regulation that does come up because I know you've started out a couple of years ago, a few years ago, officially distributing? Simon Feeney: (04:06) We've been distributing for about six years or so now. Yeah, yeah. Mason: (04:11) Wow, and so what's been the uptake? Where have you guys... I guess it's because I've been tuned in to what you're doing. I've seen you grow exponentially, but was there a constant exponential growth in the beginning, or was it a mad slog going up against the big Chinese herb companies in Australia? Simon Feeney: (04:28) Well, like you said earlier, just coming in it with authority and that sort of certainty. I was never happy with... Basically, I started because it was just in my clinic and wanted to make formulas, so I wanted to make these old ancient formulas from the Han Dynasty, so 2000 year old formulas, figuring out how to make them is a whole 'nother level. I had to work out what a liang was, what a [zhu 00:04:52], what a [fen 00:04:53], what a [zhang 00:04:53], what are all these measurements that absolutely made no sense to what I learnt at university and was completely impractical in terms of figuring out. So I had to figure all that out, but then I had to look at the herbs and figure out all that. So then we're realising that you have all these adulterations in Chinese medicine, so incorrect species identifications, quality discernment, and then safety and purity of the herbs. Simon Feeney: (05:20) So that led me to kind of trying to find the better, better, better, better quality, and then looking for the paperwork that supported that. Some of it was there, it was kind of falsified. I found all these little things that you didn't want to find as a herbalist, you didn't want to know about, and it was like, "Well, I think I have to try to find the best I can possibly find in the world," and I asked my community internationally, the Chinese medicine community internationally, "Where's the best?" And they all pointed to this one guy in the US, Andrew Ellis. And so I contacted him and I was like, "I want to talk to you." About a year and a half later, he responded back to me on Facebook. Mason: (06:00) Whoa! Simon Feeney: (06:01) And then said... Yeah, and then literally I was on the phone with him that afternoon because he said, "What are you doing now?" And I was like, "Oh, man." I had a cancellation from a patient, and so I'm sitting there and all of a sudden it comes up. And then about an hour later on the phone, we started talking about all these ancient formulas, and then he said, "I'm going to Hangzhou in two weeks. Want to come?" Mason: (06:23) Holy shit. Simon Feeney: (06:23) And two weeks later, I was in Hangzhou meeting these, I mentioned to you earlier, these big Chinese companies and going out to farms and understanding all the testing, and the rest is history. And then I was like, "I want to bring that back to Australia," and I brought it back to Australia, and I told some of the suppliers and they got so upset with me. They were so upset with me. Some of them are not even talking to me still because I did that. So it was almost like a calling out, it's kind of like losing face for some of those people, which is a shame. Mason: (06:51) I mean, okay, so there's a couple of things. You've gone over, and you've started going to these meetings with these herb companies that based on the demand of you going, "Hey, I want to know that there's no pesticides. I'd like this testing to be done. I want genetic testing, or proper identification." Simon Feeney: (07:12) Yeah, yeah. The alkaloid testing and everything, that's what we want. Mason: (07:16) I can't remember where I've read these stories, but in regards to where this is unregulated... There's an element of upregulation on what is the highest quality herb, and I remember hearing the initial stories of when [Dedao 00:07:31] became relevant, or [Daode 00:07:34], been when all the trading routes became, those roads became really tended to, and all of a sudden you're getting Schisandra berry where Schisandra berry doesn't really grow and then people going, "Hang on. This isn't the excellent Schisandra that I'm used to. Where's it come from? Oh, it's actually coming from over here now because we can grow it more," and then that person that knew what they were talking about going, "No, I want that Schisandra berry from this region and grown this way," and all of a sudden, there's this born this invisible unregulated at just the highest quality. And it's been completely driven by people like yourself, like... was it Andrew? Simon Feeney: (08:13) Andrew Ellis, yeah. Andy Ellis, yeah. Mason: (08:16) But it's hard to communicate to people and then you've gone over there- Simon Feeney: (08:21) It's very complicated. Mason: (08:22) ... and met with these huge businesses that you've gone, and then driven by Andrew's demands, then furthered by your demands are going, "No. I need the herbs at this level." Simon Feeney: (08:31) The correct... I mean, the concept of this adulteration concept is very, very complicated, and as you mentioned, it comes all the way back to trade routes and all sorts of things. The principles of Daode are so complicated. You've got everything from completely incorrect species, like just one example is just Sheng Ma. So Sheng Ma's a herb that they use. I think in English it's like a Black Cohosh, and I think that's the English name for it. Anyway, we think about Sheng Ma and different kinds of Sheng Ma, but if you look at Sheng Ma, the actual herb, you can have something in the north called Sheng Ma and the south called Sheng Ma, but the north call that one [Ma Hua Toe 00:09:13], but in the south, they call it Sheng Ma. So, that can be one issue. Simon Feeney: (09:19) So when I went to Thailand, for example, I went into a wholesaler, I was looking for [Her Hung Hua 00:09:25], and they're like, "Here it is," and I'm like, "No, no, no. You've got it wrong," because what I was saying was [Her Hung Wa 00:09:29]." Simon Feeney: (09:30) It's like a special, like a flower. And then all of a sudden you realise, "No, no, no. You're using the wrong species." "No, you're not. You're using the wrong species." "But I've been using it in clinics for 10 years." "Well, I don't know, me too." "You've been using it for what purpose?" "I've been using it for this purpose." "Okay." So in some cases there's just incorrect species, so you just get a completely wrong species. In other instances you can have a different... And one thing does what it does therapeutically and the other one doesn't, and it's just been used for whatever reason, maybe it's got a mild action, but sometimes it just doesn't. It doesn't even have the marker, the therapeutic alkaloid in it, because you can measure these things now. That's the first example. Simon Feeney: (10:11) Second examples are where you have two different species of, same gene, it's different species with exactly the same function. An example of that's suan zao ren, so suan zao ren has two different kinds of suan zao ren, [foreign language 00:10:31] and spinose. So the spinose species is a little bit more effective, but this is for insomnia and that sort of stuff. But the [foreign language 00:10:40] is being used long enough in the history of Chinese medicine therapeutically and effectively in the clinic to say, "Yeah, it's kind of suan zao ren." Mason: (10:49) Far out. Simon Feeney: (10:49) Right? Mason: (10:51) Yeah. Simon Feeney: (10:52) And then you've got others. You got like a, and don't even get me started on chai hu bupleurum sinensis. I mean, bupleurum species. There's like 50 that are in use. But in the north the bei chai hu is different from the nan chai, so the bei chai hu is very good at venting shaoyang, so getting out pathologies in the system. This kind of lingering, they call it like a lingering pathogenic factor, but it's just kind of a TCM way of seeing this. It's basically stuck, like the shaoyang imbalance, we need to regulate shaoyang. Doesn't stop the flaring from it, but that's a different herb, [wan chin 00:11:29], but the chai hu doesn't... in the sinensis species does that. Simon Feeney: (11:35) But then the nan chai hu which is the southern chai hu, that vents and courses the liver. So if you're using those the opposite way around because they were written... It's complicated, sorry, if I get distracted. Mason: (11:49) Go for it. Simon Feeney: (11:50) The sinensis is used in all Shang Han Lun formulas, so the classical formulas to vent shaoyang. And in the modern one, the nan chai hu is used in Xiao Chai Hu Tang, which is a very common formula in Chinese medicine... Sorry, Xiao Yao San, to course liver chi and get rid of the stasis. When you swap those around and use them in the context of that formula, they can really cause problems. They can cause the adverse effects that you want. And people think, "Oh, it's me or it's something else." No, it's the species. And the complications of species identification is intense and when it comes to Daode the... I was talking to an indigenous guy, indigenous elder in South Australia, and I was asking about this concept. I was talking about this with him because I was talking about, oh, the way you decoct something. Simon Feeney: (12:41) And he said, "Oh, Simon, I'm going to bring you something." And he brought me this herb and he's like, "Try it, and see what you think," and he wanted to watch me taste it. I'm tasting it and I'm like "Oh, wow. This does this." And he's like, "Oh, good. Good." And I said, "We should get more of this, and teach me how to use it in clinic and I can apply it." And he said, "Oh... " I said, "Can you grow it?" And he said, "No, no, no. You totally missed the point. You totally don't understand. This is only therapeutically effective if it is on the north side of the river on a south-facing slope. If it's on the other side of the river, it doesn't have any function." So that's a whole 'nother level. So now we're talking about, this can actually be the correct species in the correct area, but it comes back to these really deep principles of Daode. Mason: (13:27) So I always try to get to the crux of why this comes about. Why we get all these problems and I can see, first of all, blaring the obvious is commercialization, extreme commercialization, taking away from the nature based element of this philosophy. Simon Feeney: (13:41) Yeah. Mason: (13:42) Then the other one, you're saying, you got all these people in clinic using a herb because it's in a textbook and you told that you can get this in a pulse, and that in tongue, that in a complexion, this is the formula you're going to be using. "Oh, it's not working." Well, something wrong with- Simon Feeney: (13:55) Something is wrong with me. Mason: (13:57) ... this person or the herb. Yeah, it's like, oh, yeah, me or... Simon Feeney: (13:58) Yeah, or Chinese medicine doesn't work. I've given up, I'm going to go and... Yeah. Mason: (14:01) Well, that's the most, I guess for me it's a funny frustrating thing because Chinese medicine is such a complete and ancient system- Simon Feeney: (14:10) It is. Mason: (14:10) ... that we know works. Simon Feeney: (14:11) It is. Mason: (14:12) Yet, the way it's been, I can see in Australia the frustration and of course when you see it get kind of very westernised. You see this belittling of Chinese medicine. If anyone comes in with cancer you need to send them to a big boy doctor, that's a western doctor because your system can't do it. Simon Feeney: (14:29) No, we can do a lot of stuff and it's definitely the bane of my existence. I mean, it comes back to the principles of... And it goes further. You talk about, first thing is, is basically plant identification. That's step one. So we can see already how complicated that is and we haven't really even gone into the... There's a reason that it happens in the first place, like it's not necessarily... It can be because of innocence. It could just be just not only misidentification but just availability, and availability, what's the... necessity is the mother of all creations. People just need that herb, it's just not available. What are we going to do? How are we going to adapt? Simon Feeney: (15:14) And so, Chinese medicine's beautiful like that and then all of a sudden new things evolve, and that is the nature of Chinese medicine. It is still evolving, but is evolving based on history. It's not evolving in the sense, like the western mind thinks about evolving in the sense of, "Right, all that stuff's behind me and I need to forge forward into the darkness." I learnt this from my teacher, Arnaud Versluys. Obviously, everyone says everything because they're "Who taught them before?" So I've got to acknowledge that this idea came from my teacher. Simon Feeney: (15:49) So in the west you forge forward into the darkness with your mind like, "Right, we're going to create new things." And the eastern way of thinking is the absolute opposite. It spins around, you're looking at the foundations of what you have and how they manifest into the future, and the future's often behind you and you're sitting in this present moment. That's a completely different way of looking into the future. And so, trying to get these foundations are very, very important so you've got this... Anyway, back to the [inaudible 00:16:18] process. So plant identification is one thing and then you get to the quality discernment of something, and then you're looking at, right, it's this, this grown this time of the year, it's got pungency, it's got this, it's got that, it's got all its nature, it's got its chi, it's got its signature, it's got its flavour. Simon Feeney: (16:33) And then you look at dosage, it's a whole 'nother thing and it's underpinning your point which is watering down and diluting the efficacy of the medicine. If you're not using the right dose for the right person at the right time, you can't blame the medicine. And then administration techniques, so different administration techniques are being completely ignored during the course of Chinese medicine. It's very interesting to look at. Simon Feeney: (17:04) An example like qinghao, so Artemisia annua. What was the name? The lady's name? She got a nobel prize for a science in which she went back to the history of where she started testing qinghao for malaria. So she tested it as an extract or as a granule, and she tested it as a powder, she tested it as a decoction, she tested the level in which she was able to break down these malaria strains. And eventually, she kept following her way back, back, back into the history of Chinese medicine. Simon Feeney: (17:41) She eventually went and came back to this guy called Ge Hong who was the first person to talk about qinghao, and what did he say? "Read the subtext," he says. "Do a cold water extraction." So take the thing and actually take it, wring it out in cold water and beat it 100 times, all right? And then they tested it and it just... just demolished, just demolished. I get goosebumps thinking about it, the malarial strains, and I've seen it effective on the Thai-Burmese border when we're working there, like it's just so effective. But if you don't do it, the correct administration, you don't use the correct administration technique, you're not going to get that purpose. So every step of the way, identification, quality, dosage, administration, all these steps are very... any of those that are lacking. you're going to get an inferior clinical result. Mason: (18:33) Okay, because I love to jump in because it frustrates me when people are going and getting acupuncture. We talk about, a lot here about finding someone practising a classical Chinese medicine verse just straight out of the western taught model and it's a distinction I think is quite, I think it's quite stark. Someone like yourself is going, "Okay. I'm going to now have to go and study by myself after I've gotten trained." Tahnee, my wife, knew your name because I think podcasts you've been on talking about dose, so I really want to hear about that. But you just bring up a couple of things I think are just super significant in terms of when you're working with a practitioner. Mason: (19:21) One, we've brought up the fact that someone could be using a herb and that's any... Of course, we can do that, but it also speaks to the quality of practitioner that we're producing that you not able to get into the mindset and question and understand and see, "Okay, I'm going to be able to chop and change and find what is that energetic of that herb that's not working in this situation, and being able to feel, and be present and be tactile." And you encapsulated that in being able to look, by looking behind you to why the history of this medicine and knowing that the answer's going to be there somewhere if you can not just forge into the darkness. Simon Feeney: (20:03) No, we shouldn't be making... We're not making this stuff up. We are using the history of that medicine. It's the foundation of what we're doing, and I think it's very hard for, because we have huge egos in the west, like we want to be seen as this guru or we want to be seen as these things and I see it every day in Chinese medicine. You see, "Oh, he was wrong and she's wrong," like, man, we're all part of this. We're all part of this medicine and the only way we can make it better is if we work together, we unify and we basically... Mason: (20:40) Everyone needs to listen to a little bit of Vanilla Ice, "Stop. Collaborate and listen." Simon Feeney: (20:44) I wasn't expecting that. Mason: (20:50) It comes up in my head so much because I can't think of the word collaborate without- Simon Feeney: (20:54) Oh, without, oh, that's your relationship. Mason: (20:54) ... singing that to myself. Simon Feeney: (20:54) Yeah, yeah. Nice. Mason: (20:57) And I mean it's the same for me in business. I'm a very reluctant businessman and watching other people come up in the medicinal mushroom space and the tonic herb space, and watching myself that perhaps at times kind of, like I just observe what my reaction to that is, especially when you see such a lack of collaboration going on. And every time I dip into the Chinese doctor world, the herbalist world, acupuncturist world, and I can see there's a lot of passion without collaboration a lot of the time. Everyone's just bickering at each other and bickering about like, "Well, this text says this and my lineage says this," and it's like, I mean... Simon Feeney: (21:41) I mean, we do have that division. I mean, it's just human nature I guess. Politics is in everything. There's politics in an elevator. So that is an issue. It's very much like the martial arts world. This technique doesn't work better, but guess what happens, eventually you kind of get better and better and better. That's the nature of I guess competition in a sense. It was very much like that. They're all, "This guy's next to this guy." If you look at the way it was, like they had booze outside hospitals, just a guy waiting to take your pulse and write your script and get a little bit of money to feed his family. So he had to be good, or he or she had to be good. Simon Feeney: (22:22) And they're always, "Oh... " And I guess the difference is badmouthing other people as opposed to just being good. So you can spend a lot of time, that's what Andy taught me. I said to him, "Oh, I'm so frustrated. Everyone's saying they've got this pesticide test, and said they got this and they got that. They're saying they got the same stuff as us, but I know they don't." And he's like, "Simon. Simon, just let your herbs speak for themselves." Mason: (22:45) Great advice. Simon Feeney: (22:45) I was like, oh, awesome advice. Awesome advice. And that's what it comes down to. Mason: (22:51) And that's walking the path. Simon Feeney: (22:52) It is walking... Yeah, it is. It's tough- Mason: (22:54) I love coming across people like that. Simon Feeney: (22:56) Yeah. Yeah. Mason: (22:57) Because it's tough when you're getting triggered by your shadows. You get up and there's all these mirrors for yourself when you get into business, and if you can rise above, let your herbs speak for themselves, go, "There's more than enough for anyone. I'm championing the lineage. I'm championing people being well." All of a sudden- Simon Feeney: (23:15) Yeah. You're bringing awareness to these issues and it's great. It's what we need. It's what everyone needs. Mason: (23:21) I'm really- Simon Feeney: (23:21) We're trying to get people well. Mason: (23:23) I mean, that's ultimately- Simon Feeney: (23:26) It's for our community, yeah. Mason: (23:26) That's where I slap my palm on my head when everyone starts like, when people reporting each other, going after each other, stealing from each other, getting sneaky covert calls, and then we figure out what's going on and we're like, "Dude, just call us." We help so many young businesses and I talk to people who are bigger than me. I ask them advice all the time, and it's so nice when you can get out of that, there's that combative nature because we're trying to get everyone well. Simon Feeney: (23:59) Yes, absolutely we are. And I think, as you must experience it, it's difficult when you're coming from your perspective, and I think you were mentioning before people are saying, "But you're not this, and you're not that." Mason: (24:12) Not a herbalist. Simon Feeney: (24:13) "You're not this and you're not that." It's tough. People spend a lot of time training and they get protective. Same things happening in our acupuncture industry at the moment. There's people spending five years studying their butts off, taking time away from their families. They're living really meagerly to get their degree in acupuncture and they come out, and then a dry needler opens up nextdoor to them and says, "Oh, acupuncture's not safe," or something, and then they give someone a pneumothorax, and then it's, what happens? An acupuncture needle did this. Yeah, but who was holding the acupuncture needle? Some person who's... Mason: (24:58) What you're talking to there is when there's someone, like there's someone with herbs saying they got the same thing. It's hard if you know someone's potentially going to do damage, like that's if you get out and you know you're in a system and it's one thing to ignore if someone's just doing something measly, but if you know that's going to do damage, how do you not get combative and triggered? Simon Feeney: (25:20) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So... Mason: (25:21) Because I know dry needle, it's always funny... Well, for me, verse the ultimate institutional herbal practise. This is why I enjoy going out and seeking these conversations with practitioners, with people like yourself that are such experts in the system of healing. And I've learnt how to not justify my existence but yet acknowledge that there's this part of me that is so... I've always been called to just stay away from becoming a practitioner and be... I love being folky. Okay, cool, we've identified, there's like a rise of, [inaudible 00:26:07] identified that this works in a very lifestyle kind of space potentially to keep us out of the practitioner office and then cultivate an ability to respect when something goes beyond your expertise, and then go and interact with a practitioner. I mean, I don't know if you [inaudible 00:26:22]- Simon Feeney: (26:21) Yeah, definitely. I mean, it reminds me of when I... In my 20s, we used to hang out with this Buddhist monk. For years and years, we travelled Southeast Asia unearthing these old manuscripts, and I would spend years... He's one of only two people in the world who can read this stuff, and we would... The stuff that we saw, and I sometimes would bring the script to him and say, "Oh, [Bunty 00:26:48], this one looks really old, is this good?" He's like, "Oh, yeah. That's a thousand years old." And all this stuff was just getting eaten by insects and some of it is just, pertains to really interesting information. This is what started my whole journey. Simon Feeney: (27:01) So one day I gave him... Normally the texts are about two foot long and they're all on palm leaf or etched by hand. This one was only about 20cm long, and I opened it up and it had all these graphs on it and pictures of the body and all these sort of astrological symbols and stuff. And I said, "Bunty, what is this?" And he's like, "Oh, it's a medical text. The reason it's so small is that the monks used to pop it in their robes and then travel with them, " and they couldn't take the big ones because they would stay at the monastery and they would study them. They would study monastic culture... Oh, sorry, the monastic order and things like that. Anyway, spend a lot of time with him and that, and then I said, "What's on it?" And he said, "Oh, this is for, what's that herb? What's the condition where your skin's falling off?" I'm like "Leprosy?" "Yeah, yeah. This formula's for leprosy." "What?! There's a formula here for leprosy in this stuff?" "Oh, there's a lot of stuff in that, Simon. You have no idea, there's a lot of stuff in that." "This has to be known." Simon Feeney: (27:54) So I spent a lot of time hanging with him and learning about all the individual herbs and all the formulations and did all this stuff at a very grassroots level. It came to the point where he said to me, and I tried to raise all this capital through this big project to get all this funding to help him get this medicine protected, get these manuscripts into museums, all this stuff. We digitalized. I spent many, many days and nights getting smashed by mosquitoes digitizing these things, smuggled them out of Burma, all sorts of stuff, and arrested at gunpoint, it was hectic. And it got to a point where no one would take me seriously. No one would take me seriously. Mason: (28:34) Why? Simon Feeney: (28:35) Because I didn't have any credentials. I said, "Bunty, I'm so frustrated that this project would say, Alan, this person wants to know, our investors want to know this or our project coordinator, to get the funding from this we need to have some sort of legitimacy to you." Mason: (28:53) This is when you're going into the healing of disease state. Simon Feeney: (28:56) So I'm working into that. Yes. Mason: (28:56) That kind of thing with these formulas. Simon Feeney: (28:59) Yes. Yeah, and also sort of building projects to support them as a culture as well in terms of books and just... I mean, legitimization basicallY. And so, my teacher said, "Ah, Simon, you go and get paper." And I was like, "What do you mean, Bunty?" "You, I teach you enough for here. You go get paper" So I was like, "Okay." Everything he's ever said to me I've just listened to, and it's good to have someone like that in life. And then I left and I got my... I spent five years getting a piece of paper. Mason: (29:34) Here? Simon Feeney: (29:36) Yeah, in Australia. Yeah. And that's kind of what that was my path, and it depends on which path you're going and I certainly think that there is room for everybody and there's room for being... I think that's... It's just a different path. Mason: (29:52) Yeah, I definitely did... That story's insane. [inaudible 00:29:57]. Simon Feeney: (29:58) Oh, there's lots more. Yeah. Mason: (30:00) Well, let's go, like I'd love to go lots more. I mean, there's a crossroad and I can definitely relate to that crossroad. When you're looking at leprosy and you're looking at these, this is a formula classically done and doses classically done. This information needs to get out there. If you want to go out and start talking about that, you need a piece of paper behind you for sure. Simon Feeney: (30:25) Yes, you do. Yeah, yeah. And it's not for everyone, and I respect people who don't do that just as much. Like Chinese medicine is built on all kinds of people. Actually, the foundations of it come from aesthetics, come from people like [Shen Nung 00:30:40]. Anyway, this guy didn't have a piece of paper, so I'm not saying it's important- Mason: (30:45) You just had a translucent [crosstalk 00:30:46]. Simon Feeney: (30:46) I did have a translucent [inaudible 00:30:48]. And just lots and lots of meditation and lots of time in a cave. Mason: (30:53) Yeah. I mean, I feel like- Simon Feeney: (30:55) There's room for everything. Mason: (30:57) Yeah. I mean, for me, I, at one point, like I'm walking that line where you've got, like I'm going I want to step out of practitioner, and so there's a level of what grandma and grandpa says like, "Oh, no. Take that. It makes you strong." I'm at that point where I'm like for the least this little bit of my path I'm happy just going, "Yeah, makes you strong. Yeah, that'll get you thinking a bit sharper." I don't want to say anything more than that. I'm going to have to know if we've got TGA products where we can only say immunity and those kinds of things, or actually we're able to say like cultivate Jing and things like that. Mason: (31:38) But nonetheless, I'm really enjoying, for me, being at that point where I just sit literally within the kitchen household, and then I had all these, for me, then all of a sudden that opens me up to getting really curious and inviting folks like yourself onto the podcast. And then going, I feel like I can go on an adventure with you. I know my place, and I think that's something that I've liked in going forward with tonic herbalism, non-institutionalised kind of like style of herbal, like it's shoot from the hip, it's grassroots and it's chaotic and archaic, and I kind of like that. But the collaboration at some point needs to happen and they need to get humbled, and I think the tonic or herbal world needs to realise where its edges are. Simon Feeney: (32:33) Yeah, and same with everything. Same with Chinese medicine. I know that I share this with a lot of practitioners whatever they come from, I mean everything from western surgeons to Chinese medicine practitioners is that you have to know the limitations of that. When you come out you're like, "I can treat everything with Chinese medicine." I'm thinking this, right, as a new graduate. There is nothing this medicine can't do, and then you treat it once and it works, and you treat it twice and it works, and you treat it the third time, I've totally got this, and then it doesn't work. Simon Feeney: (33:12) Right, okay. Well, go back to my training, go back to my [inaudible 00:33:16] again. Try this, try that, try this, try that, do more training, you're upset with yourself. You're like, "Why doesn't this work?" Okay, factor all these things in. Yeah, all this, got the best quality herbs, got the best... You can do all this and be the best you possibly did 100%, got this pulse right, I've nailed it. Still can't get a result, why? Don't know. The person might need surgery. So to come to that realisation that... It's a really good realisation, a very humbling experience because you say, "Right, just there is a time and place for everything." Simon Feeney: (33:47) I had a patient with terminal cancer, and I had to say goodbye. That was really tough for the first time it happens. It's so sad when your first patient dies. It's really, really difficult because you think that... I mean, coming from the [Daoist 00:34:11] point of view, you're trying to create everlasting life. Mason: (34:16) Immortality. Simon Feeney: (34:16) Immortality, maybe. And then all of a sudden that happens and it's devastating. It's devastating, but it's very humbling and it just makes you do what you can do. Mason: (34:31) Let's go, I want to hear more about these gooey adventures that you go on where you've gone out of like... You've kind of gone from the diagnostic Chinese... Are you all right? Simon Feeney: (34:42) Yes, yes, yes. Mason: (34:42) Yeah? Chinese medicine too... and there's times when you have limitations and then obviously there's... But you've looked and gone, yeah, but we're not being as effective as we can be because we're not dosing say correctly or there's this... There's not this, like bricks and mortar, it's not just bricks and mortar style Chinese medicine. There's obviously something else back in the classics that you're wanting to bring to the forefront, particular formulas, dosage, or maybe there's something like a tactile, like being more agile within your clinic where you actually face backwards to the past, and therefore you've actually got your finger on the pulse in a sense where you can move rather than just following the textbook and have that kind of skill. Mason: (35:29) I'm curious about that, like I don't know if that's even appropriate what I'm bringing up there, but I get the sense of you... There's this movement and you're part of it going back to these classics which makes you more of a personal... brings more of a humanness and this greater agile skillset to yourself in clinic with that patient. I don't know if that makes sense in that statement. Simon Feeney: (35:50) Sort of, yeah. So I think there is a renaissance in Chinese medicine currently. It's from the west. The west is guiding this because I mean, I could just think of literally like two days ago I got lectured. I'm not sure if I want to bring this up, but look, this is the truth of what happened. I got a lecture. I consider myself a very, not a specialist by any means, but certainly an obsessive, I'm obsessed with the classics. I'm obsessed with this kind of administration, I'm obsessed with understanding these texts, and I was lectured by this lady... Actually, no, I'm not going to talk about that. So, I'm going to change the topic. Mason: (36:40) I don't know even if it helps in that context not talking about that specific situation, but let's see on not with you but in a broader sense maybe bring up where's the clashing of the heads between the renaissance and what's maybe been really institutionalised in Australia in the west and China. Simon Feeney: (36:59) Yeah, definitely. So the way that the TCM model is being taught currently, it's lacking. It's lacking the clinical application. It wasn't until I met my teacher, Arnaud Versluys that I really realised, "Wow. This is really, really good medicine," and I talked to people about his level of pulse diagnosis that he has taught us in Australia to other people who are super experienced and they're like, "That's impossible. You can't have two people feeling the same pulse and coming up with the same conclusion." I'm like, "No, no, no." I've seen it time and time again. I can give you an example, if you like? Mason: (37:35) Yeah, please. Simon Feeney: (37:36) First time I met Arnaud, we had 50 students on either side feeling each pulse. So 50 students feeling the right pulse, and 50 students feeling the left pulse, and he felt both- Mason: (37:47) I can just imagine. Simon Feeney: (37:47) It was awesome. It was awesome. And so, he's just in the centre figure feeling these people's pulses. He's feeling the pulse, writing the script, giving it to them, to the patient. The patient's going over sitting there, and then everyone's trying to feel what he felt, and this is part of the training and part of his training, it's called pulse calibration. So what we're trying to calibrate our fingers to feel exactly what he's feeling. Simon Feeney: (38:06) One of his top students was there and anyway, so there's a patient sitting down and she comes over to the patient and says to the student that's feeling her pulse, "Would you mind if I just quickly feel the pulse? Just wanted to jump in." "Course, no worries. You're the... " So she feels the pulse, and he's like, "Would you like to see the formula?" And she goes "Oh, no, no. It's fine. I just want to check." And then she said the formula name [foreign language 00:38:28]. And he said "Oh, wow. That was pretty good." The student said to her, "Wow, I bet you don't know the dosages," which is kind of being a bit condescending to her. And she's like, "Well... " blah-blah-blah. And she said about one of the doses, she said the [Che Bai 00:38:45] was at 48g. And he goes "No, 24". He thought she got one thing wrong and that was enough to say that she wasn't legitimate, like that was already just super, super... I was just going, "Wow, whatever. I want to learn this." But then she goes, "Oh... " And she didn't take offence to it. Simon Feeney: (39:08) She in fact just went and took the opportunity to feel the pulse to figure out what she'd done wrong, and then she feels the pulse and she's like, "Really? I thought he would have done 48." And he's like... And she said, "Can I see the paper?" "Yeah" The student had written 24. She said "Excuse me, Arnaud. This patient, did you do Che Bai at 24 or 48g?" And he goes through his notes and he goes, "48," and she looked down at the student. She said, "Maybe you need to check your notes." And I was just blown away. I've never seen anything like that in pulse diagnosis, to be able to replicate that, and that's what Chinese medicine is, is replication. But that information and trying to replicate it without diluting it, it takes a lot of effort to say the least. It's hard. It's hard to keep that level of quality going. Anyway, off tangent but... Mason: (40:07) Well, I mean, it's on tangent because I think we are... I mean, especially on the podcast and the people that tune in, we're such, for me, I'm such a fan of Chinese medicine and I'm such a fan of clinical acupuncture, and to see it flail sometimes is really heartbreaking. Simon Feeney: (40:29) Yes, yes. Mason: (40:30) And to hear something like that, it's such a transformation. Immediately, it transforms me into a way of seeing the world that I always, I move towards. I feel like there's a sense, when you look at the classics and you look at the metaphor and the story there's a sense of animism that emerges in me and I can feel the world view and the skillset that a practitioner's going to need in order to be able to come up with the same pulse diagnosis every single time, and I think, what happened? We took out the story, the love, the animism and everyone goes, "Yeah, but that's going to be good because it's going to be [inaudible 00:41:14], we cut out all the shit that's not... " Cut the spirit out basically, and we're going to get more consistency. Simon Feeney: (41:20) Yeah. That's what happened. Mason: (41:20) And the opposite happened. Simon Feeney: (41:20) Yeah. Well, I mean the TCM model is still being taught every day. Look, if you talk to some incredible acupuncturist like David White here in Australia, and these guys are bringing back some of that old acupuncture system, but it died, like it was killed. They killed it. It was dead. Luckily, we had actually had it for herbalism, Chinese herbalism, we had an actual physical thing to touch and to measure. So during the cultural evolution that was actually an opportunity to grow. It was then institutionalised obviously, but some of that old stuff survived. It survived in Taiwan, really. That's really what's made that survival. But it survived in practitioners like my teacher's teacher's teacher, Dr. Tian. Simon Feeney: (42:14) So he lived till 98 basically treating 300 patients a day, and passed it onto a few students and one of those students was my teacher's teacher. And he survived with that same thing even though he went through that period, but he just kept practising the classic, kept practising the classic, practised what his teachers practised and he managed to pass it onto Arnaud, and now Arnaud is passing it onto us. But most of it definitely has been lost to a degree, very much similar to what happened in western herbalism. I remember talking to Jimi, I heard you interview Jimi and he's- Mason: (42:49) Love him. Simon Feeney: (42:50) He's a great guy. Yeah. He- Mason: (42:52) That's Jimi Wollumbin, everybody. Simon Feeney: (42:54) Yeah. Mason: (42:54) Yeah. Simon Feeney: (42:54) Yeah, he called me up one day just out of the blue and we just started talking, and I was like, "Wow, I could talk to this guy for a long, long time." So, yeah, very interesting, and I think he was sort of illustrating that as well, kind of that massive loss of herbalism, and then I think people like him are really kind of bringing that back to western herbalism, seems to me. Mason: (43:15) Yeah. Simon Feeney: (43:16) Seems to me. It's needed. Mason: (43:16) And likewise yourself. Simon Feeney: (43:17) Yeah. Mason: (43:18) Having these conversations when... Well, I mean for you especially, and I know we won't go too much into it, you're really playing in both worlds. Simon Feeney: (43:26) Yes. Mason: (43:26) You really got your foot... You're rubbing up against the way that TCM is being taught here. Simon Feeney: (43:32) Yeah. Mason: (43:34) Directly with the new- Simon Feeney: (43:35) Yeah, a lot of people get upset with me, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. Mason: (43:37) It's kind of fun, isn't it? Simon Feeney: (43:38) So you're thinking, welcome to my world. Mason: (43:39) [crosstalk 00:43:39] world. I mean, I kind of tell people regularly. They're like, "How often does it happen that you have someone contacting you and getting upset?" I'm like, "I don't know why, not often." Simon Feeney: (43:53) Oh, good, good. Yeah. Mason: (43:55) But I don't know why. I think because I was beaten by the press and I think and try and have a conversation with myself to be like, "What am I doing that rubs up against the wrong way of... " and it's the TCM people, or even my classical acupuncturist. He gets upset at me sometimes because he's moved away now so, people, you can't ask me for his name because everyone's looking for that classic like, "Oh my God, you got a classical acupuncturist in the area? Can I have his name?" You know, for having like a few individual herbs, and I'm like, "I get it." I'll sit down and have a discussion of my rationale or where I was when I brought them into the range and now, how they're being used and how practitioners are using, so on and so forth. But I would much prefer to have it than leave that conversation in the shadows. Simon Feeney: (44:47) Yeah. I think it's probably just jealousy for other people. I think they're probably just jealous of your success and that's not very attractive for those people. Mason: (44:58) It's weird. Simon Feeney: (44:59) But I think bringing this awareness to people in Australia is necessary. I think it's great what you've done, what you've achieved. I've seen your place now, it's really great. Well done. Yeah. I think it's great, yeah. Mason: (45:12) Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. I think part of the mission is on the sidelines it can be the joker scallywag bringing attention to what you're talking about, to what Jimi Wollumbin is talking about. Do you know Rhonda Chang? Simon Feeney: (45:25) I don't, no. Mason: (45:25) I'm going to see if I've got a spare one of her books to give you. She's got a book called Chinese Medicine Masquerading as Yi. Simon Feeney: (45:33) As? Mason: (45:33) Yi. Simon Feeney: (45:33) Oh, yeah. Okay. Mason: (45:38) Blows it out, like documenting exactly how this new TCM is an invention that came about in the 50s. Simon Feeney: (45:46) Yes, yes. Yeah. Mason: (45:48) And I'm sure none of it's going to be news to you. Simon Feeney: (45:50) Yeah. Well, it's funny, I was talking about the, even on the weekend someone was talking about some basic concepts like chi, people still think it's energy. You look at the translation, it's really fair. So these kinds of ideas are very new to the western Chinese medicine practitioners. It's very hard to understand that, because a lot of people come into the medicine with a very romantic view of what Chinese medicine is and can do. I was the same. I was very, how herbalism they can treat all this stuff, but then when you really start to practise and you realise it's not as... You've got to be very pragmatic about it, you've got to be very systematic about it, you've got to approach it with a clinical mindset. It's a very different thing, a very different way of thinking about it. Simon Feeney: (46:47) But when you see how it connects with natural phenomena then you can actually reconnect with that whole idea. When you start to understand that, for example, you learn about different conformations, or just the translations. So for example, like the six, they call the six channels, they used to call the six channels or the six meridians or the six systems or the six warps. It just gives you a... It's very planned, and you can learn it like that. I'm talking about Tai Yang, Yang Min, Shao Yang, et cetera. When you translate it a different way, which is we translate it as conformations which is the way my teacher, Arnaud, translates it. It takes on a whole different perspective. Simon Feeney: (47:29) So a conformation is something that's... It's vessels that are conforming to natural phenomena. So all of a sudden you're looking at it from a natural perspective and you're looking from a metaphoric, you're using natural metaphors to understand the body because we are just the microcosm of the macrocosm. And then you can get that whole romantic perspective and artistic perspective of what the medicine is. It returns, but it's only due to this renaissance that we're going through at the moment. It doesn't happen in the current model that's taught, but it's like everything, probably the same as accounting, I don't know. Mason: (48:15) I mean, the world of numbers, I know there's a... I know, I've got friends that are sacred mathematicians [crosstalk 00:48:22]- Simon Feeney: (48:21) Yes, exactly. There you go. Well done, exactly. Well said, yeah. Mason: (48:27) Yeah. It is exciting. It is exciting feeling the story-telling and the metaphor and the alive, spiritually alive world can- Simon Feeney: (48:38) It is. It's living and breathing. You feel it when the pulse changes. When you give someone a formula and their pulse changes and you go, "Whoa!" Or the seasons change, you feel it in their pulse. It's awesome. Mason: (48:48) I mean, and I know what happened to the water. Simon Feeney: (48:51) Yes. Yes. Mason: (48:51) I can feel that. Was it like- Simon Feeney: (48:52) Yes, it changes. Things change. Everything courses and lives and breathes. Mason: (48:59) It's nice to see that, it's so simple. It's something that's so, it's so looked down on to have that romantic, that animism, yet you should have that with extreme structure and discipline at the same time. Simon Feeney: (49:17) It does. It's both of those things simultaneously, and that Daoist medicine. That is the interaction and the mutual exchange of yin and yang and the cosmos, it's good. Mason: (49:31) And the people that feel it, they feel the lineage. Simon Feeney: (49:34) Yeah, it's very, very... It's in you. Yeah, absolutely. You practise it, and that's why it's kind of protected. Mason: (49:42) I'd love to just go down that rabbit hole maybe hear some more adventures along the way, especially around the dosing. As I said, Tahnee knew you. Simon Feeney: (49:51) Yes. Dosage stuff, yeah. Mason: (49:53) Yeah, heard your stuff and I mean, if anything can go to the difference between something not working clinically and working clinically... Simon Feeney: (50:01) Yeah. Mason: (50:02) Transformational. Simon Feeney: (50:03) Yes, it's huge. Yeah. So that whole dosage journey started when I started to make those classical pills. So a good example is MaZiRenWan. It's a hemp seed pill that's used for chronic constipation and inflammation in the small intestine, and that formula when I was trying to physically make it, because this is what I was trying to do. I wanted to use the, this back to this kind of original dosage but as an administration technique, so I was trying to use the administration techniques to be the way they were originally used. As I mentioned before with Artemisia, these kinds of factors are really, really huge. Simon Feeney: (50:41) So you have Tang, Sans and Wans. So Tang's a decoction, so it's much more for sorting the organs clean, a very acute medicine. Sans are the powders, and they're for things that you need a little bit of hydrochloric acid to absorb into the body. And then Wans are pills, so they're much more chronic issues that have to be gently administered into the body or you want them to slowly get into the bloodstream. So you use honey, acts like a slow-release mechanism so it helps the herbs to stabilise, not get affected by the hydrochloric acid and absorb through the walls of the small intestine, straight into the bloodstream, straight into the liver, and then systematically. Simon Feeney: (51:20) So, I didn't want to use Wans as Tangs and Tangs as Sans and Sans as Tangs or Wans. I wanted to use them according to the classics, so then I have to make them. So, go to the textbook, go to make them, read the current dosages, like this gramme equal this liang, this is this gramme, make it, slop. What's going on? Try a different formula, totally dry. How am I going to roll this into a pill? Simon Feeney: (51:51) Now, I'd made medicine with my teacher on the border in Burma and Thailand, and I made boiled pills with him. I'd seen everyone, I'd hang out with the monks in the temples, breaking, grinding up herbs. I'd been doing that for years, learning all these techniques. I went "This is not right. Something's not right here." So, then I went "Okay, well, like you do, foundational medicine. Go back to the foundations." Went back to the foundations, what were the dosages? Oh, it's one liang of this, I have no idea what that is. It's half a jin. Well, I don't know what that is. It's one jin. Well, at least I know that half a jin, if I figure out what a jin is, I can figure out what half a jin is. A zhang? Don't even know, that's like a volume measurement? And then a [chur 00:52:35]. A chur is just a foot of something. I'm like, what the hell am I doing? How am I going to make this formula? Simon Feeney: (52:43) So, okay, what is a liang? Because I knew that eight liang is one jin, half a jin will be four liang, et cetera, et cetera. Then you have these fen measurements and zhu measurements, and all these old measurements. I read every book I can find about this measurement stuff, and then I start going to the people who I feel like know the most in the English world, and even found some Chinese text. One liang equals 15.625g, and I'm like, "That's pretty precise." Simon Feeney: (53:17) My dad's a PhD in algebra and he taught me at a very age about all sorts of mathematical things, so I was obsessed. How come everything thinks it's 3g when he's saying, and these people are like the authority, it's 15.625. So find out that, I mean how much do you want to know? Do you want me to... Am I boring you? Mason: (53:37) I mean, I'm fascinated. Simon Feeney: (53:40) Okay. Mason: (53:40) Screw everyone listening, I want to hear you. Simon Feeney: (53:43) I'm not sure this is right for your audience, but even if it's just for me and you... Yes, I mean, I don't care if you- Mason: (53:47) No, go for it. You'll be surprised at how much they'll be loving this. Simon Feeney: (53:53) Okay. So, yeah, 15.625g. So it turns out that this weight system comes off an old measurement system, so it's this old bell and you need to use a pitch pipe to tune the bell and it's called a Huang bell, and you use this pitch pipe that's cut with a particular size of bamboo. You know, how you got the knots in the bamboo and the gap? So then they create this at different sizes, and would create a different tune, right, when you "hoo". You... whatever, blow on it, right? Mason: (54:20) When you hoedown on it. Simon Feeney: (54:23) So in order to figure out how high that had to be, it was based on putting pieces of broomcorn millet inside this thing, and 1200 of those would be where you cut it off to make the pitch for the bell, this is a ceremonial bell. Turns out 1200 of that is 12 zhu, and 24 zhu is one liang. So I went and became a specialist in black broomcorn millet because of course that's what you do. Mason: (54:56) Of course, that seems so obvious. Simon Feeney: (54:58) Then I counted... It was such an obvious conclusion, right. So I had to find not only that but I had to find black broomcorn millet that was produced in the Han dynasty, which was an interesting process. Counted them all out, 1200, weighed them all out, 7.8g, right, 15.625, that's how they came up with the conclusion. So I was certain that's what that dose was. Mason: (55:17) There's no industry for this in the Han... Where did you say was it? Simon Feeney: (55:20) In the Han dynasty. Mason: (55:21) In the Han... Simon Feeney: (55:22) Yeah. Oh, sorry. Mason: (55:22) Like where were you sourcing the millet? Where did you say you had to go and source it somewhere in China? Simon Feeney: (55:26) Oh, basically just research. Yeah, just extensive research into the growth patterns of black broomcorn... because I didn't want to know that the size was different. Like the wheat grain had changed, it's different. The size, so if I'm counting them individually... Mason: (55:39) That's what I'm thinking, yeah. Simon Feeney: (55:40) Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're talking about a volume measurement with something that could be potentially bigger or smaller. So, long story short, I started to figure out what a liang was. Then I could find out what a jin was, and half a jin was, and then this, and a zhu and a zhang. Put it all together based on those weights, perfect pills. Mason: (55:59) Do you know where the- Simon Feeney: (56:00) Like, yeah! Mason: (56:01) Like that is [crosstalk 00:56:01] I'm feeling [crosstalk 00:56:02]. Simon Feeney: (56:03) Yeah. It was good moment. Mason: (56:05) You're looking at your dad about how elated he was when he got like a massive formulation and you're like, "I get it." Simon Feeney: (56:11) Yeah. It was a revelation, yeah. Mason: (56:15) Where was the crux point where it's gone away from these forms of measurements? Where has the standardisation occurred that led to such dramatic poor translations on the formulas? Simon Feeney: (56:28) What an awesome question. I mean, gosh that's complicated. So many factors. I mean, every factor from... As we mentioned earlier, quality to so many species differentiation, change in the environment, change in climate, lifestyle, people's... In the Han dynasty [inaudible 00:56:48] are living in huts versus living in air conditioned housing, so the strength of someone's digestive system that could cope with that compared to now. So that's one theory why it kind of got reinterpreted, but then if you look back through the dynasties each measurement system sort of changed, and then there's conflicting arguments, and then it kind of... and let's just all, just a big discussion. Simon Feeney: (57:15) And so, there's sti
My guest in this episode taught himself how to read Classical Chinese via textbooks and online tools and forums so he could read ancient philosophical texts in their original language. Daniel G. Reid's translations include The Heshang Gong Commentary on Lao Zi's Dao De Jing and The Thread of Dao: Unraveling Early Daoist Oral Traditions. In this episode we look at his methodology and motivations for translating texts and the life wisdom he is extracting from them. This includes early Daoist (Taoists) roots, the concept of the true or authentic person, and the power of virtue. We also take a peek at Dan's meditation practice and the symmetry that he has found between music and Daoism. Dan is a Registered Massage Therapist and a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, Cranial Sacral Therapy, and other Chinese modalities. His training in massage therapy and Chinese Medicine comes from the Jin Shou (Golden Hand) lineage of Tui Na. He also studies and practices Qigong, internal martial arts, and is a multi-instrumentalist and poet. If you are interested in early Daoist traditions, follow along in this conversation as Dan helps us pick up the thread of Dao. Please enjoy this episode of Pacific Rim College Radio with Daniel G. Reid. Episode Links: https://www.facebook.com/HoShangKung/ The Thread of Dao by Daniel G. Reid The Heshang Gong Commentary by Daniel G. Reid Learning Links: School of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at PRC Online Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine courses at PRCOnline Student Clinic at PRC
The world of Sabine Wilms is filled with benevolent sages, ancient scripts, magical herbs, and goats, and it is my absolute pleasure to bring you into this world during this episode. Like the sages that she translates, Sabine is a rare being that radiates light, love, and generosity. Try not to be enchanted by her enthusiasm for life and her mission and you will likely fall short. For the Chinese Medicine enthusiast, for the first 24 or so minutes of this conversation, we geek out on some esoteric Classic texts that Sabine has translated, including a little-known medieval text. For those without a Chinese Medicine background, you might want to gloss over this intro section, but the remainder of the episode is a must listen for anyone. Sabine and I plunge deep into Taoist practices and philosophies around concepts such as virtue and family reverence. We also look at a branch of Chinese healing that does not involve needles or herbs or nutrition but instead only verbal, heart-centred communication. This part of Chinese Medicine is largely inspired by the teachings and work of Wang Fengyi, and a few years ago, an immersive retreat into the teachings of Wang Fengyi forever changed Sabine's life. We also pick up some threads of conversation that I had with Heiner Fruehauf on the value of blaming no one and instead always taking personal accountability. Before wrapping up we circle back around to Sabine's translations and the publishing company that she founded, Happy Goat Productions. Through these publications she has helped preserve and give new life to many texts and teachings that perhaps would have never made it to the English-speaking reader. This conversation with Sabine Wilms was so much fun to record, and I have no doubt that you will find ample appreciation for her work and her way of being. Please enjoy this episode of Pacific Rim College Radio with Sabine Wilms. Episode Links: Imperial Tutor Books by Sabine Wilms at Happy Goat Productions Learning Links: School of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at PRC Online Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine courses at PRCOnline Student Clinic at PRC
This is the story of one of the gravest injustices in American history, where over 120,000 people of Japanese descent were uprooted from their homes and placed into concentration camps without due process and in violation of their civil rights. Most lost everything; after the Second World World ended, they returned to homes and businesses that had been sold off, and sometimes stolen. The internment was put in motion on February 19, 1942, by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. How one of the most esteemed presidents, justly lauded for his leadership during the Depression and World War II, came to embrace such a draconian and unjust policy can tell us a lot about the process of decision making--both good and bad. Archival recordings Part 1 Rae Takegawa, “FBI Raid on Family's Home” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWAXvNCYCc&list=PL_txUBUpMcH4CS9Ggr6IezvCHoIhYov-f&index=5&t=22s Rudy Tokiwa, “A visit from the FBI after the bombing of Pearl Harbor” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMPWyLBNYew&list=PL_txUBUpMcH4CS9Ggr6IezvCHoIhYov-f&index=6 Classical Chinese song, “The General's Command” (1903) https://vimeo.com/100191126 Ray Matsumoto, “Father's Immigration Story” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7F2z48S5Y&t=151s Masao Fujiwara, “Ano Onekoete” (1920s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOjsmhs7qik Eiichi Edward Sakauye, “Impact of the Alien Land Laws” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yjiEINoz_k&list=PL_txUBUpMcH4DfP8j9V92fFzgnA4gDtc0&index=12 Excerpts from “Confessions of a Nazi Spy,” Warner Brothers, 1939 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDW81R_xwg&t=4s Fritz Kuhn, excerpt from speech at Madison Square Garden, Feb 20, 1939 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gU9op16rjQ&t=98s
Classic of Difficulties: Difficult Questions in Medicine, Acupuncture, and Beyond
Babies - they're cute. But why are they so bad at doing everything? Join Dr. James Mohebali, new dad and doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, as we take a deeply philosophical and unexpectedly practical look at what's the deal with our favorite tiny humans. And, of course, try to ask some questions about their digestion.In episode one of this three-part series, we talk Western medicine vs Chinese medicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) vs. Classical Chinese medicine, and, of course, Charles Darwin, Human evolution, and baby giraffes.Like what you're hearing?
A poem a day keeps the sadness at bay.
Mason and Tahnee (the dream team) join forces on the podcast today, to introduce us to Shen, the Third Treasure of the Daoist system. Mason and Tahnee reveal our new SuperFeast baby - the SHEN blend, journeying through the herbs present in the formula and the actions and virtues they afford us when we work in harmony with them. We're beyond thrilled to finally have our beloved SHEN blend launching ready for our SuperFeast community to explore, completing our propriety Treasure series, sharing the stage with our darling JING and QI blends. If you're new to the Three Treasures and want to learn more, check out our JING podcast here and QI podcast here. Mason has also written a brilliant article on the Three Treasure so you can read it here. Enjoy! "Shen.. It's just you, without the bullshit" - Mason & Tahnee Mason and Tahnee discuss: The Three Treasures of the Daoist system. The treasure of Shen, what it is, how it is embodied. The East vs West approach to the mind, the Heart vs the brain. The importance of building strong foundations within the body in order to cultivate Shen. The healing profiles of the herbs in the new SuperFeast SHEN blend. When to use the SuperFeast SHEN blend and why. The difference between the Poria in our Masons Mushrooms and the Spirit Poria in our SHEN blend. Harvesting our Poria and why we source all our herbs Di Dao. The beautifying effects of the SHEN blend. Who Are Mason Taylor and Tahnee McCrossin? Mason Taylor: Mason’s energy and intent for a long and happy life is infectious. A health educator at heart, he continues to pioneer the way for potent health and a robust personal practice. An avid sharer, connector, inspirer and philosophiser, Mason wakes up with a smile on his face, knowing that tonic herbs are changing lives. Mason is also the SuperFeast founder, daddy to Aiya and partner to Tahnee (General Manager at SuperFeast). Tahnee McCrossin: Tahnee is a self proclaimed nerd, with a love of the human body, it’s language and its stories. A cup of tonic tea and a human interaction with Tahnee is a gift! A beautiful Yin Yoga teacher and Chi Ne Tsang practitioner, Tahnee loves going head first into the realms of tradition, yogic philosophy, the organ systems, herbalism and hard-hitting research. Tahnee is the General Manager at SuperFeast, mumma to reishi-baby Aiya and partner to Mason (founder of SuperFeast). Resources: The Video Of Mason Harvesting Poria In China SuperFeast SHEN Blend Product Page Superfeast SHEN Blend Blog Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus we're on Spotify! Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:01) Hey, everybody. Here with Tahns. Tahnee: (00:02) Hi. Mason: (00:03) So we're going to be talking about Shen today, Third Treasure. Tahnee: (00:06) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exciting time. Mason: (00:08) Yeah. It's finally about the combination of the Three Treasures of blends in the superfoods range, so it's been awhile. Tahnee: (00:15) Jing, Qi, and Shen. Mason: (00:18) Very good, Tahns. Tahnee: (00:18) I've been spending too much time with Aiya. Mason: (00:21) Yeah, Daoism for kiddies. Tahnee: (00:29) All right, boys and girls. Yeah, I think it's exciting because we really like this Daoist idea of Jing, Qi, Shen. It's such a great way to kind of view the body and our experience as a human on this earthly plane. The Jing holding our DNA and our kind of, I guess, connection to our ancestry and the strength of our constitution, our bones and our body and the Qi being the animation of that, the metabolism and the fire of our life and then Shen being that which is eliminated by those forces being in harmony, right? Mason: (01:07) Yeah, exactly. I mean there's so many different ways. It's such a colourful conversation. I've been thinking about Jing, Qi, and Shen a lot lately and how to make them as something that doesn't seem theoretical like you have to remember, but something- Tahnee: (01:21) Lived? Mason: (01:22) Yeah, exactly. It's why metaphors are so good. It's why I've been enjoying talking about thinking if you take the human body and it's just a bunch of bones and DNA and hips and marrow. And you just lay it there and it's not moving and it's got all this potential, but in order for it to have potential, you need to put the batteries in and the batteries need to have charge. Batteries being the Kidneys, the Jing is so if you just take that human body and all its potential, it can't do anything yet, it's just pure physical potential, and then you plug the Jing in by putting the batteries in and they're charged batteries. They're not batteries that are Jing deficient, smashing coffees and absolutely flogging yourself. Put the batteries into the Kidneys and then all of the sudden, you have the rising of Qi. Tahnee: (02:08) The lights go on. Mason: (02:09) Exactly, the lights go on. Qi moves. That body can get up and animate and move around. Then to really drop into Shen and live and for me to be feeling Shen. Because I used to use analogies about the candle, which I still enjoy. Talking about it like this in the human body, then from there, if you just have potential in the physical body, the Jing, amazing. You've got life. Tahnee: (02:31) Lights are on but nobody's home, right? Mason: (02:34) Exactly. You're animating and you're moving, but where's the personality and the soul and the lessons and the enjoyment and all that? That's Shen, and that's why it's important, it's an important distinction that the spirit, because that's one spirit, your spirit can emerge from your heart, come through. Therefore, you have your soul present and you can become wiser and more virtuous. These are all things that are your Shen, and it's an important distinction that Daoism, Classical Chinese medicine before it was modernised and colonised in the 50s, to turn it into what's known as Traditional Chinese Medicine currently. Mason: (03:11) The Spirit was cut away and definitely in the Western medicine, there's no Spirit that's present. It's just all... Literally a scalpel's gone and cut away the spiritual elements of medicine, but Shen, you can't really talk about health long term from a Daoist perspective or yogic perspective, any of these that will kind of have ancient roots, without acknowledging that the spirit and the spirit of organs and one's own soul and spirit, it's pivotal to understanding how we can become healthy long term. Tahnee: (03:45) Mm-hmm (affirmative). It's funny you talk about analogies because I've been studying a bit with Nevine Michaan from Katonah Yoga, and she talks about the body as a house. And if you've got the architecture and the structure, which is your Jing effectively. And then you've got the lights on and you start to move in, that's the Qi. And then, if you make it a home, you make it a place where you want to be where it has a comforting essence of pleasure and joy and warmth, then that's the Shen. Mason: (04:17) You weren't there on our last retreat at Tanya's when I used that exact analogy. I said, "Look at this room. This is the Jing. See how there's nice things and people. Put flowers over here and some incense on. It keeps it moving, the doors are open. That's the Qi. There's life moving through it. But then, only over years can laughter settle in, and oils settle in to the kitchen, that have actually been lived in." Tahnee: (04:44) Yeah. And that's what makes something beautiful. And that's what the Daoists say. When someone's Shen is harmonised in their body, then they're lit up from within. And they're attractive, and they're expressed. They're just full of purpose and intention and presence, but it's not seeking or striving. It's just like a nice home where you go in and you're just... It's nice to be in their presence. Tahnee: (05:12) I think that's such a beautiful way to think about it. Mason: (05:15) You can't fake Shen. You definitely can't. You might be able to on Instagram, but not in real life. Tahnee: (05:21) Well, I think when we look at what Shen even does, if you have a Shen disturbance manifesting as a symptom of anxiety, well that's the opposite of a comforting, safe environment. You don't feel safe. You feel unsettled and unhinged and stressed and out of alignment. Well that's a Shen disturbance. And so yeah, absolutely. We want to support this in ourselves and in others. And when we see it, when we recognise it in ourselves and in others, it's a nice thing to cultivate and build. Tahnee: (05:56) And that's what all these practises are about. Meditation and even the Qi Gong and the cultivation exercises are about stabilising the Shen so that energy, that soul lives in the body and is expressed through this life. And then, we move on to whatever, higher points of consciousness, whatever you want to do. After that, it's up to you, guys. We're here for the Shen. Mason: (06:17) Yeah, I've been talking about the fact that it comes when Shen is in harmony and able to consistently express itself. Obviously guys, at the end of this, you'll see Shen isn't something to be developed overnight. It's certainly not something you get. Everyone's just got their Shen, and it's highly correlated. It is literally like emerging from the Heart organ system, so the Heart Fire. So the Heart is the emperor organ. And all the other organs are essentially serving the emperor. Mason: (06:51) When the Heart Fire Qi is flowing harmoniously... That's the idea behind the Shen herbs and all these practises, to ensure that we've got enough Blood so that the Shen can travel through the Blood. The Blood's Shen's home-away-from-home. Tahnee: (07:07) Envoy. Mason: (07:08) Heavy envoy. Tahnee: (07:09) Take it around. Mason: (07:10) To take it around to ensure that we're enlivening and bringing light and soulfulness and consciousness to every little area of our body. Tahns is just getting some water because water is needed to build Blood. These herbs and practises are also ensuring that we've got Qi tonics to support the movement of blood; therefore, the movement of Shen through the body because life requires movement. If the waters get stagnant, Blood gets stagnant, then we're not able to bring in life to ensure that there is a harmonious flow of the surrounding organs, which is all of them, but especially the Liver. We really want a smooth Liver flow, the Liver being the mother. Mason: (07:51) The Liver-Wood, being the mother to the Heart Fire to ensure that... The Liver is ensuring that we've got strong strength through the capillaries and ensuring that we've got that uprightness so that Blood can move through and get through as well as Qi can get through and move through the body, as well as creating that suppleness, especially through those Blood vessels which means that we can bring curvature to the way that the Blood is moving, and therefore, cool the Blood down. Mason: (08:19) And so, if you don't have those things, if you're stagnant, which is something I'm prone to, as you know, Tahns, if you're stagnant through your Liver Qi and especially if you lack that Yin and that suppleness through your Liver, Liver-Wood, then you're going to get a downstream effect where there's going to be a lot of Heat through the Blood, therefore, a lot of potential excess Fire. Tahnee: (08:43) Yeah, when you think about friction, right? If you're rigid, so this is a thing. The Blood moves in spirals or vortexes. When you go and check out Gil Hedley's work, he talks about the heart not being a pump but being a valley where the vortex water layer... It's just spring water does in nature. Mason: (09:00) Creating more of an implosion suction. Tahnee: (09:03) Yeah. Exactly. More like your circulatory organ than a pumping organ. And if you think about rigidity, if you think about the vessels becoming really rigid and you think about a movement along that, rigidity creates this friction which creates Heat in the body. And so, that's not idea. That's going to burn up your Fluids. It's going to create all sorts of implications down the track. Tahnee: (09:26) And yeah, the Hun as well. There's a spirit in the Liver called the Hun which can invade the Heart, can invade the Shen and cause mental disturbances and the psychological aspects of that. So when we're looking at a Shen, harmonised Shen in a human is like a person who's healthy mentally and not got a lot of psychological disturbances. But when we do have these imbalances, we can end up with the Liver invading the Heart. We can end up with all sorts of troubles. Mason: (09:58) So the Hun is the part of our... It's more of our infinite Spirit guys, that travels after this lifetime, the Spirit that goes on. Tahnee: (10:07) Yeah. Well I always think of the Shen as my universal consciousness, the part of me that came down to be, to animate the form. My Shen is that. My Hun is my astral self, so the part of me that can travel the realms. And it's one thing to take it to a really advanced, philosophical level. But the way it works in the body is why we're here. We want a clear path for consciousness, a clear channel for consciousness to come through. And it shines out of us. That's the idea. Tahnee: (10:44) And then, this Hun is meant to keep connecting us to this astral self that can live beyond the physical realms, I suppose. So it's the creative. It's the vision. It's the future seeing. It's time doesn't exist because I live in all time. Mason: (11:03) Yeah. Part of our intention here is to bring our higher consciousness, our Shen, and bring it through and crack it through into this reality that we're at now. What I was talking about, all the things that these practises and Shen herbs do in bringing a smooth flow of that hot Fire Qi, ensuring that we've got a smooth flow of the Liver cooling the Blood, so and so forth, stabilising the Heart. Mason: (11:26) What happens then, the Heart as the emperor that all the other organs serve, that is when you get a smooth flow of Qi through that organ system, that's when the spirit of that organ system may express itself. So it's the same when we have a smooth flow of Qi through the Liver, then the Hun may express itself. Mason: (11:47) If you have disturbance, if you have Heart Fire disturbance, what happens is it's like frustration that's going to get expressed from the Liver, but I just use that term. It's frustrating for the Qi. And then Shen's going to... The spirit of that organ system is not going to be able to express clearly. And therefore, we're going to see that expressed in anxiousness, mental disturbance, depression, insomnia. And then, going down the line, psychosis, so and so forth. Mason: (12:23) As you know, you can see the Shen is the window... The eyes are the window to the Shen or to higher consciousness or to the soul, as we say. This is what our Daoist herbs are doing. This when you need to be working with someone clinically if you have this level of psychosis or mental disturbance. But you can see as someone moves down that line of having extreme anxiety, extreme depression, mental disturbance, and psychosis, you see the eyes starting to glaze over or to grey or to dull, and that's where Daoist would immediately go, right there's a direct Shen disturbance. Mason: (13:06) And then, you'd need appropriate diagnosis at those points. Tahnee: (13:10) Well that's when you lose your grip with reality. Right? And that's the Hun because the Liver's also the outward expression of... I would say they eyes are the outward expression of the Liver. I don't understand the psychology of TCM as well as I would like to, but from what I understand, the Hun... Because the Liver does invade and overtake the Shen, we sort of lose touch with reality. Because that sort of sense of schizophrenia and a lot of those... Because Chinese medicine doesn't talk about symptoms or diseases like we do in the West. It talks about patterns that would be Liver Heat or Liver invading Spleen or whatever. Tahnee: (13:57) But what I understand is something like a schizophrenic episode would be literally a case of the Hun becoming more dominant. Or when you have poor Blood to anchor the Hun, you don't sleep well, and you have wild dreams where your Hun will wake you up, Liver will wake you up in the middle of the night at 1:00. That's a really common thing we hear here in customer service a lot of the time. Tahnee: (14:20) It's like, "I wake up every night between 1:00 and 3:00." Tahnee: (14:23) And it's like, "Oh well, that's a sign that you probably don't have enough Blood to anchor the Hun, so you're not getting a really good sleep. So when it starts to move, that Liver time, it wakes you up because it's such a burst of Yang energy through the body." Tahnee: (14:38) So the psychological stuff's super interesting and definitely something I'm still learning a lot about. But just understanding these kind of energies that animate us and create our experience is really interesting. So we would not look at... Even when we go to talk about the herbs and what they do from a Daoist expertise, if you nourish the Fire, if you nourish the essence of the Heart, if you work with that energy, if your intention and your presence and your practise is about that, it's going to feed it. Tahnee: (15:11) I know Tony Robbins hijacked it, but intention, Qi, Blood, those things all follow one another. I think it's where your energy intentionally goes, your energy follows. Mason: (15:21) Where the mind goes, energy flows. Tahnee: (15:25) Yes. That ability to focus your intention, your energy, your mind. And then, let your energy follow that. And then, your Blood will follow that because Blood follows Qi. That's how you do a Qi Gong practise. That's how you do even when you practise the medicine. You have to be so focused on so present because you're conducting the flow of Qi and the flow of Blood. You're giving Shen to that practise, whether it's your Qi Gong practise or your healing practise or your herbal practise. Tahnee: (15:52) So intention is such an important part of what we do of Shen because it's bringing Shen into your life. Mason: (15:59) And guys, when we're looking at Shen, the mind is put in there in terms of the definition, within the definition. And it's kind of like the mind is definitely a tool used in the personality. It's something that's used in order to express our personality, process what's going on in life so that we can gain more and more wisdom, when Tahns talking about being there and being a practitioner bringing Shen to the table. Mason: (16:26) In order to offer a healing space for someone, people around you, be a good person, be less of an asshole, I think we'd all agree that continuing to cultivate our virtuous nature, which isn't an easy thing to do but it is considered a dividend of developing your Shen, that you cultivate those that are associated with strong Shen. Forgiveness, compassion, love, like deep love, deep gratitude, and the capacity to really have that virtuous nature be a part of yourself. Mason: (17:07) And so, the mind and Shen have an interesting relationship. Because if you are extremely Shen deficient, and if you're shying away from that part of yourself which is more than just the physical, then you see the mind take over the show more and more. And therefore, you move into this place of the way that you get virtuous, you have less... You put a glass ceiling on yourself, I find, in terms of your capacity to really tap into your higher self. And over years and decades of work, have that higher consciousness emerge through your organ systems and be embodied so that forgiveness and that love and that gratitude is something that's just... You don't have to think about it. It's just there, and it's just dripping from you. And that's when you see that in 90 year-olds and 100 year-olds. Mason: (18:02) They just come to work, and they're just legends. And they're just beautiful white lights to be around. And you see when you don't do that work or don't allow that more mystical aspect of yourself that the mind can't grasp, whether you really want to go into Daoist thought or be religious or spiritual or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. Just let go, just that little bit. Then the mind needs to go into morality. Mason: (18:23) And so, you do the right thing and be forgiving. Whereas, Shen is where you start to dissolve any sense of right and wrong. And when you can move into that place and get to that, when you can get away from wrong and right, you really do have an opportunity to discover that part of yourself which is virtuous that's outside of the morality and the right and wrong of what you're current clique is telling you, how you should be and how you should be a good person. Tahnee: (18:53) That reminds me of Rumi, "Out beyond the idea of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field, and I will meet you there." It's just like my teacher says the more spiritually aware you become, the less you'll subscribe to cancel culture and woke movements and all of this stuff because we start to see that everything, depending on your perspective, exists in shades of grey. There's no... I could say I'm right, but I could just as easily say you're right, really if I start to think about it. Tahnee: (19:27) I think one thing I wanted to quickly make the distinction on too is the mind as in the brain, and the mind as in the Heart. Because in Daoist thought, the Heart is the mind, but it's not how we think about mind. So we think about the cognitive machine that whirls around in our heads which is more associated with the Kidneys. In Chinese medicine, it's called the Sea of Marrow. So it's literally an extension- Mason: (19:54) The brain. Tahnee: (19:55) Yes, so the brain is literally an extension of the marrow in your bones. It's kind of this blood-filled goopy thing floating around in your skull. And if you think about your skull as being a bone, it could really be the marrow because it's literally encased in bone on most sides. But yeah, the Heart is more the perceiving mind that is beyond that logical idea of things being rational. Because if you've ever had even a kind of heart-based experience, it's not a rational experience. It's sublime, and it's feeling-based. And it's intuitive, and it's everything that the mind is not. Tahnee: (20:37) So there's this... I guess the best analogy I have is from yoga, but it's this idea that yeah, we have the functions of the mind which are useful and essential. We can't get through life without them, and great, but we don't want to live there and limit ourselves to that. We want to remember that there's this bigger self that is perceiving all of this and living all of this as well, and that can hold all of this even though the little mind might not think it can. Tahnee: (21:05) And that to me, is sort of what Shen and the Heart hold in our... No matter how much weird shit goes on around us or what traumas we experience, there's this part of us that's bigger than all of that that can hold it. Like I said, the language I have for this is more out of yoga than out of Daoism, but I've seen this stuff in the Daoist texts as well. From working with Mantak Chia, I know that he also speaks about these things too. That's kind of the big, capital S, self. So that's what the Heart really projects, I suppose, and holds for us in this lifetime. Tahnee: (21:40) So it takes us out of this small s, selfish self that has greed and wants to be pissed off at someone and wants to be right, and wants to be at war with the world in some ways. The best example of that I think of is a meta-meditation, like a Buddhist where you make all beings be happy. And then, make people that hate be happy, people that are evil be happy. Tahnee: (22:04) It's this kind of practise where you practise being grateful and being compassionate to people you would normally not like to yourself, which is a massive thing for a lot of people. "can I truly be loved and be happy?" So I just wanted to distinguish between the mind and the brain which we would naturally link to as Westerners, having been raised in our culture and the mind to be the Heart, which from an Eastern perspective, is a little bit more out there and broad and big. Mason: (22:34) Yeah. Well the taking of Shen herbs, I'm glad you brought that up. And just to keep it really simple, it is associated with the Shen herbs if you are feeling what we call that monkey mind, you'll find that through developing Shen and through taking Shen herbs and focusing on bringing your virtuous nature through. I find it to become evident, we all have this experience. But especially we can think about having a chip on our shoulder. Mason: (23:05) In business, it's the best dojo, having resent towards competitors or someone that's wronged me. I'm not saying it takes... Forgiveness isn't something that just is done. The capacity needs to be developed. And over the years, I've experienced that nature of, "Do I really want to live with this resentment of someone because they're ripping this off, or they're not doing it the way that I think they should be doing it?" Mason: (23:36) And it's the classic, spiritual one-on-one lesson that you're the one that needs to live with it. I don't need to live with it. But in order to calm yourself enough, just quiet that monkey mind. And as well, go through and do that deep work over decades and decades so that the monkey mind can be quiet to begin with. You see the pay off. You can see why the Daoists are like, "Yeah look, of course we need a strong body. We start with Jing, and we start with a strong body so that the Qi can move, and we want to cultivate lots of Qi and life." Mason: (24:10) But what's the point if you don't develop your Shen and your virtuous nature? The reason we do that, the reason we want to be athletic and athletically apt is because you see a lot of people say, for example, a lot of people whose parent here. You'll see they'll get to 60, say 65 or 70, and there is just no way they've got the Jing and the Qi to get in there and do some deep psychological work and create forgiveness or get off the right or wrong. So just say politically, be able to get to the point where they can open up and take more of a broad view of life for their capacity to be happy, not have a monkey mind, not have resentfulness. Mason: (24:54) And therefore, it kind of goes a little bit further with the dysfunction, if you don't develop your Shen. All of the sudden, you're stuck with your dysfunctions. You haven't developed a virtuous nature, and therefore, you become one that projects onto children, other family members, society, "This is what's wrong. This is why I'm right." Or you become extremely timid and don't have the capacity to stand for yourself and express your spirit. And it's an absolute, to be really blunt. Mason: (25:24) I don't think it's right or wrong that people end up that way. But when you look at an objective level, if you have people who don't go into maturation, which is what Shen is, a lot of wisdom, then you become a burden. Right? And you become someone that projects, and it's not my job to be like, "That person's making me a victim." Mason: (25:47) That's not what I'm saying. But if I'm saying from myself, if I got to the point where I'm 70 and I've got my anger issues that I haven't really worked on, "I don't like being judged," I know how much of a problem I'm going to be and a drain I'm going to be for Aiya. And that's really a harrowing feeling, and the Daoist and all these wise cultures saw that's the point. I don't care how big your muscles are, how much Qi you've got in your Spleen, if you can't really embody compassion, then what was it for? Tahnee: (26:22) That's interesting because this phase of life... I think I'm right on this. I think earlier, when you're a little kid, you're in the Wood phase. And we're in the Fire phase now which is really about the soul learning through living and learning through trial and error and making mistakes. And it is kind of like a student-ship of the soul, ideally. And it's interesting given our culture how little people invest in their own spiritual development, I guess. I'm sure the people in these podcasts are slightly different, but in general, it's just not really a priority for people until they get a lot older. And like you said, the baggage is so heavy by then, yoga talks about every experience we have creating an impression. And if you dig the same line 100 times in the sand, it becomes a very deep line, and it's very hard to get rid of. Tahnee: (27:12) And I think that's these kind of... You see people as they age becoming really stuck on certain ideas or certain things just loop and loop. It's because early on, when they had the opportunity, I think, to become conscious of that and to start to shift their perspective and their behaviour and their patterns, they've chosen not to do that. And the Bhagavad Gita talks about you want to put the reins on the horse and teach the horse. And then, learn to control the horse so it pulls the chariot in the right direction, not too fast, not too slow. And that's what I think this Shen stage of life is about. Tahnee: (27:48) And then, we hit the declining... Oh sorry. I think we're always ascending. We hit the declining years, and then we hit the deep wisdom years in the 70's. And all of the things have to happen for us to end up there. And I think that's where- Mason: (28:03) A lot of opportunity's lost. Tahnee: (28:04) Yeah. If you've just hustled and made sure there's money and done your thing and whatever, you've not spent a lot of time on yourself and worked through your own stuff that you've brought through, which we all have. That's part of living. Then, you're going to end up in a bit of a shit fight later on, I think. And I think that's a lot of the people I talk to with menopause and when I spoke to Jane Hardwicke Collins about this. We talked about how women have that transition period in their late 40's, early 50's where suddenly their life catches up with them. And they realise all the places where they've bent over and not given to themselves first, and where they've been taken for granted or prioritised the things that weren't in service to them. Tahnee: (28:53) That's the teaching of that time, and it's an invitation. The Blood has stopped. The Blood remains in the body, and that's when the Shen really rises in a woman if she's willing to meet it. But it means looking at all the things that are uncomfortable and all the things... Shen isn't all just sunshine and rainbows unfortunately. Sometimes for it to shine through, like you're saying, we have to do a bit of work. Peel away some of the layers. Tahnee: (29:15) And that's why meditation is correlated with Shen building. It's being able to sit there. And again, I don't know the Daoist language for this, but in yoga, you've got the higher mind and the lower mind. And the lower mind is always there. It's not like you're calling it, the monkey mind. It's just monkeys are monkeys. No point trying to stop a monkey, but you don't want to live from that place. You want to live like you're watching the monkey and going, "What a funny monkey," and giving it a banana and being kind to it, but knowing that monkeys will do what monkeys will do. Tahnee: (29:48) And living in this higher place that takes a bit of practise because A, it's not common in our culture. It's not really celebrated to not be easily reactive, and people love drama. How much do people love drama? Netflix is just drama to the enth degree, and it's fun. Mason: (30:07) Drama's fun. Tahnee: (30:07) It is fun. But it also catches us, and it spirals us through these emotional things. And it really can be damaging to our health. Mason: (30:15) Well it's distracting. I think the biggest thing, if you start looking at the fact that you've got... You're saying we're in our 30's. We've got a good 10 years to dive in there and maybe do some therapy or do some... For me, it's do some integrating from a crazy amount of plant medicine I did in my late 20's and actually allow that to maturate into something. Consistently catch myself, consistently make decisions about where I dramatise. And just get in there and get really gritty. And you only have a certain amount of time. Mason: (30:48) I'm not saying we're not allowed to do anything that's completely entertaining or total drama-dom. Tahnee: (30:53) Well it's supposed to burn. Mason: (30:54) Yeah, exactly. Tahnee: (30:55) It's meant to be fun as well. Mason: (30:55) Exactly. Oh, god to be meant to be fun. But in terms of just how distracted we let ourselves go, without going into morality, it's right or it's wrong kind of thing. But at some point, you go, "Shit, I better get on the horse here and develop myself a little bit." Mason: (31:14) So the nature of meditation, the nature of why the Daoists saw Shen herbs... These are the herbs that tonify the organs associated with Shen, mainly the Heart, Heart Fire. But also, we're seeing the correlation between Shen tonics, Liver-Wood tonics. And then, you see some supporting herbs in there that are doing some work on the Spleen and Lung, and then, the Kidneys of course. Because you were talking about the lower mind and the upper mind, being the Kidney associated with that monkey mind. Mason: (31:52) You can't really correlate the way the mind is seen the West with the way the Daoists see it. Tahnee: (31:56) Oh yeah, where the brain is the Kidney. Mason: (31:58) Exactly. So if the brain is the Kidney, and then the Heart is our higher thinking and our Shen, that's why there's herbs like polygala root that are in the SHEN blend that are actually running along the psychic vessel, the penetrating vessel from the Kidney to the Heart in order to connect those two styles of thought and bring sexual energy and bring a virtuous way of relating to our sexual energy, and merging that with the heart. It's also called our Will Strengthener, and it brings pure will power to our way of being. Mason: (32:31) So you'll see herbs like polygala being some of the most potent Shen tonics because it brings a calming effect, not because it's a carminative, not because it down regulates the nervous system, but because you come integrated in a way. That without, you're not going to be able to spiritually develop yourself because you've got this drive and this sexual hunger and this power to create. Yet, that's not merging necessarily as smoothly as it could with this loving, forgiving, jovial, non-judgmental, non right and wrong, non shame-based way of living. Mason: (33:06) And so it's really just calming. So these Shen herbs, you can see quite often, you start taking a herb like reishi, many people have felt it, but especially if you take SHEN blend with herbs like polygala. You can immediately feel, due to all the various actions, a calming effect. And that's good, but we're not taking this so you can be calm today. The idea of the SHEN blend and Shen herbs is we're going to be taking them either sporadically or over time. Maybe it's week on, week off, however. I don't know how you're going to take it. Mason: (33:41) But in conjunction with meditation, doing your work, doing your practise, showing up with self, going to therapy, just being real. Taking that trajectory towards being someone who is, in their older age, able to have a laugh and a sense of humour. When life hits them, have water go off a duck's back. What happens if you lose a million dollars? Are you going to be able to let that go? Tahnee: (34:06) Well that's the thing with the Heart because it's so much about... So the Heart has four... Normally in Chinese medicine, all the organ systems are in pairs. But the Heart is two pairs, four in total. And it's administrative role of the Triple Burner, the San Jiao, which is about regulating temperature and fluids across the three Dan Tien. So around your Heart-Lungs, around your digestive function, around your reproductive function. So that's one aspect of it. Tahnee: (34:35) Then you've got the Small Intestine, which is about the ability to be discerning. So that's a really important function of the Heart, not judge but to just discern, to know the difference between what's true and what isn't true, it's own perception, which is assimilative and eliminative, getting rid of, a function of the Small Intestine. And then you've got this pericardium which is this protection around the Heart because the heart gets damaged by our interactions with humans. Tahnee: (35:06) If we get heartbroken or even if we're just treated poorly in any way, every little cut starts to go deeper and deeper. And so, that's so much of the Fire years. Like I said, the human is also learning to relate and learning to forgive and not be hurt by our interactions with each other and to find the people or the types of people that are going to be the most suited to us, and this idea of remaining open-hearted throughout our lives. Tahnee: (35:40) And that's something you see again in older people that have been hurt. They close off from love. They close off from receiving any goodness from anyone because they've been hurt once, or twice, or three times. So that's one of the offerings of working with the Heart energy and Fire energy, to stay in the space of open-hearted-ness and to remember that the Heart is protected. It has this whole meridian designed just to protect it from overheating, from being hurt, from being damaged. Tahnee: (36:09) And when we do get broken-hearted, to honour that, and to let ourselves time to heal instead of rushing on. So I think that sometimes the Shen can get hidden when we've become so damaged that we won't let ourselves be seen. Mason: (36:25) So heart-broken. Tahnee: (36:26) Yeah. It's a classic thing, but this is just our relating and our ability. If you think about a saint, they're able to sit with anyone and not judge. The leper comes to Jesus, and he's like, "I love you. I love you like my child." The rich billionaire, fat person, the whatever, everyone comes, and they don't care. They sit there, and they love them. And there's no judgement , and there's no story. Tahnee: (36:54) They accept things for what they are, and that's something that is an offering, I guess, of this Heart energy. So yeah, that's what I thought would be a useful thing to remember. As well, it's our relating and our inter-relating, and our joy in being social and being with others and being a part of a tribe. And again, it's what these years are about. Finding our tribe, finding the people that we want to be with, finding our place in the world, finding the people we want to share our lives with. Mason: (37:27) And remember that there's no definition. We're not looking at important... I can feel Tahns is really honing in and giving you an example of what the pure energy of Shen is terms of a saint. That is within us, but integrated with all the other parts of our body. That's there and can be purely expressed while you're a smart ass, while you're just enjoying what's... You don't have to walk around being- Tahnee: (37:51) Yeah. Whatever your personality is. Mason: (37:52) Exactly. Tahnee: (37:53) And most saints are very funny, give them half a chance. That's Buddha, you have a sense of humour. I think people forget that the cosmic joke is very funny. Mason: (38:07) One of the virtuous things when you're high in Shen is extreme political incorrectness. Tahnee: (38:13) I've never met a Daoist that wasn't funny, ever. They've all been f-ing hilarious. Mason: (38:18) Uh-huh (affirmative). So Shen herbs, the way they're going to generally work is to bring a stability to the way that Fire rages. Remember, Tanz was talking about being comfortable within your body. It's like the fire in the hearth, the fire in our home, that is the Heart. And if it's raging too high or if it's erratic, it's going hot and cold. And when you think about it, you're sitting next to that fire. The flames are licking out. You're not going to be able to sit next to it. Mason: (38:49) Now, that's your Shen. Your Shen is you, your Spirit, sitting next to the fire in that home. And if it's raging, it's going to be start and a bit fiery itself. And it's not going to be able to sit there and be calm. You're not going to be able to have calm emotions. You're going to have erratic emotions. You're going to have an erratic mindset. You're going to be cracked out. Mason: (39:07) If it's too cold, how are you going to really... You're really cold long enough, you are not going to allow joy in your life. You're not going to be able to express it. And that's what Shen is about as well. So a lot of these Shen herbs are about bringing a stability to that Fire. And that stability, a lot of the time, is coming directly through the Heart, maybe moving the water Qi from under the heart in the case of spirit poria. Mason: (39:33) Pearl, a great stabiliser, especially because it's a real cold herb for the Liver Yin. Therefore, it's going to ensure that we don't have this excess Fire, Yang, within the Liver-Wood, which is going to create these brittle branches that are then going to excessively feed the Fire very fast. We have suppleness and cooling within the Liver-Wood so that we don't have as much Fire. And Wood being fed into the Fire; therefore, we're more stable. Mason: (40:01) And then the other way that they work, they're basically nourishing of the Shen. So the reishi mushroom, the asparagus root, the albizia flower, these are Shen nourishers. And so, that's literally about cultivating that Fire and going and building in a way that's going to be burning appropriately for the season. And this is why our practises, our spiritual practises, our meditation, the way that we're interacting with nature and our emotions, it needs to be seasonal. Because you remember, everything is really coming down to us developing Shen. Mason: (40:40) And different seasons, you need your Fire to be doing different things that requires you acting in very different ways. Remember, all organs and practises are essentially serving the emperor of the Heart eventually. So just being aware of that and remembering Shen, developing your own Shen. Getting to know you and your Shen, you're going to keep on hitting brick walls in terms of being the way you think you should be, the way you think is virtuous. And you might have to go and do some... You might have to have some real dark nights of the soul as you go along. And they get easier as you go along to really learn, "Well, that's just not going to happen. This is the nature of who I am and how I act. I'm going to have to go and deal with it and express myself in a way that isn't the Disney version or the picture-perfect way." Mason: (41:23) And if you can do that on the other side of it, there's this ease where all the crap, more and more... It's never perfect, I'm being idealistic. But more and more, all the crap falls off you like water off a duck's back. And there's some things with us, and now it's a funny time to bring up relationships since I just put that post up on Instagram about us quitting SuperFeast and being an official power couple. Mason: (41:49) But one thing I've just noticed, like most relationships, it's always the amount of Shen you can develop in a relationship... And it's chalk and cheese if you look four years ago to something you'd say, and I'd take it personally and bring it up in a hostile way. Verse now, if you bring it up, a lot of the time it can just be, like I said, water off a duck's back. Mason: (42:15) And the same with you. I can feel adjustments to the way that you say things, and I feel less and less when you bring them up. I don't feel them as injustices. Not all the time, but I can bring things up a little, with a little bit less charge and a little bit more forgiveness. And I tried doing it the right way for a couple of years and being a better man, and it just wasn't working. I had to go in and be like, "Far out, what's actually going on here?" Mason: (42:42) And sure enough, after a while, as everyone's experienced with relationships and at work and with their children, things start smoothing out a little bit more. And since we've all had the experience of seeing ourselves develop and potentially becoming less erratic or less timid or something like that, you just go, "Wow, I've got the opportunity to take this and run with it, make this the main driver of my life to make sure I end up as an 80 or 90 year-old that's super functional and fun to be around, or at least carries a little bit of wisdom, has the energy and the capacity to share my wisdom and be a joy to be around." Mason: (43:20) That's why the Shen herbs... That's why reishi was depicted in Heaven by the Daoists. It's why the Shen herbs were considered... They were the most revered. And it's why they were the ones that would eventually be consumed the most. You can just get yourself and your lifestyle set where you're developing your Jing, and you're not leaking a battery. Easy. You've just got your sleep practises, cool. Eventually, you don't have to think about that quite as much. Mason: (43:50) And the same as Qi. You've got your practises. You've got your Qi Gong. You're allowing your emotions to move smoothly. You're eating an appropriate amount, appropriate for the body. You've got deep breathing going on. You're spending time in the sun. You're charging. You're developing that Qi. Then, you're free to just go in and actually just consistently work on your Shen. It's always where it ends up. It seems boring in the beginning of the journey. But at some point, you're like, "God, this is where it's at." Tahnee: (44:26) Boring to whom? I think it's such a pleasant outcome, I suppose. When you start to feel like you've integrated and settled and grounded, and obviously a continuing process. But I remember the first time I took reishi. I think I took it to... It wouldn't have been vipassan. It must have been a non-vipassana, but it was a 10-day retreat. I think it was a tantric retreat in Thailand. But just the grace of the herb with the practises, it was just so beautiful and really connecting to yourself in that way, I think there's something really beautiful about when you start to experience your Shen. It's definitely not boring. I think there's an ideological thing, perhaps it's a little bit virtuous sounding. And a bit like, "Oh." Mason: (45:27) It sounds wanky. Tahnee: (45:28) Yeah. I get that. Mason: (45:29) Me too. Tahnee: (45:29) I definitely thought that as well sometimes. But I think the lived experience of it is really beautiful. And when you're living in that place, even if it's for periods of time as it becomes more integrated, you tend to sort of move in and out of your own evolution. I'm sure many of you can relate to that. But yeah, there's this real beauty and grace in sitting and resting in that kind of awareness of the Heart. You look at all the traditions from the Christian traditions, I may argue that they all came from the same place, possibly the Vedas. But they're pointing to this union of fire and water, this Heart, Kidneys, the Daoist example of this. Tahnee: (46:17) And yeah, when we've nourished ourselves on this level, which many of you have working with Jing herbs, and working with changing lifestyles and building more functional ways of being, and you start with herbs. Herbs in the SHEN blend or just Shen herbs in general, it's a very quick and powerful transition, I suppose, into that more conscious state, without sounding like a total douche. Mason: (46:48) But you're easy to be around. Tahnee: (46:49) Yeah. Mason: (46:50) Way easier to be around. And the whole factor, we talk about personality. Because we're not talking about an idealistic way of being or a spiritual way of being. Tahnee: (47:00) It's just you. Mason: (47:01) It's just you. That's the whole point of it. Tahnee: (47:03) Without the bullshit. Mason: (47:04) Without the bullshit. We can't reiterate that enough. And I think everyone has to go through their experience of trying to develop themselves towards an ideological way of being. To think, "I'm going to be accepted by this little cult here if I act in this way." And that doesn't just count towards spiritual hand-on-heart stuff, which for some people, that's- Tahnee: (47:25) Their truest expression. Mason: (47:28) Exactly. But it's in all manner of ways. The guy who's working on Wall Street and thinks that he's gotta be a hustler and work that way his entire life. It's same deal. Its just like, "Pop your head out of ideology a little bit. Maybe you have to stop being so Jing deficient to begin with. Get your lifestyle where I can see you can have some Qi. And all of sudden, you've got the energy to actually get some Shen coming, developing, and cracking through." Mason: (47:50) And that's what the Shen character is, the written character. It's the sun, moon, and stars with a rope coming up to them. The two hands pulling down to signify the connecting of the supernatural and that part of ourselves that's way beyond this. Tahnee: (48:09) Yeah, highest consciousness. Mason: (48:11) Bringing it down here and merging it with us. So you're going to like this blend, guys. It tastes bloody delicious. Tahnee: (48:19) Which is lucky because Shen herbs are bitter usually. Mason: (48:22) Yeah. And of course, we've got reishi in there as a big one. It's the queen of the mushies. So you can already see, it's going to be working on the nervous system, immune system, Kidneys, Liver health. It's going to be doing a bunch of other things. But in terms of calming the monkey mind, bringing some calmness to yourself, less erraticness in the emotions, giving you the capacity to express a bit more happiness and develop that Shen and everything else that we've talked about. Go deeper in meditation. For some of you, it's going to be really, really good for sleep. Mason: (48:53) We've had a couple of people who have just been atrocious with their sleep. And Shen's been able to come in quite immediately and help them go super deep with continued usage. For others, it's not a sleep blend. For some people, when you get your Shen expressing, perhaps too quick sometimes, the dreams can become quite out there. Some people love it. Tahnee: (49:20) Especially if you're Blood deficient, I think. Mason: (49:22) Yeah. Tahnee: (49:23) Yeah. It's good to check up with a practitioner if you're not sure. Mason: (49:28) Don't try and treat any kind of psychosis or extreme insomnia or depression or anything with this SHEN blend. And we're not just saying that as a disclosure. Tahnee: (49:41) Disclaimer, yeah. Mason: (49:42) I said disclosure. No, that's like a UFO podcast is next. Talk to your practitioner. But the Shen herbs can be used in conjunction with other treatments you're doing. But just go slow with it. But reishi's in there, so of course, that's just opening the heart wide open. I'm very excited that a bunch of you... Another major herb in the blend is the albizia flower. It comes from the tree of happiness. Mason: (50:05) This flower is an absolute shining light. You just smile. I smile when I look at it. It's just a great mood elevator. And then we've got asparagus root as the third major herb in there. Tahnee: (50:22) She's a legend. Mason: (50:23) Yeah, shatavari's a legend. And so, there's a lot going on, integrate hormone regulator, integrate Jing tonic in itself. But asparagus root was used by the Daoists in order to allow us to fly. And so, with our meditations and in life, the idea is in life, if something happens and shit's hitting the fan, you're going to be able to fly up, rise above the situation. Look down, get a more of a bird's eye view so that you're not just reacting to it down on this animalistic level, this reptilian level. Mason: (50:52) And it's the same in your meditations. You bring this buoyancy so you can fly through yourself with greater ease and just get a couple of, "Ah yeah, all right. I can see how I'm doing that and doing that." Such a great herb. But that's the one sometimes people... I don't think you like that at night. Tahnee: (51:09) I was laughing because it makes me fly at night, only if I take large doses. I remember taking three teaspoons one night, and I was up till about 4:00 in the morning. Mason: (51:19) Jesus. Tahnee: (51:19) Do not do that at home. Mason: (51:21) Oh I'm sorry. I wasn't Jesus in exclamation. I was just like, "I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus did when he went to India and studied his spiritual practises." But whatever. Mason: (51:29) And then, we've got some more support, a secondary, bringing in spirit poria. So spirit poria, medicinal mushroom, bringing in that secondary medicinal mushroom magic. Tahnee: (51:41) Not to be confused with regular poria. Mason: (51:41) No, it's a much more precious, I guess I'd say. Poria's one of my favourite herbs by far. Spirit poria is the sclerotium that makes up about sometimes 10, 20% of the actual... You break off the fruiting body- Tahnee: (52:03) Which is regular poria. Mason: (52:04) Which is regular poria growing off the pine. The mushroom was inoculated into the pine, then put under dirt. But right there, normally you can't get access to the mycelium, the body, the inside. But with spirit poria, that is just that 10% or maybe 20% where it's emerging from the pine. And it's in that transformation. It's in that process of transforming the pine. Mason: (52:31) And you can also get to access to the body, which you can't get in the wild of any other herb. And so, it's got this otherworldly quality. So it's got all the Qi, Spleen tonifying- Tahnee: (52:43) Functions. Mason: (52:44) Water metabolism functions and immunological functions. But it's just got this additional bringing of transformational light into the Heart. Tahnee: (52:54) So just a quick fun fact, because chaga is also a sclerotium. So that means they aren't true mushrooms in terms of the actual expressed fruiting body, which is what you would normally get. So just for people that are interested. Because I think a lot of the time, we say chaga mushroom, we say spirit poria mushroom. And we say that because it's easier than saying chaga sclerotium and explaining that to someone. But this is what makes these particular herbs really special, chaga and spirit poria because you can't really cultivate sclerotium. Tahnee: (53:33) Chaga's never been able to be cultivated. Spirit poria isn't cultivated in a lab or anything like that like you can get with most medicinal mushrooms. They can grow them in an artificial environment. You can't do that with these guys. So these are cultivated in an outdoor setting, like how they would grow in nature. So just a fun fact. Mason: (53:52) We'll put a video of me- Tahnee: (53:55) Harvesting. Mason: (53:57) Yeah. At the poria farm. And I explain what spirit poria is, and you can actually see me pointing out. So go to the show notes for that. Tahnee: (54:04) And they grow in tropical parts. Mason: (54:06) Yeah. Yunnan.Yunnan provence. There was a hotter region, they were growing in the middle. Tahnee: (54:13) In the grass. In the middle, yeah. Mason: (54:14) In that middle belt of China, but it poria was becoming more popular. And the local government or the provincial government, wasn't regulating the harvesting of pine. And so, 95% of the herbal world doesn't give a shit about that, and they continue to do that there. But those doing Di Dao, who were doing true Di Dao, part of Di Dao is sustainability or leaving it intact. And so, it moved to secondary preference. And we moved to a secondary preference, which is Yunnan Province. It's still Di Dao. It's still said, "You go get your herbs from Yunnan Province in this micro-climate in the ancient text." Mason: (54:56) But it's just not our first- Tahnee: (54:58) Preference. Mason: (54:58) Preference. Which is as always, guys, with the sourcing. We're going to prioritise the environment. Tahnee: (55:03) Longevity of it. Yep. Mason: (55:05) And so, yeah. So the farmers who I was meeting, they moved their whole operations and their whole family. And they moved to Yunnan. And there, the government's like crazy regulatory. And that's why there's a cap on how big your farm can be because you can only go and harvest so much wild pine. And they send helicopters over. You've got to prove and show that you've used all your tags. And they go through, and basically if they find that you've taken any other additional pine, then you're going to get some serious fines. Tahnee: (55:36) Fine-age. And I think too, when you think about what sclerotium is, it does have this part of the tree still in it. That's where a lot of these medicines come from. Because if you look at pine and you look at birch were chaga grows, they're both very potent trees in their own rights. Spiritually, the pine is the Daoists' favourite bloody tree. I talked to Master Chia about the pine. He loves a pine. But incredibly medicinal trees as well. Tahnee: (56:07) And then, even oak, which is what lion's mane is grown on. Mason: (56:10) And reishi. Tahnee: (56:11) Yeah, really medicinal trees. So for us, having that tree energy is really important. Mason: (56:19) Tree Qi. Tahnee: (56:19) Yeah. So we don't work with grain growing or anything like that which is, again, another thing that's commonly done in cultivated environments. So you've just got to think about what the energetics are going to be of these herbs when you consume them. So again, another fun fact. Mason: (56:38) Yeah. Then we start getting to the assistant herbs. Pearl, I've talked about. That is a micro-ground pearl. Tahnee: (56:50) Yeah. So it's not an extract. Sometimes people get confused, but it's literally ground up pearls. Mason: (56:51) It's ground up pearls, very ancient medicine, very mineral rich, energetically Cold. Just a beautiful Shen tonic, so calming to the mind, and one of the most beautifying. It's a really beautifying blend as well for the skin. Between the asparagus root, the pearl, and all the Blood building herbs that we've got in there, plus no scrunching with anger. No crow's feet. That's what happens when you're a bit more happy, but pearl, and yes- Tahnee: (57:22) Just smile lines. Mason: (57:22) As always. Yeah, just smile lines. And pearl, as always, sustainably harvested, because we've had a few people ask where they're farmed. In the wild. Tahnee: (57:28) In fresh water. Mason: (57:29) Yeah, fresh water. Polygala, I talked about. It's one of my favourite herbs, the will strengthener, connecting the Kidney sexual energy, the Waters, as Tahns was saying before. The ideal behind this life is taking the Water, mixing it with the Fire, creating alchemy. And polygala is one of those herbs that is taking the Water of the Kidneys and connecting it with the Fire of the Heart. And of course, the Kidneys are the regulators, kind of like the grandma of the Heart. Just clipping it, we need Water in order to keep that Fire under control and keep it grounded and rooted. Mason: (58:06) So I'm very excited that you're all going to be taking polygala when you take this blend. Got rehmania in there as a Blood builder. Beautiful Shen tonic in itself, but especially grounding in bringing that Yin Jing Water energy and that building of Blood so that we can get the Shen moving around. Tahnee: (58:22) Love rehmania. Mason: (58:22) Rehmania's amazing. And then, some aged citrus peel. That's in there as a Spleen-Lung tonic as an augmentor of the Spleen, Stomach, and Lung to ensure smooth integration of the other herbs. It's a beautiful assistant herb. And then, the other assistant which goes in, which is a pretty typical one traditionally in Shen with other Shen herbs, is longan. It's a beautiful Blood and Qi tonic. Heart and Spleen energy, so longan is used in smaller amounts. It's considered in its own right, the longan fruit, as a Shen tonic just to be taken on its own. Mason: (59:03) In terms of when you put it in there as an assistant to other Shen tonics, you see this amplification of the nourishing of the Heart. It's palpable. I've tried it without the longan, and then with. And it's super palpable. Tahnee: (59:22) So that's probably why it tastes good because longans are delicious. Mason: (59:26) Longans are delicious. That's the dragon eye energy coming through, guys. So it's also a Qi tonic. So it supports the Blood moving through the channels because you can't just build the Blood. You need the Qi tonics there moving it around. Tahnee: (59:43) It's a really good women's herb too. And it is kind of like a lychee if you've never seen a longan before. Mason: (59:43) A little lychee. Tahnee: (59:43) Yeah, like a little, round, brown lychee. But they grow around this area and in the tropics. Mason: (59:51) You find them at Harris Farm when they're in season. Tahnee: (59:56) There you go. Harris Farm. Mason: (59:58) Yeah, I know. Tahnee: (59:59) First time they've been mentioned on the SuperFeast. Mason: (01:00:00) Yeah. I know because every time... My mum was at her old place, Harris Farm was up the road. Tahnee: (01:00:07) Yep. I've been there. Mason: (01:00:10) Yeah. You've been there. Tahnee: (01:00:11) They have some good organic stuff actually. Mason: (01:00:13) Boronia Park. Tahnee: (01:00:14) Shout out Boronia Park. Mason: (01:00:15) Yeah, shot out Harris Farm, Boronia Park yeiiiiiwwww! Down in Sidney there. Mom's moved on up the road to Putney since then. But guys, any questions let us know, in terms of taking the Shen. I personally like it in the morning. It sets me up for a really calm, it's not calm as in a floppiness. When you have your Shen tonics coming through, there's a calmness. But I feel really my value, I feel principled in that sense, just to give you that little bit of a sense of how I feel. It's not just calm and just like, "Yes. Sweet, man. My thoughts are slow." Mason: (01:00:56) No, no, no. My thoughts are kind of like... My mind is calm. My thoughts are able to come through real clearly. I feel crispy, and I feel my principles. I feel virtuous in hopefully a non-egoic way. Tahnee: (01:01:10) You're tuned in, like the radio channel's clear, it's coming through. You've got that connection. I think that's the feeling of being dialled in to yourself, which I think is not a... The calm is from the steadiness of the mind instead of the doubting mind, the kind of the mind that is not completely satisfied is a very agitated state to be in. And so when we're calm, when we're just clear and we're getting the frequency right for ourselves, it's a really beautiful feeling. Mason: (01:01:45) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Tahnee: (01:01:45) I think, and I agree. I personally like it in the morning, I've taken it at night while we're trialling it. I didn't have any issues with it, but I just feel like it's a really nice way to start the day. Mason: (01:01:55) Yeah. Tahnee: (01:01:57) Beautiful intention to set. Mason: (01:01:59) And it's good. It's like smoothies. Adjusting hot water with a touch of milk and honey works that way. Goes in with any teas. You can do hot chocolates and coffees with it and smoothies with it. Same deal. If you're doing it at night... As I said, I've got to reiterate, for some people, they didn't love it in the morning. Some people were just like, "Nah, I didn't really need to be that... " They didn't need that Shen tonifying steadying. Tahnee: (01:02:23) Stillness. Mason: (01:02:23) But at night, was when they really benefited and really were able to go deep into a Yin state for them. So find, pick your time. Pick what's appropriate for you. Chamomile tea at night, beauty. You're laughing. Mason: (01:02:37) Hit us up if you've got any questions. Tahnee: (01:02:38) Yeah, really excited to hear your feedback your all, and experiences and all those things. So let us know. We love hearing from you guys, and- Mason: (01:02:49) Shen on. Tahnee: (01:02:49) Shen on. I also say [shu-yage 01:02:51], bon voyage.
Listen in to this dialogue with Dr. Nancy Werner M.D. and Acupuncture physician on the Earth Element from a Taoist and Classical Chinese medicine perspective. Learn More at www.reasonsmag.com for the full interactive seasonal living experience
This week, we continue to play with some novel show formats. I am joined by three of the conveners of the upcoming Nura Learning course, Cohering the Radical Present: Integral Consciousness in Daily Life. We have two first time guests: Dr Barbara Karlsen, a practising somatic psychotherapist and continuum movement instructor. Jeremy Johnson, founder of Nura Learning, author and president of the International Jean Gebser Society. And one returning guest: Brandt Stickley, practitioner and professor of Classical Chinese medicine at multiple academic institutions and senior instructor and board member of Dragon Rises seminars. The subjects under discussion today fall entirely under staying with the trouble: how to, why to, and who best to show us. Really good, important stuff. Show Notes Cohering the Radical Present: Integral Consciousness in Daily Life. Barbara Karlsen. Jeremy Johnson Jeremy on Patreon. Jeremy on Twitter. Jeremy's book, Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness. Brandt Stickley Brandt's website and blog. Brandt on Twitter.
learn the difference between modern Chinese and classical Chinese
Mason is thrilled to welcome Rhonda Chang to the podcast today. Rhonda is a traditional healer who specialises in the art and healing principals of yinyang wuxing. After becoming disillusioned during her studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine, in her native home of China, Rhonda decided to go her own way. Straying from the path of convention to re-educate herself through the exploration and deep analysis of the classical texts. After 30 years of research and practice Rhonda published two books: Chinese Medicine Masquerading As Yi — A Case of Chinese Self-colonisation and Yinyang Wuxing Spirit, Body & Healing, and continues to raise awareness around the true origin and principals of Classical Chinese Medicine. Today's chat is truly eye opening and informative. Rhonda is a rebel with a cause, and it is an absolute delight to have her with us, sharing her wisdom and knowledge with integrity and conviction. Mason and Rhonda discuss: The difference between Classical Chinese Medicine and Modern Chinese Medicine, which otherwise known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) The concept of 'Yi'. Wuxing - Five Element Theory. Rhonda's process of "de-colonising" herself from the standardised TCM curriculum she was originally trained in. Symptoms vs diagnoses; how Westernised TCM is still operating within a symptom based ideology. Rhonda's top tips for wellness. Who is Rhonda Chang? For the past 40 years Rhonda Chang has been involved in the study and practice of traditional healing. The journey has been long and tortuous. Rhonda began her studies at the Beijing College of Traditional Medicine. After graduation Rhonda worked as a physician at a number of hospitals in China. In 1986 she migrated to Australia and opened her own treatment clinic. Rhonda operated her clinic up until 2012, where she felt that government regulation was overly restricting her practice of healing and that the professionalisation of TCM in Australia had subordinated it to modern medicine. Since then Rhonda has focused her energies on writing books and promoting a return to traditional YinYang Wuxing healing principles. Resources: Rhonda Website Rhonda Podcast Rhonda Books Rhonda Facebook Group Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus we're on Spotify! Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:00) Hey, Rhonda. Thanks so much for joining me. Rhonda: (00:03) Pleasure. Thank you. Mason: (00:05) Now, I don't often get nervous when I'm doing podcast interviews, but I'm... like, I didn't really tell you, I showed you that I've got your book sitting here with me. But I'm a real big fan of your work. Rhonda: (00:20) Thank you. Mason: (00:20) And ever since I first heard that podcast that you did on Qiological, which I'd stopped listening to Qiological a long time ago. I was still subscribed, but then the Chinese Medicine masquerading As Yi came up, and I was like... It got something awake in me because I had this consistent disappointment with Chinese medicine and I'm studying more of the Daoist path of medicine, but want to interact with Chinese medicine today, as it is, and kept on becoming disappointing and finding something disingenuous about it and you informed me about what that inkling is. Mason: (01:01) So first, off the bat, thank you so much for that. Can you explain the difference between Chinese medicine and even, like, what the term Yi means? Rhonda: (01:11) Yi, yeah. I call that an ancient Chinese healing called a Yi. Which, I mean, they translate Yi in English as medicine, but there's so much difference. There's a fundamental difference in theory, the understanding life, everything. So that's why I call them a Yi, I don't like to call them medicine. They're not really equivalent to Western terms of medicine. Mason: (01:37) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (01:38) Well, what a difference. Yi is... You know, Chinese medicine is created after 1950s. And the Communist Party actually took over China and they want to change everything because... I mean, it's not just Chinese Communist Party did it, it was actually from 1900, early 1900, after Opium War and China defeated and then they also did change in China. Rhonda: (02:04) I mean, especially, I think, the contribution was America actually started to get all the young Chinese students going to America to study because the theory is these people going back, they will be the leaders of the country. And then they will... You know, kind of favour our country, our philosophy, our beliefs. So they did, and these people, later in... You know, like mid-1900, China was like internal wars and so many parties and the communists and the National Party and all this kind. But they all believe in science. Rhonda: (02:43) So everyone... When they established the government, they want to ban Chinese medicine. And then when Mao took over and he said, "No, I'm not going to ban it, I'm going to modify them." So that's where they come from, the modern Chinese medicine. What they modified is they got rid of the theory. A lot of people are telling me, they say, "Why hasn't Chinese medicine always talk about Yinyang Wuxing ." But they talk about Yinyang Wuxing, which is completely different to what Yinyang Wuxing was in traditional ancient Chinese healing, the meaning. Rhonda: (03:20) So what happened is they... What modern Chinese medicine do is that they recognise your body as anatomy and physiology and pathology and disease, exactly everything to Western medicine. And then they try to match the traditional healing technique, like formulas, acupuncture needle points. So then they match this, they say, "Oh, that description, just like a modern disease. What is it?" Rhonda: (03:49) So then they actually kind of make a little bit of complicated, say. There was a wet disease and there was a... pneumonia, for example. There was a wet pneumonia, there was a dry pneumonia, there's a hot pneumonia, there's a cold pneumonia. And then they made up all different formulas for it, and then people just matching. But for a practitioner, you don't understand how this formula came about and you don't know how to apply them. You're just guessing. And if it doesn't work, you're paralysed because you say, "Oh, well, you know, the ancient people hasn't met this kind of cases." Rhonda: (04:25) So wanting the traditional yi was, I mean, they don't really... there's no... I mean, the body recognised as the ba gua, if you heard of it. And that's what... what do you call the... Meridians. Meridians is a ba gua. You know, I was calling you before and there was a [inaudible] and Dìqiú. What is [inaudible]? [inaudible] is the sun position to the Earth, and they go square. East to west, isn't it? And north to south. So that's made a square. So then they call the Earth is square. Rhonda: (04:58) A lot of people say Chinese old people didn't understand, they think the Earth is square. It's not that sense, it's the sun made our sense of direction. If there's no sun, then you don't really know where the west, left, and there's nothing, isn't it? Mason: (05:13) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (05:14) So that's what is the [kin der 00:05:15] and Dìqiú, which is the time of the Earth rotate themself and around the sun. So that's a time. And these two work together and make a big difference to how your body is and how you actually live. Say like, the sun may be in the right, say mid-day, but on the... you know, it could be summer. It could be winter, isn't it? So that actually make difference, too. Rhonda: (05:43) So that was what medicine made kind of a understand your body. How you actually responding to the sun position, because a lot of people say, "Oh, we're not really kind of to do with the sun." But you do. You sleep at night because the sun is down, and you wake up in the morning because the sun is up." And even in the cold days, even in the cloudy day. So your body actually responding to the sun, the moon. The reason is the sun give you the heat, the Yang Qi we call it. And the moon, what they do, is the moon waves your Water. Rhonda: (06:19) So when the Earth and the moon and the sun in the same line and what happen is the tide go high. So that's why your body... Your body's 75% the water, isn't it? So you're responding to that. And according to when you're born and you have different constitution. And then that's why you're waving the external differently. So then we work out how that your body actually responding to the sun, the moon, the so-called Meridians. That's what the time is. And then your internal organ is... What do you call that? We call that direction or wuxing. Well, wuxing is when the sun first rising or in the spring, what happened is that you, the Wood started. Rhonda: (07:05) Your not is a first thing, isn't it? The Wood start growing. And now we say that's the Wood, that's your Liver, and your Liver responding to that. And then the... You know, like a longest day of the year, which is in that time, summer, and you're body actually responding to your Heart. And you can't help it, you're just responding to that because, you know, that make your hot... make you active, isn't it? Rhonda: (07:32) Make your Heart desire. Yes. So then the winter, shortest day in the winter, and that was what we call... And your body also responding to that. That's your Water. So the Water actually go downward, and that's when you kind of go down. Yeah. So this is the medicine, traditionally. So how that work with your body is because in different times, because your body responding to the sun, the moon, and the time, so your body actually move around. Rhonda: (08:07) We recognise that where they go. This is also not imaginary. It's also the sun always come from the East and going down from the west, isn't it? So your body responding the same way, and you're going... so the Meridian, actually running around like this, and the back and the forth. You know, the front. So then we recognise this is the point, and then when you have a problem, that means that you don't respond. Because you're part of our Earth, really. You're living on it. You cannot help it, to be effective.. That what we say. The heavens, Earth, and the people are in the one line. So you can't actually get away from it. Rhonda: (08:49) But if people actually get in kind of, say, mood problem, so we say your Spirit blocked. So you don't respond, you can't connect to the... What do you call that? The spirits of the Heaven and the Earth. Yeah. So now if you have, like, a physical problem and one that doesn't really connect, you feel the pain. And that's why you feel sick. Rhonda: (09:12) So what we do is from acupuncture point, you can actually choose your time. So your time, you just have to go slow, so then you choose your time with the acupuncture. And then with the herbs, and somebody just wrote me a email, says, "How do you say Yinyang Wuxing terms? How do you say these plants actually can help your... What do you call it? Like I said, Liver. Animals Liver, and it can help your Liver." Rhonda: (09:38) So what Yinyang Wuxing terms in that? I said... I haven't replied, but I'm going to write a little blog about it. And you see, your Spleen, we call that, or your stomach, or your... What do you... The Heart, in our terms is all about Yin and Yang. So Yin and Yang in the Heart, which is Fire, you know? The nature of Fire, rise, isn't it? And the nature of the Water sink. So the plants, which have the same nature as your Heart and they also benefit your own Heart. Because they got the same Yin Yang nature. And the Water, the same. Rhonda: (10:20) So if you have a Kidney problem, and then this plants or anything around you exist which have that same kind of nature, and you can use them either to rise your Water or to kind of increase your Water. And that's how so-called nutrition, but we don't really look at a nutrition point, you see? Everything is Yin Yang, you see. There's no thing says that, you know, you've got to eat vitamins or proteins or sugar to benefit you. It might, but in our terms you got to actually benefit your Yin and Yang. And so if your kidney have a problem, I mean, the Kidney is naturally a Water organ so they're kind of a cold. Rhonda: (11:07) So for Yin and Yang, they need a heat. So then you need something warm for the Water, and you choose some plants, like cinnamon, and aconite. They're actually very, very hot and warm for the Water. So you add that in there, and then your Water rise in your body. And that's what I treat for edoema. That people have a edoema, and you use that. It's very, very well. Very, very effective, powerful. So that's what difference are. You don't recognise the body as the anatomy. So whatever disease... I wrote a little... what do you call it? E-book on this coronavirus. Because [crosstalk 00:11:45]. Mason: (11:45) Oh, you did? Cool. Rhonda: (11:45) Yeah. The people say, "You haven't made this disease, how can you treat it?" So what you do is you actually look at a symptom and you interpret it into Yinyang Wuxing because fever comes so quickly, seems develop very fast. What I mean, it's the Fire, isn't it? So how do you put a Fire down? You actually Water control with Fire, isn't it? So you increase Water, and I choose a lot of herbs which are really kind of cool, and the Water, increase Water quality. So then you treat it. Rhonda: (12:18) I mean, recently, I had a girl actually ask me what to do and she had a very bad fever and I think she tested negative, but she took some packet from my book, she got a formula, and then she took, like, three-packet-in-one in kind of two days. Her fever dropped like within 12 hours. Everything disappeared. 12 hours. Finished. Rhonda: (12:43) Clear. Sorry? Mason: (12:47) Did she have a COVID infection? Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (12:48) No, not... she just had a kind of fever, infection. You know, sore throat, runny nose, [crosstalk 00:12:53] maybe. I said, "It doesn't matter, it's COVID or anything because we don't really treat the disease." [crosstalk 00:13:00] Mason: (13:00) Yeah, right. That's the same as going... you know, when we say "liver," we're not saying liver with a little L talking about the anatomical liver. Rhonda: (13:09) Yeah, when we talk about Liver, we're not talking about anatomical liver, but we talk about Wood. We talk about our flexibility, and we talk about our strength. That's what a Liver does, what Wood does. Wood actually flexible, and firm. Mason: (13:24) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (13:24) So that's what we're talking about. So if you actually... You know, somebody kind of timid, you know, very scared for always that it's Liver with the Yang then, it's because they're not straight enough, so they're not firm enough. Isn't it? Mason: (13:36) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (13:37) So if somebody actually get kind of really angry, you know, very easy hot temper, so what we say, " lose the flexibility," so we say it's your Liver Yin problem. So we don't talk about a disease at all, we talk about a Liver as a Wood. And when we talk about the Heart, we talk as Fire. So the Fire... They're floating, but if they do float above the ground, they're not grounded. It's weird, isn't it? So what you do, you need to ground them. And that's where we work. So we don't really... I mean, like, somebody palpitated, you know, it really is always the Heart rising. And that's Fire in the Heart, it's floating. Rhonda: (14:17) So what you do, you use a oyster shell and... What do you call it? Abalone shell and what do you call it? A mother of pearl. Mason: (14:26) Pearl, mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (14:27) You ground them. You ground the Fire. And it works. I mean, people that you listen to and they say, "Use this shell," they don't even dissolve Water, so you drink the tea, what that do? There's the calcium, but the calcium doesn't dissolve in the Water that you use, and you don't use it, absolutely a difference. And I remember that somebody read this somewhere, she read it and she said she got some kind of a cyst in her uterus and as she read some modern Chinese medicine report, said, "Oyster shells can actually dissolve this cyst." Rhonda: (15:05) So she asked me to give her 90 grams. Normally, I use 30 grams. I did, myself. But anyway, there's no problem. I know that would be too heavy, but she didn't think of it, so I did 90 gram. Mason: (15:18) Yeah. Rhonda: (15:19) And then she said she couldn't really... She couldn't move. She just feels sick and doesn't want to move. Lazy, heavy. It's hard to see. So that's what difference. Yeah. Mason: (15:33) I mean, the difference is so huge. And I think I underestimate how big the difference... And say, for myself, growing up in a Western society, which is fundamentally reductionist and fundamentally compartmentalises things, and then I'm given this Watered-down Chinese medicine and it's kind of like, as you've said in your book, it's like an ornamental Chinese medicine. And the Western approach, the pathology approach, the anatomical approach has this patronising nature due to the self-colonisation of Chinese medicine, right? Rhonda: (16:14) Yes. Mason: (16:15) So can you help me with my pronunciation? Is it in the '50s, what really dropped it for me was that there was... it's, this is a new medicine, you know? This is a new experimental type of medicine that's a fusion of some Chinese principles with Western. Is it [inaudible 00:16:31]? [inaudible 00:16:32]? Rhonda: (16:32) Say it again? Mason: (16:33) [inaudible 00:16:33]? Rhonda: (16:33) Oh, [inaudible 00:16:44], yeah. [inaudible 00:16:34] is that right? No? Mason: (16:42) Yeah. Yeah, the... Rhonda: (16:43) [inaudible 00:16:44], yes, yes, sorry. Yeah. Mason: (16:45) My pronunciation is so terrible. Rhonda: (16:46) That's all right. That's all right. Rhonda: (16:49) [crosstalk 00:16:49], yeah. [inaudible 00:16:49], yeah. [inaudible 00:16:51] Mason: (16:52) That's what absolutely blew it out of the water for me, and so the way I kind of... I will use, say... I will refer to TCM, Traditional Chinese medicine, when referring to the [inaudible 00:17:04] [crosstalk 00:17:06]. Rhonda: (17:06) Yeah, [inaudible 00:17:06]. Yeah. Mason: (17:07) Classical Chinese medicine when talking about Yi, and I don't know whether that's... how useful that is or not, but going in your book you kind of see that there's reference from some experts talking about half-baked Chinese Medicine, and a real Chinese Medicine. So all of a sudden I start realising that all universities here, all universities in China are teaching an experimental 70-year-old medical system that is... Rhonda: (17:37) 60, yes. Mason: (17:38) 60, right. 60-year-old medical system that is completely watered down, and... Rhonda: (17:45) Very much. Mason: (17:46) The fact you've talked about it, you just nailed on the head, they think it's just harmless that we go, "Look, let's just get the best of both worlds, the best of Western Medicine and the best of Chinese Medicine." But they are completely in... You can't put them together. And you cannot lay them on top of each other in any way, and you said there that they've gone, "Well, let's just start compartmentalising symptoms to make it easier for everybody." [crosstalk 00:18:15] Rhonda: (18:15) And it's not easy, because it's not reliable. So, I mean in the book I say that there were some Chinese Medicine students says, you know, what do you call it, they knew Chinese ways like a fly bumping into the window. It's bright, but no future. And it's so true, it's so bright but there's no future. Because it's just fake, it doesn't work, because how do you really work on a different philosophy and then you're using a different kind of practise? So they're definitely not matching. And they actually decided to make it the best of two world, but actually they made it a worse of the two worlds. You know. Mason: (18:56) Right? Rhonda: (18:56) It's just so terrible. Mason: (19:00) Well, because they don't actually... as you're saying, that style of medicine, the fake Chinese Medicine, TCM, which is being taught doesn't follow a logical scientific pathology based approach. Rhonda: (19:10) No, that's right. Mason: (19:11) Which can work in its own right, and for its intention. And it definitely doesn't follow Yinyang Wuxing principles. Rhonda: (19:19) No, that's right. Mason: (19:20) And it doesn't necessarily work. It's kind of flying in the dark. You see these studies come about, going, "We're studying the use of this formula for a cold, headache, due to blah blah blah." So it's like, straightaway we're in a symptom-based approach. Rhonda: (19:38) Yeah. Mason: (19:39) And they're basically trying to see what percentage...And some different formulas are going to have a different percentage of effectiveness based on the symptom, but they're like, this formula, what percentage can we accidentally lower the symptoms by using this formula? Right? Like, that's kind of like the only way I can see it, and I'm just like, it's... I get it, because it's so tempting to use anatomy and use pathology. Rhonda: (20:10) Yes. Rhonda: (20:11) And the problem is, it's not reliable. I actually trained the same way. I train exactly as... What do you call the modern Chinese Medicine who go through this university, that was the first time when China... You know, after the revolution, they reopened the university. I mean, during the revolution they stopped all the education, university, for nine years, I think. And then they re-opened, that's the time I actually got into university. I learned Chinese Medicine, and I was looking for some kind of traditional arts, you know, like philosophy, and absolutely nothing. And then there's nothing they explain. It's like, it makes sense. Rhonda: (20:48) And I used to question the teacher and the teacher gave me a dirty look, and everybody look at me dirty, because they think, you know, "What do you know? Why do you really always getting in trouble?" So now I stop listening, and now I start writing stories no matter in the class. Rhonda: (21:03) So after finish, you become a practitioner. And you're in the hospital. People come in for real sickness, you know? I remember I was in Beijing, a little country... Country... what do you call that? Like, a hospital. And the people... actually, the farmers, are travelling like 100K or 30K and in that time, they didn't have a car, kind of on the horse or on the... You know, so slow and all the track go "boom, boom, boom," and [inaudible 00:21:32]. Rhonda: (21:33) And then they come here 5:00 in the morning and they get a ticket and then they're waiting for you to treat it. And I thought, you know, you can't really just fool these people, you've got to fix them isn't it? So I start to learn myself. I learn actually from... You know, I follow the field of old people who didn't have a degree, you know? Rhonda: (21:56) But they trained in the... Like, family train. But then they didn't really teach me enough, so I just got some of these formulas, and now I just thought of the formulas. I've got to be able to modify them. I mean, how did they create these formulas? So now I start to kind of try myself, because you're here... Because I read about traditional texts. In those days, not many available. You can't even get a proper whole Neijing publish. Mason: (22:30) Whoa, that level of suppression. Rhonda: (22:30) Yeah, it was very bad. And so you don't... I never really heard about Bagua until I came to Australia, you know, believe it or not. And... Yeah, so you couldn't really... you don't get too many sources for that. I kind of from here, there, I guess, here, and I was very... I mean, a good practitioner because I did kind of pay attention to it, and over the years of course I learned more role and now try more, so I get each kind of so-called problems overcome. Rhonda: (22:57) And now when I'd done all this, I thought I'd better in teaching, we're told that all these disease you can't treat and how did I treat it? So I actually started, I thought there's something wrong with our teaching. I said, "All I did for 30 years I've been kind of training myself. If I was trained in university..." And I, actually, during the training myself, I had to overcome my education, so I called it decolonise myself. Rhonda: (23:26) Because they colonised me, and then they gave me all this wrong information and you can't get away from it, you know? Like, people come in with a cancer and you go oh, cancer is damp heat. And you've got to use some cooling herbs, you got to really... You know, kind of things are breaking down. It didn't work, really. So what do you do? I mean, I know so many people who have been through all these Chinese doctors. Rhonda: (23:51) I won't say they killed them, but they definitely not help. So what they did is they give you so much cooling herb, with a cancer what happens, you don't have your own heat. You don't have your own force to fight anymore. You've got to give them warm herbs. Of course you've got to clean up, you know? You've got to have herbs that... Like a rotten tree, you've got to chop them up, you know? Get rid, clean up, but at the same time you've got to nurture them and you've got a renew... What do you call that, leaves, isn't it? New trunks. So you've got to use warm herbs, and with it, with clean Water. Rhonda: (24:24) But nobody doing that, so I thought, "I might actually get this sorted out and that's why I did a Ph.D. Little bit late and writing this book. So this is a masquerade, this book, it's during my Ph.D. study and eventually I produced this book. And then after that... After that... Mason: (24:44) The book is amazing. The book is amazing. Every... it's so thorough. Rhonda: (24:49) It's because, really, it took me eight years to get this delineated because it's so hard to make a clean... You know, everyone know what I write. Actually, my husband's being like my supervisor almost. And he read it, and he says, "What do you mean?" You know, "Why do you use Chinese..." Because he can't help it. You can't simply bring yourself into Chinese Medicine. So then I actually eventually decided not using Chinese Medicine anymore, I've got to use a different term because it was just so different. I don't want to mix up. Rhonda: (25:20) And I was so angry about this kind of mixing up, because... You know, you waste your life going to university and waiting six years, you know, five years to study and a year in the hospital. And then you come out, and you land a fake thing. And then you have to... I mean, it took me years to just clean myself out and then try to re-learn. So I thought, "I must really write this and let people know about it." And I send to China publish, they wouldn't publish, of course. Yeah. Rhonda: (25:52) I mean, [inaudible 00:25:53] but maybe in the future better because at the moment everybody who in this field in China who has authority, who has power, they all contribute into [inaudible 00:26:05] in Chinese, right? Of course they wouldn't let my voice out. So but it doesn't matter, so I thought, "I let them out here first and then eventually I'll get them there." Because... Mason: (26:15) You'll get there. Rhonda: (26:15) It's so savvy, not to get people learning this fake thing also. I was so angry. I'll write this book really with my patient. People deserve to know this, you know this. It took me, really, eight years, yeah, to get this cleared out and sold it up. And then traced out why they did that. I mean, it's a psychological kind of problem behind that, that was... I call them a self-colonising movement, you know, in China. Yeah. So that's... Yeah, it's very, very important, I think, to get knowing that. And then followed by that, and the people said, "Then what? I mean, how do we learn the tradition?" And so I thought I'll write another book about it, how I did it, you know? What I did. So that's what the second book is about, yeah. Mason: (26:58) And the second book, the Yinyang Wuxing, Spirit Body and Healing? Rhonda: (27:03) Yeah, that's right. Now I'm working on the third one, which actually going to talk about how this yinyan was in all this... The term was come about. Because these things, even if you read the traditional Chinese text, and like classical Chinese, it's very difficult to understand those books because of all the things that they take for granted that we know, that we don't. So when you read it, you feel like you go, "What are you reading?" Mason: (27:31) Yeah. Rhonda: (27:31) You can read the word, but you don't understand the meaning. Mason: (27:34) Well, that's why I especially liked that the Yinyang Wuxing book is... I pick up several copies of Neijing and enjoy it and quite often I walk away going, "I read it, and I theoretically get it, but it was... the essence [crosstalk 00:27:51]." Rhonda: (27:51) How do you apply? You can't apply, because actually, if you really start learning that from beginning, beginning how there's a Yin Yang above, how there's a wuxing what's come from, and then that's all about... Like, we call that, "Looking on the sky." You know, the stars. And then looking on the ground, say, what happens when the star in position or the sun, the moon, and Jupiter, where they're positioned and where we are. Rhonda: (28:17) So then to actually form, and then the words, a lot of them, I thought about that, and then in the Neijing a lot of numbers, how many [inaudible 00:28:26], how many time.... it's so different time to ask you now to what we're using, so I am writing them, the current book, I'm writing to convert all this, the equivalent of what all that means. Rhonda: (28:39) And then when you read a traditional textbook, you understand. So that's my first book, in the next one. And I'm actually a series of it, and then another one, which is herbs. How do you recognise herbs? And how the actual Yin Yang okay? So how you choose them when you actually use them. Because at the moment, you're looking at herb books, a lot of them say, "It's for Kidney, for Kidney." But Kidney is rarely... from a Kidney Yin and kidney Yang is completely different. So you've got to actually understand, so in what way it work for Kidney. Rhonda: (29:13) And like, diagnose a sickness. "Oh, they call that a Kidney deficiency." What is Kidney deficient? That's the only half-words. You've got to make sure, they said, is it a Yin or is it a Yang. You know, and that makes big different, how you practise. Yeah. Mason: (29:28) Well, let's go into that a little bit. You mentioned how it's sad that people think they're learning something authentic and they're actually learning something fake, which it's then... I like your work because you're providing a solution, because if there's no solution for where to point yourself, if you're an acupuncturist, and you just have to acknowledge that you studied something just new, you know? And it's not what you thought it was, there's a bit of an existential crisis sometimes, you resist knowing because you are an expert and you had these skills and the institution told you you had the ability [crosstalk 00:30:05]. Rhonda: (30:05) Yes, very much. Mason: (30:05) [crosstalk 00:30:05] this and that, but you don't. Rhonda: (30:08) Especially if you have a little bit of position, you know? Mason: (30:09) Oh, yeah. [crosstalk 00:30:10] Rhonda: (30:10) In that name. [crosstalk 00:30:10] Mason: (30:10) Yeah, love the name as well. Rhonda: (30:13) Yeah. [crosstalk 00:30:13] Mason: (30:13) Love the accolades. Rhonda: (30:14) Very, very, afraid to change. And that's why you're kind of defensive. Once I actually wrote a little bit and joined one of this internet group which are talking about Chinese Medicine, so I just said a few things. Oh, there were so many people up against it. So angry. Rhonda: (30:30) And they asked... demand me explain. "No," I thought, "I don't really have time to explain to you all this in here," and then they kick me out of the group, and they said, "If you don't explain, you're better off, this is not a place to show yourself." Oh, all right. So I just dropped it, it didn't really matter. So many people, very defensive. Very defensive. Mason: (30:51) What I see there is especially, there's something... they are wanting to learn and then stagnate, which is the main difference between a fake TCM and a real yi is I see that.. You said you were a good physician, and that is rare, and also what they want to do is they don't care whether they have someone that's good or not, they want to just be able to, as you said, commodify and pump out these physicians. Mason: (31:23) Now the difference is, someone who isn't willing to really walk the path, acknowledge the fact that we are in communion with the sun, heaven, moon, the earth, the way it's moving, that's its own path, it takes its own discipline, and requires a certain amount of integrity, because there's... Yunyin is never ending flux. Verse, in the fake style, they want to say, "That's the symptom, and I'm going to fix that symptom." They still use the fancy words, damp, heat, it's still, to a Westerner, you're like, "Ooh, wow, this is so exotic, a damp heat." Rhonda: (31:56) Yes. Mason: (31:57) But it's still bullshit. [crosstalk 00:31:59]. Rhonda: (32:00) Yeah, exactly. And that's... Damp heat, it's a... You know, people think that's a diagnosis, it's not. What is damp heat? That's only a symptom. It's like if people say, "I'm actually Blood deficiency." What is Blood deficient? That's a symptom. That's not diagnosis. So you've got to really understand how that happened. All that is wuxing. You know, who created? Who made this? Rhonda: (32:25) So you got to work on that, then you can treat it. If I say, "I got Blood deficient, no," I've got to say, "Oh, nourish the Blood, and I've got to find it. It's not, because your body actually able to kind of create everything. It's not really nutrition, that's why I'm kind of against this nutrition point, as well. I mean, when you're working in the natural food, you don't say it's because of nutrition. Rhonda: (32:49) It's because the powerful Yang, or the powerful Yin, and that's how they actually make your body bouncy and make you well, rather than say, "Oh, this got some vitamins, or this got some kind of minerals and all rubbish." Yeah. Mason: (33:04) It's harder to get ego attached on to it, because it's just a part of the nature of the universe, and the key term in the book that I saw the difference between, say, someone who's going to go to fake Chinese Medicine to someone that has the capacity to walk the authentic path is their understanding of Qihua and that was the biggest distinction. Mason: (33:29) I realise when you were talking about Qihua and we'll go into what it is to explain to everyone, but a physician who just wants to treat the Blood deficiency and think that that's an actual diagnosis. They are going to treat the Blood, treat the Qi and say, "We've gone about that very holistically in accordance with the tradition." Mason: (33:52) But they don't understand the transformative cycle of Yin and Yang and it's never ending transformation. Rhonda: (33:59) That's right. Yes. Mason: (34:00) Chi qua. Can you explain that? Because it made the difference for me. Rhonda: (34:04) Yes, well, Qi which means like a force, like... We say things you can't really kind of grab it, that's called a chi, you know? But it's got a energy, but then it's kind of a airy kind of energy. That's called a Qi. Hua It's the transform, transformation. You know? We say, "How does the sun, actually the heat, transform to Water rise?" Rhonda: (34:30) And that's actually become a Water Qi, isn't it? So then when the rise heat, we call it a Fire, kind of... what do you call it? Qi. And then when they actually turn you to... what do you call that? Growing trees, that's what we call that tree, like a Wood Qi. So that's actually called a Qihua, it's the Five Elements, kind of... oh. People say element, I don't quite comfortable with this word. Rhonda: (34:56) But anyway, it's the transformation of one thing to the other and the force. So that's why we call it Qihua. So that's why somebody... In that book, I think I gave you an example, somebody at the university, a Ph.D. student, and then they talk about nutrition. I said, "I'll ask him," I said, "What about Qihua?" And then he said, "What are you talking about? What is that?" You know? He didn't understand at all. But Qihua is very important, it's how the changes. And you heard of [inaudible 00:35:25]. Mason: (35:25) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (35:27) [inaudible]. Yeah, that's what I'm writing at the moment in the next book with theory part is also the sun position, and the Earth movement, and how to... That the sun movement, the position... Which you cause, you know, like the sunrise and sundown. We call that the [inaudible], that movement. And the Qi which is the Earth changing, and that create a different atmosphere. Rhonda: (35:53) And that is what I call the [inaudible]. You know? That now turned into, like, a luck. You know, how your luck is. Because your luck is can't escape from the sun and the moon. Mason: (36:05) You make your own luck. Rhonda: (36:09) Yes, yes. Because luck is about a sun position and your time. So that's what it is. It's a time and a position. Mason: (36:15) And I think the fallacy of the West is looking at that fundamental principle of life, that we are connected, and that our atmospheric positioning is going to effect us and our capacity to... you know, even considering if you're talking about something that in the West has a gravity, like... you know, the word cancer. Mason: (36:37) And then to talk about it in context of Water Qi, Wood Qi. But because Westerners require drama, I think it's almost intimidating to go into what's seen as something that's just... You know, it's folk medicine, it's not real, that's why they've gone to Commodify Chinese medicine for the West, we need to actually take out all that terminology that has anything esoteric whatsoever and therefore, you know, therefore we're going to be able to sell this to Westerners. Mason: (37:18) And if you look at where Western Medicine is, the detrimental scalpel, taking the scalpel to medicine and nature and separating them is... It's evident what's happened, and I just want to reiterate that this medicine is very, very effective if you go back to its roots. Rhonda: (37:42) Very, very effective. In fact, I think I said in the other podcast, I mean, this is kind of a bit of personal, but I've actually been poisoned by formaldehyde and benzine. And I was like a Liver and the Kidney failure. I mean, I didn't go to Western Medicine so I couldn't really get any kind of [inaudible 00:38:00] diagnose, but I didn't really want it because, you know, you're that sick and you mentally kind of weak as well so I didn't want them to curse me, to say, "You're going to die in a few months," or whatever. Rhonda: (38:11) So I actually totally relied on herbs, and acupuncture, and treating myself. And I'm actually on the mending, yeah. Mason: (38:20) Wow. Rhonda: (38:21) So, I mean, I'm still not 100%, like what I used to be, but I'm definitely still alive. Mason: (38:25) Wow. Rhonda: (38:26) [crosstalk 00:38:26] to this stage, I lost all my weight, like 42 kilos, and like skeleton. And couldn't eat, and I turned to just black, like a green and blackish. And, oh, I was completely... getting a fever every few days. You just... you're thinking, I mean... I definitely prepared to die, but I thought, "Even when I die, I'm not going to waste the medicine." There's no way I'll let them torture me. But I actually just rely on herbs and acupuncture and treat myself and I'm almost normal now. [crosstalk 00:39:00] Mason: (38:59) Wow. You were talking about it being sad about practitioners being taught this new style of medicine. What I find sad, as well, is a lot of people listening, and like myself, I have... I'm going my path right now and I'm going to not go down the practitioner path for the moment, but I talk about this... I talk about the Chinese herbs as a fan. Mason: (39:26) I talk about acupuncture as a patient and as a fan to this medicine and an advocate, but you can't... The problem here, in Australia especially, which I'd like you to talk to the people listening who go and have acupuncture, how to navigate the relationship within acupuncturist and find someone in this current day where you're not really allowed, technically, in Australia, to practise classical Yi. Right? Rhonda: (39:53) That's right. It's very, very, kind of dangerous to practise. That's why I actually kind of erased myself. Because when you're being a practitioner, you agree that's when we kind of... You know, in 2012, when we become, like, a so-called, a government recognised practise and that's why I erased because by then, we have to sign a paper to say we agree their terms, and the one of the term which I can't agree is you got to actually become a... What do you call that? Assistant. Like, a complimentary to biomedicine. Which means if somebody come to me, I actually got to send them to Western doctors if I think they're serious. I mean, what I do? Rhonda: (40:39) If I send everybody go to them, what am I doing? But then, when you treat everybody seriously, if anything happen, even when you're treating life and death, isn't it? If somebody happening something really serious or whatever, even to die, and you send yourself to jail, and they bankrupt everything they can fine you everything. So how can you really practise? You couldn't really do it. So most people, I think the best they do is just kind of... You got to lay back and do a little bit. I can help you as much as I can, that's all it is. Mason: (41:10) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (41:10) You can be serious now, it's kind of political condition. But this medicine, it definitely very powerful. And also a lot of herbs you're not allowed to have. And because this called biomedical kind of terminology, and they say this is poisonous, while the herbs, actually, I was importing and they said, "You can't," they said, "It's poisonous." I said, "Who actually kind of analysed? I want to see the paper says this poison." And they said, "Because this relate to another herb, the name's similar." Mason: (41:40) Whoa. Rhonda: (41:40) I mean, that is ridiculous. Mason: (41:40) Yeah. Rhonda: (41:40) So they're not... They understand nothing, basically. So you can't argue with them, so you can't really... it's very difficult to practise. I know... Well, I'm teaching, but I also feel sorry for people who want to practise the real thing. But at least you help yourself. They can't stop you help yourself, you know? Like, if I didn't have this knowledge, I'll be dead, long time. You know? Like, I'm still alive, and I'm still working. So it's... Mason: (42:12) And kicking. Rhonda: (42:12) It's something really good. You know, very important for yourself, to do this. So and I hope, actually, eventually if there's enough, that's one of my aim to do this course training, eventually we're going to set up association called the Yi Association. And we're going to set up our own kind of way, and like a Chinese Medicine before. They didn't recognise, but they can't stop you because they've not recognised it, we don't want them to recognise it. But they can't stop us. Rhonda: (42:39) So we're in this kind of form, and enough people we're truly an association and we're going to push that all over the world. We're going to do this real Yi. You have to, because it's such a beautiful knowledge. You know, when you actually learn it, it's powerful and it's beautiful when you learn it. At the moment I'm doing a little bit on my Facebook group, the Yinyang Wuxing Yi Facebook group. Actually, I start teaching language because in my course, if you actually... You got to learn the basic terms, and then you'll be able to kind of follow me. Rhonda: (43:15) So now I'm training a little bit of this work. I mean, even just the words are beautiful, really, to learn. I'm not teaching modern Chinese word, I'm teaching, like, the sun, how they actually first come, it's like the run, and then with the stroke, and the straight line. The straight line, which means... you know, if you know the bagua the straight line is a Yang , and the broken is like a Yin. And the straight line, what it means it's a sign is a powerful, it's firm. So that's where the words come from. And eventually they make a square, and with the line. And square means the sun actually is east in the west and north and south, going down, going up. And so that cause what they call the position of the Earth. [crosstalk 00:44:03] Mason: (44:03) Square... I'm sure there's going to be people that want to know whether they can join your Facebook group. Rhonda: (44:11) Yeah, yeah. Mason: (44:11) Okay. Rhonda: (44:11) Facebook group, open to... I mean, you have to ask to join in, but it's a group anybody can learn. So I made it as a group because I thought it concentrated all the things in there, so... yeah. Mason: (44:23) Oh, yeah, of course. Mason: (44:26) I mean, I'm really excited to hear that you have a page. And Tahnee my partner, who's a bit jealous that I'm talking to you, [crosstalk 00:44:32] next time, maybe we'll do a podcast with both of us so Tahnee can speak with you as well. She did have six months studying acupuncture at a university. Rhonda: (44:43) Yeah. Mason: (44:43) And [crosstalk 00:44:44]. Rhonda: (44:44) Well, acupuncture is good, because acupuncture, you have a little risk. So when you become acupuncturist, you're able to do all the things. And then you don't really have to talk about it. You know, like people come in if they like it, you don't really have to talk about philosophy or disease, whatever, they talk about what their problem, you go your own way, and then you chose point, then you do your way. And then it's less risk than herbs. But then, I mean, herbs and acupuncture are equally important. If you actually learn acu and you don't know herbs, I say it's like you got left arm, you don't have the right arm. You know? Like, you're half, really. Rhonda: (45:23) So you got to have all of them and you'll be able to do everything. And also, after this new [inaudible 00:45:29] I don't know, if I live that long, I'll want to make the last [inaudible 00:45:34] I want to make is called a [true yo 00:45:36]. I don't know if you heard this [true yo 00:45:38]? Which is like a shaman, which talk about how you actually work on spirit and then to get people... Because we say your body is a spirit in body, that's how your life is. And then there's way, actually, to work on your spirit, to make your body actually live that. This is, in China, like a cure.. 1600 was, like, a government-organised practise and there's a lot of books. Rhonda: (46:02) And then cure... what do you call it? Qing Dynasty in China, 1600. They didn't quite believe these things, so they didn't really kind of push them down, but the government didn't have this kind of practise anymore. Not in the imperialist kind of government, didn't have this department anymore. So it's become kind of a private and... What do you call it... We call it, like, ordinary people would still kind of practise, but of course, after war and this period and during the communism, of course, that's completely [crosstalk 00:46:34]. Mason: (46:34) Gone. [crosstalk 00:46:34] Rhonda: (46:35) Recently, actually, there's a lot of book up here, which are hidden in Taiwan, the national library. And they actually started publish online and now I actually got all the copies of them. So I think one day I'm going to work on that. That'd be beautiful, really. I love that. Mason: (46:52) That would be... I was going to say, like, I think Tahnee is going to absolutely love your course. You know, [crosstalk 00:46:58] the course that you're going to come up with, and then when you come up with that course, she would as well, but I especially want to be in on that one. You can get me in there for the prototype, I [crosstalk 00:47:08]. Rhonda: (47:08) Well, I mean, that's a long for idea, but at the moment, I really want to get these things done. You know, like the theory of [inaudible 00:47:14] and the medicine. Body, about body, how you actually reckon the body as Yin and Yang rather than anatomy. Mason: (47:19) Absolutely. Rhonda: (47:20) And all this. And then you got to recognise the herbs, how that actually in Yin Yang rather than chemistry. And then you've got to understand Meridians as, what you call.. Time, rather than, what point make what disease. And especially annoyed with the name in the West and the teaching acupuncture... Bladder number 45, or something, that's just ridiculous. Mason: (47:41) Boring. Rhonda: (47:42) You have to know the words, that's why I'm teaching the words, as well. Because all these words actually have meaning. There's meaning about these points, so you've got to learn that and you understand how that work together so that's [crosstalk 00:47:56]. Mason: (47:55) Yeah, well, then, there's life in the true word, there's life, there. Rhonda: (48:00) Yes, yes, yes, yeah. Mason: (48:03) For [crosstalk 00:48:03] is... Again, they've taken a scalpel, they've cut it out, and they've plunked it there, and it's not living. It's inanimate. Rhonda: (48:08) That's right. That's exactly. It's not living. Yeah, everything got a living, you know? That's all we believe. You know? Life. You got to use life to survive, to make a life rather than using fake things, you know? Like chemical... chemical, you can't say they're not working, but then they carry it on with side effect and all the consequences. It gets really ridiculous, but once you're actually on the chemical things, you can't change them. Because it's like... say, if somebody actually had lots of chemotherapy and they come to see me, and that's most value I have, because when you have all this chemicals in there and they manipulate bodies, sometimes you can't even identify this is your own system problem, or is it the drug problem? Rhonda: (48:48) So you go to actually try to get that... you know, kind of push it away and settle them down before you can really treat the real cases. So it's really difficult, yeah. I know, it's not... We're not in the good time, not in the right timing for this medicine, but maybe it's also good where they're challenging, so I think we probably make a change. Yeah. I mean, slowly, I'm starting. And then eventually more people will have this power, more people will join together, and they will fight. Mason: (49:18) I think so. I really... I've seen somewhat of a resurgence, I think there's a renaissance, I think that people have realised how bored they are within a system that is basically like a grey piece of cardboard. Rhonda: (49:32) Very much, very much. Mason: (49:33) People want to live. Rhonda: (49:33) Yeah, exactly. Mason: (49:35) And as a practitioner, they want to live, therefore, help people live themselves. Rhonda: (49:38) Yeah. I mean, you can't live like that, just... You know, material. Mason: (49:43) No. Rhonda: (49:44) It's a... what do you call that? Spirit is more important than... You know, we can live short, but if we live a good spirit and you feel like "I lived," but if you really live long and you're just like... It's terrible, you're just like a vegetable, it's not... No use, no good. Yeah. Definitely. Mason: (50:01) Well, I'm going to continue to do the... What I'm going to do, I've got a few books that I like keeping around as several copies for when I meet someone, when I meet an acupuncturist, new acupuncturist friend, that I give out the Chinese Medicine Masquerading As Yi is one of those books. So everyone listening, as a SuperFeaster, it is mandatory reading to get both of Rhonda Chang's books. Yinyang Wuxing, Spirit Body and Healing. Mason: (50:31) It's not actually mandatory. I'm just kind of like, putting it in that terminology. Highly recommended, and Chinese Medicine Masquerading as Yi and once you've read it, it's one of those ones that I think especially, like, Yinyang Wuxing, I'm at that point where I definitely need to read it again. I've read through once, and then jumped to different parts, and now I'm going to need to read again. Same with... Because this isn't something black-and-white to memorise, this is something to feel and experience. So I just wanted to... Before we head off, and I'm definitely going to ask you to come back on the podcast, and I think I'll definitely get Tahnee in there with um.. Rhonda: (51:07) Thank you. Mason: (51:09) But considering a lot of the people listening here, not practitioners, but they are people who are developing their own personal health culture, wanting to understand their body in a crazy Western health scene that is just confusing at times. Can you talk just from a sense of one's own lifestyle and relationship to their own body without the context of them necessarily healing others, just themselves? What advice have you got in the principles of Yinyang Wuxing? How can they get more into the flow? How can they ensure that their in a preventative space and how to get... You know, bring their spirit, so they can have long-term health? Rhonda: (51:51) Okay. Well, the very, very first thing is avoid eating chemical, if you can. You know, like a sugar. It's a chemical, but if you're eating this... I think there's another one which called Sri Lanka kind of a sugar and now I think Australia making them, too. It's... Dried the sugar cane juice, and you can use that. That's not really a problem. Mason: (52:14) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (52:15) And because of chemical, when they get in the system, and they... For a start, they're very fine, and they could attach in your system, and then they become like a blockage. And secondly, a chemical, it doesn't go the same way as the Yinyang Wuxing, you know, in your body transformation. So sugar is, and there's salt. Salt... Which a lot of people say, "I'm eating, like, a table salt." That's a pure chemical, very dangerous. Because the sea salt, if you have, it's 80-something, you know, different minerals. And the ratio is the same as your Blood. So you can't go wrong, and you don't need to eat this table salt and that add a bit of zinc and a little bit of... What do you call that? [crosstalk 00:52:57] Mason: (52:57) Iodine. Rhonda: (52:58) Iodine, all the different minerals. You have sea salt, and you actually kind of balance. But the sea salt, a lot of them on the shelf say, "sea salt," it's not real, it's not life. Because real sea salt, you crush them, you make them a fine, and after a few hours, they clap them together again, because they're life. And then if there's rain, you don't put water in there, they absorb the moist and they become kind of moist. And when they dry, they actually evaporate, like a sea. So that's a real life sea salt. And the salt and the sugar, this is two very important... And you've got to avoid eating chemicals. Rhonda: (53:34) Because chemical, if they get out of your system, all right. But if they don't get out, they block your system, that's what we call cancer. Cancer is a blockage. It's something not flow. You know, if you've ever seen a cancer cell, and I actually... When we were in China practise, I actually... We had to do operation and all these things in the internship and the one guy actually had a leg, got a big cancer on his legs. It was smelly. You walked into that room, and you smell is that stink. Really, really bad. It just wasn't me. So what happened is the cancer, just cause blockage... They're blocked. They can't really move. Rhonda: (54:17) So chemical really block your system, because they don't change. They're not really kind of... Like other thing. You eat meat, and you can't find any meat, animal meat in your body if you eat... What do you call it? Natural food, apple, you can't find apple in your poop, in your pee. But if you eat sugar, you find it is in there. So if they get out, you're lucky. If they don't get out, they're in your system, they block it, and then you cause the blockage and the Water will stale, and then they'll be rotten, and then mushrooms grow. That's what the cancer is. So if you want to actually be healthy, that's the first advice, no chemical. Yeah. Mason: (54:56) Beautiful. Rhonda: (54:56) And also warm things is better, because we're like a refrigerated drink, because we say your life is heat. You know? If somebody lying there, you don't know if they're alive and dead, and you touch them. If they're still warm, you think they still got life in there. If they're cold, you know they're dead. So what happened is your heat reserve, that's where your energy, that's what your force are. So if you drink cold drink, it doesn't go to your Blood straight away, that's why you bubble. You know, your pores all close off, you get goose bubbles. Rhonda: (55:27) Because... goosebumps. And what happened is, because your stomach also hold out and then your body actually... Your energy, your Kidney reserve the heat, warm them up, and then they [inaudible 00:55:39], then they go into your system. So by then, what happening you lost your reserve. So it's better not to drink too cold drinks. Yeah. Mason: (55:48) Keep yourself warm. Rhonda: (55:50) Yeah. Mason: (55:51) Put your coat on in winter. Rhonda: (55:51) Yeah, and... I mean, if you're keeping clothes but if you're active, exercise, you don't put a lot of clothes on, it's all right. But internally, you don't want to cool your body down. Yeah. Rhonda: (56:00) Don't drink too cold drink all the time. Yeah. That's basic. Mason: (56:04) Beautiful. Well, but the basics are what, over decades, 20, 30, 40, 50, years, that's where the medicine is. Rhonda: (56:11) Yes. Yes. Mason: (56:12) [crosstalk 00:56:12]. Rhonda: (56:12) Yeah. [crosstalk 00:56:13] Mason: (56:13) I love it so much. I've loved this conversation. Rhonda: (56:16) Thank you very much. Mason: (56:16) I'm sure you've got a busy day ahead of you. As I said, you're not going to go long without jumping back on the podcast, because I love it too much. I love your message too much. Mason: (56:25) And I'm excited to join the Facebook group, I'll get the link off you and I'll put it in the show notes for everyone. But what's it called, just in case people want to look it up? Rhonda: (56:35) Yinyang Wuxing Yi, which is yin, Y-I-N-Y-A-N-G. Mason: (56:36) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rhonda: (56:37) And W-U-X-I-N-G and the Y-I. Yinyang Wuxing Yi. Yinyang Wuxing, which is the theory, and yi, which is the healing, and [inaudible 00:56:37] approach. Yinyang Wuxing Yi. Mason: (56:37) The healing. That's Y-I, everybody. Rhonda: (56:37) Y-I, yeah. Mason: (56:37) [crosstalk 00:56:37] yi. Rhonda: (56:37) Y-I. Yi, yi. Mason: (56:56) Beautiful, everyone get the books. Where... Best place to get your books? Is that your website? Rhonda: (57:01) Yeah, my website is rhondachang.com, and get book from there. But at the moment, because I don't have a printed book, I rely on Amazon to print. But Amazon, at the moment, they don't send to Australia. So have to wait a little bit, but you can buy it from Amazon.com.au, but they cost a little bit more than I would for sale. Rhonda: (57:23) Doesn't matter. Mason: (57:24) No one minds. No. Rhonda: (57:25) Yes. It's worth it, they're funny. Because it's... If you're learning about Chinese medicine or if you really feel disappointed about Chinese medicine, and you should read this. And you understand the why, and you got a future, because you know where to go. Mason: (57:42) And guys, that's it. If you felt disappointment in Chinese medicine, in acupuncture, you know, that Chinese Medicine Masquerading As Yi, that is a book that will... It'll validate. Rhonda: (57:53) Yeah, open your eyes. Really. Mason: (57:57) [crosstalk 00:57:57] open your eyes. Rhonda: (57:57) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mason: (57:57) I love it. Rhonda: (57:57) Thank you very much. Mason: (58:00) I mean, I've got so many things I could go on about, but let's just call it here and I'll see you next time. Rhonda: (58:03) Okay. No worries. Mason: (58:03) Have a great, great day. Rhonda: (58:05) Thank you very much. Yeah. Bye.
Welcome to another Juicy episode on the Rä INtuition Brunch Podcaster. Today we dig into a artistically Metaphysical conversation with Metaphysician and Artist of Dance
I review the classical Chinese book Chuang Tzu. I compare his rebel philosophy to Confucius and the Yi Jing. Taoism, Buddhism, and Vedic philosophy as well. I show the shared philosophy across Millenia, cultures, continents, and people's.
This week, we welcome to the show Brandt Stickley. Brandt is, among other things, Assistant Professor in the College of Classical Chinese Medicine, Visiting Professor at Dragon rises College of Oriental Medicine, acupuncturist, herbalist and a Classical Chinese Medical practitioner working in the Portland area. He joins us today to talk about Classical Chinese medicine, of course, but in the particular context of what insights it might provide for more holistic, spirit-inclusive healing modalities in general. A fascinating and timely discussion. Enjoy! Show Notes Brandt's website and blog. Brandt on Twitter. The Medicine Songs discussion mentioned in the episode.
Marie chats to Acupuncturist, Herbalist and Translator, Michael Brown about trends in training of Chinese medicine in the university/college system in this episode. We discuss his passions about learning, memorisation and how students in undergraduate TCM programs can get more out of their studies. This conversation is part of the new series, CM Study Buddy - helping you learn and navigate the world of Chinese medicine as a student. This would be really useful for students in the USA, Australia, UK and Europe, and couldn't be more timely since there are many students now in self-isolation or stuck at home in quarantine. Its a great time to get stuck into learning about our shared passion of Chinese medicine. Some of the topics discussed include the need for study, how to utilise classical sources in undergraduate study of Chinese medicine. How memorisation can help you in the clinic setting and Michael shares some of his own tips for studying and learning the complex systems of Chinese medicine. About Michael Brown: Michael is incredibly enthusiastic about the future of Chinese medicine and training students, a teacher himself in Brisbane, Queensland (Australia). Michael holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Acupuncture) a Masters of Applied Science (CHM) and a Bachelor of Arts (Chinese Language). In 2009 Michael founded Remedy Lane Chinese Medicine, where he currently practices herbs and acupuncture. Michael has since continued in studying Classical Chinese language to better understand the origins and treatments of Chinese Medicine, as well as spending time living in China. Michael has also continued to further his study in Chinese Medicine with trips to China to study under world renowned herbalists. In 2019, Michael's work on translating Explanation of Channels and Points was published by Purple Cloud Press: (now avail on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Explanations-C...). Michael Brown sees patients from his Acupuncture and Herbal medicine clinic in Chermside, QLD. http://remedylane.com.au/ Also mentioned in this video were a couple of books for student study tools (diagnosis): Chinese medicine diagnostics [Deng Tietao Shanghai Science and Technology Press] [line drawing](Chinese Edition)(Old-Used) Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis Study Guide by Qiao Yi (Author), Al Stone (Author) You can also watch Chinese Medicine Podcast on Youtube https://youtu.be/z5Xc3ta0lug IMPORTANT: This video, as with all videos on the The Chinese Medicine Podcast are NOT a replacement for a health professional diagnosis. While Marie may answer your questions, all answers are not of a professional consultation level - it is impossible to check your pulse through the internet, hence Chinese medicine cannot be practiced properly through the internet. If you have any undiagnosed symptoms, or changes in your health condition The Chinese Medicine Podcast urges you to see your own doctor, GP, Chinese medicine practitioner, acupuncturist or other health professional as appropriate. If it is an emergency call 000 in Australia. If you are unsure if this advice is appropriate for your individual situation ask your own practitioner before applying any diet or lifestyle techniques /concepts discussed in this video. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marie-hopkinson/message
Today, Rob is off doing research in China, so Lee interviews Professor Van Norden. Professor Van Norden is a philosophy professor at Vassar, and he works on early Chinese philosophical texts. He recently published a textbook for learning Classical Chinese (文言文). The book, called Classical Chinese for Everyone, is the outgrowth of Professor Van Norden’s […]
Today, Rob is off doing research in China, so Lee interviews Professor Van Norden. Professor Van Norden is a philosophy professor at Vassar, and he works on early Chinese philosophical texts. He recently published a textbook for learning Classical Chinese (文言文). The book is the outgrowth of Professor Van Norden's teaching, and he seeks to make Classical Chinese more approachable than do other textbooks on the language. Professor Van Norden and Lee discuss his book and wider issues related to early Chinese texts.
We've got Amina Eastham-Hillier back on the show today. This time around Amina is talking all things Lyme disease. Amina is an experienced Lyme literate naturopath who specialises in testing and treating Lyme disease, Lyme co-infections, mould related illness and chemical sensitivities. Amina is a treasure trove of knowledge in her area's of expertise and today's chat offers a grounded and holistic approach to healing stealth infection and Lyme disease. Mason and Amina cover: Lyme disease. Health sovereignty and the importance of taking charge of your own health. The multifaceted approach required to remedy chronic health conditions. Ticks - "the dirty needles of nature". Principals of prevention, tips and tricks you can embody to minimise exposure to Lyme and other pathogenic bacteria. Inflammation and gut health. Stealth viruses and the havoc they can wreak. Living in harmony with nature, and that includes viruses and bacteria. Who is Amina Eastham-Hillier? Amina owns a successful multi-modality clinic in Noosa comprising of 18 practitioners. With over 15 years of Naturopathic and 25 years of Nutritional practice, Amina successfully treats chronic illnesses and complex cases. Amina is a Keynote speaker presenting to medical doctors and naturopaths at international conferences, medical documentaries, TV interviews, radio, seminars, webinars, podcasts and workshops. Author of “Lyme Natural” Amina won the award for ‘Australian Practitioner of the year’ in 2017 and is currently finalising her second book (Chronic stealth infections – Filling in the missing pieces). Resources: Amina Website Amina Facebook Amina Instagram Lyme Natural Website Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus we're on Spotify! We got you covered on all bases ;P Check Out The Transcript Here: Mason: (00:03) Hey, Amina. Thanks so much for coming back on and chatting with me. Amina: (00:07) Oh, you're welcome, Mason. Thank you for having me. Mason: (00:10) Always a pleasure. I think it was about two years ago that we jumped on, when we were different podcasts by then. Mason Taylor Podcast. We chatted about Lyme, we chatted about mold, mold when just got distributed out. And so everyone in the SuperFeast community has begun to become familiar with you and your awesomeness and I want to continue pointing people in your direction because I've found you always really influential. And watching your Instagram, I love watching you being a practitioner, live and breathe the lifestyle up in your retreat. I love your foraging tips and I love watching all the notes when you go to these conferences, whether it's ... I know you're going to ... What's the conference you're going to this weekend, you're presenting at? Amina: (01:01) Oh, it's actually in September, but it's in Melbourne for metagenics and it's all on fatigue and looking at intricate details of just what's going on with people with fatigue and why are they not getting better? Looking at a lot of biotoxins and underlying viruses and lots of things. Very exciting. Mason: (01:26) Well, I just love watching the adventures because you go along, obviously, and attend and upgrade your skills. You can just really tell you're an absolute nerd for all of this. Amina: (01:36) I do love it. Mason: (01:39) Yeah. I feel like ... You know, we've spoken to you a couple times. I know how deep you can get into the nuance of the body and testings, and really going after and hunting for the source of symptoms. And you work a lot with people with extremely chronic illness. Right? Amina: (01:57) Yes, yes. I do. Mason: (01:59) And we were just talking about the fact, as well, before how when you look down the barrel of either going through western medicine, a lot of people go down that gauntlet and then come out the other side without answers. And then coming into the, for lack of a better word, the natural treatment, going down that route. I can understand why going down the western route is often necessary, of course, but is cozy and comfy because there's this integrated nature where there's a specialist for everything and your doctor will talk to the specialist. On the surface, that's the idea. There's a big web that you know you don't have to think. You're just caught in it. But then if you look down, often, the natural route, the amount of information out there, the amount of conflicting information, of course that's in the western medicine as well but it's that non-integrated web that makes it so difficult at times and you've kind of got to stand up into your sovereignty and be your own hub. Mason: (03:02) I know I send so many people your way when they're dealing with stealth infection or Lyme, as well, because I know ... I read that at Noosa Holistic Health ... Is that Noosa Holistic Health? Amina: (03:14) Yep. Mason: (03:15) Yep. And you were saying how you've really created a hub and how you ask for every single test that's ever been done through the western model or beyond in the natural world and try and create that melting pot. On that, I think it's important for people ... We're going to go into Lyme today. I think it's very relevant in this instance, but know whether we're dealing with chronic illness, whether it's stealth infection, or just a mystery. Finding someone who can create that hub and go and be the detective and be that central point, I just want to know ... obviously, you've created it. I just want to know the extent of which you put importance on that for someone. And then what do you like to see and procure in your patients for them to be able to feel like they have the capacity to start to be that melting pot, themselves, and really feel that health sovereignty while being supported by practitioners? Amina: (04:21) Okay. So first of all, when patients come in initially, obviously I'm listening for what their main concerns are. And I have a jigsaw puzzle template by my side and it literally has about 50 odd pieces and I can squidge them all around if I need to. And this empty, blank jigsaw puzzle template, I actually start writing everything on and it becomes a full puzzle. And I think that's the main thing for the people to understand when I'm first having consultations with them is that they may come in saying, "Have I got Lyme? Is it this? Is it that? What's wrong with me?" And you can never give one person a definite answer because, the thing is, there are often so many things. So there are many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Amina: (05:19) For example, someone might come in and they think that they've been bitten by ticks or they're not even sure, but they've got chronic fatigue, they've got pain. It might be just random pain, fibromyalgia-type pain or aches. It's often brain fog. Maybe a bit of sweating, maybe not, digestion problems, anxiety, all of the common symptoms that we see that aren't getting addressed with the normal medical models. And we just start putting it together. So I just go through a very comprehensive history and just putting all the pieces. So whether they have had chemical exposure, mold exposure ... I mean, this is a very broad summary of what I do. I think an answer to your question, is that ... Mason: (06:07) Yeah, for sure. I mean, I guess I almost wanted just to make sure everyone had an insight into the depth and level that you'd want to be able to demand or go and find with a practitioner in order to qualify. Amina: (06:21) Absolutely. Mason: (06:22) And then what's the difference? Do you see certain ... the difference between a patient and just some qualities that other patients, you can help imbue in them in terms of not feeling overwhelmed or feeling empowered in the fact that you can transfer? The fact that you, yourself, you've got so many patients, so much stuff going on. You can't hold the constant hub for every single patient. At some point, it needs to bridge over into the patient themself, especially with long-term healing. Right? Is there ... Amina: (06:53) Absolutely, absolutely. So what I like to do, I think it's really important, if patients want to. Not all patients want this. They do like the practitioners to take charge and they don't really want much information. But I think, these days, it's really important to take charge of your health and have it that each person really understands themself. So that's why I really encourage patients to gather all of your past medical results. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. Get as much information as you can. If you had a stool test with a naturopath 10 years ago, get it. Let's put it all together. Let's see, where did this start? Because of the patients that I'm seeing, they're often very chronic, complex patients that often have so many things going on and that's why it's very difficult for them to go to any one place and get a diagnosis. Amina: (07:46) So it's really important for us to gather as much information as we can. And if you haven't had past tests, that's great. That gives us a clean platform to go, okay. Well, now we know what we need to do in the way of functional medicine testing as well as working with their doctor and seeing what treatments they may be getting at that time. But I just definitely, I can't express enough how I think it's important for patients to take charge of their own health in a way of just knowing what's going on, knowing what has happened in their body before they got really sick, and understanding their family history, things ... Even looking at genetics can be really helpful, knowing what their sensitivities are and their triggers, and understanding the state of their adrenals and nervous system, and understanding their gut and being mindful of, "Is my gut going good? Do I need a bit of a detox at the moment?" Or, "Do I need a detox from life? Do I need to sort of step back and go and have a rainforest walk or something?" Amina: (08:56) So just being really mindful of all of the systems. And that's something of a naturopath that I think is really important for us to educate patients so that they know what to look out for and they know how to be their own sort of one-stop hubber and check in on themselves, as well as having the support of the professionals. Mason: (09:16) Yeah. I just don't think it can be said enough. It's a great reminder and I just wanted to bring that up in the beginning because, at SuperFeast, we get asked so many ... every day. It's phone, email, Instagram, getting so many questions and some of them very gnarly and very deep questions. We don't consider our role to kind of play practitioner, we just don't. We continue to stand in the fact that we're doing tonic herbalism and we are standing for a particular philosophy and lineage. However, we don't like leaving everyone high and dry. And so what I feel like I consistently want to do and for the podcast and having these kinds of conversations, is continue to make distinct ... just that simple nature of ... when you say, "Become your own practitioner," I feel like that's quite loaded because I'm prone to this, then I feel the pressure, and I'm very much prone to putting pressure on myself, to have a level of understanding using similar language, that a practitioner would have in a specialised area, of myself. Mason: (10:24) And then with that and put a couple of other things on my shoulders that I'm doing in life, it becomes overwhelming and I feel I'm kind of failing at this. I don't know how to manage my own body. I need to continue to rely on practitioners. But what you're saying, I just don't think it can be repeated enough for everyone to remember. If you just gather all that information so you know thyself, you can understand little patterns and your constitution. You get little clues and then put it into language that ... For me, it's been especially useful. Just put it into language for a lay person or just put it into language that's not charged and easy for you to then go take into your kitchen and your lifestyle because, as you said, just knowing. It can kind of seem like it just gets on repeat. And I just want to make sure everyone's listening. Reading your body and your digestion, watching the way that you're pooing, or your nervous system can tell if you can get that pattern to go, "Wow, it's time for a little bit of a walk. Right now, it's time for a little bit of practice... Amina: (11:21) Absolutely. That's right. And it's just having that understanding. And sometimes, I find when I go through and I put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, literally, and then the person can see, "Oh, there's quite a few things going on." Not to be overwhelmed at all, but purely just we can see, look, we do need to work on all systems here because all systems are affected. And of course, I'm not saying to be their own practitioner and treat themselves. I'm very, of course, into seeing a professional practitioner that can monitor and help you with the dosages of herbs and so forth and give you the right medicine. But just, I find a lot of people will bounce around from many practitioners to practitioners, different types of practitioners and still not understand the basics of what's going on with their body. If they could see that, they might not be as overwhelmed and see, "Okay, I need some help with my adrenals," or, "I might need to do a bit of a gut detox. I'll go and see my practitioner," be it naturopath, Chinese medicine, integrated doctor or whoever. And we work together. Mason: (12:34) Yeah. That working together, I don't think it's that rare anymore, but I don't know, sometimes it feels like it. I know that's definitely the biggest thing we get when we're like, "Look, we're really just going to have to encourage you to go and have someone onside, have a practitioner onside." And it can just seem like such a daunting task in the beginning, going and finding someone. But they're out there and if you're on the sunny coast, you know where to go. Mason: (12:59) So I want to dive into Lyme. And I especially just wanted to make sure I had this resource for everyone in the community who is asking us questions. There's just so much that I can do in terms of saying, "You know, read." I like Stephen Buhner's work. Sending to your website. But I just wanted to speak to a couple of things that come up constantly that I feel will be useful, and especially useful for my team, hearing it from you in this context to pass on. Mason: (13:37) For those of you that don't know Lyme disease, can you give a little elevator pitch, Amina, knowing that most people will know and there's many resources for people to get the understanding, including your website. But do you want to just give a little brief update for everyone? And especially your current understanding of Lyme infection? Amina: (13:55) Absolutely. And I must say that my current understanding is just becoming more and more expansive as the years go by. But your traditional textbook Lyme is someone's been bitten by a tick and that tick has given the person an infection of Borrelia bacteria. And as a result, the person gets very sick. So it's a tick-born bacterial infection. That's a very simple textbook example. However, we know that there are ... Now Lyme, I think, has become a bit of an umbrella word. In Australia actually, a lot of practitioners use the term more Lyme-like illness and I think that's probably more appropriate because we don't know exactly what we're dealing with. So there's a lot of different types of Borrelia, not just Borrelia burgdorferi. There's actually a hundred strains or so. Amina: (14:55) There's actually a lot of different types of Borrelia. We know that this Lyme-like illness is not just caused by ticks. We know there possible are other vectors. There's even been talk of mosquitoes. A study in Germany showing that mosquitoes could possibly be carrying Borrelia. I know there are possible other insects that can certainly pass on very similar co-infections, like midgies, sandflies and passing on things like mycoplasma bartonella, that co-infections that often coincide with Lyme patients. Amina: (15:31) And we know that it can be passed on by utero. So if a woman's pregnant, she could definitely pass it on to her baby. Doesn't mean the baby's going to have the full on symptoms like the mother may have had. I certainly have seen quite a few different levels of patients. Some people have a positive Borrelia result, maybe even from a couple of different labs, and they really are okay. They're not suffering from a lot of symptoms. And I've seen people that we test and they've got negative Borrelia and it's not being picked up. Doesn't mean it's negative, but in the blood, the urine, and serum. And they've had lots of tick bites, lots of rashes. Amina: (16:13) So it's a very broad umbrella term. But generally, I feel that now what we're dealing with when we're talking about Lyme-like illness ... the technical name is actually borreliosis because of it being from the Borellia bacteria infection. However, I think we just need to look at the facts that there are a lot of ticks and a lot of other biting vectors in Australia. We know that the ticks carry many bacteria. So rickettsia, ehrlichia, anaplasma, bartonella, which is a cat scratch disease as well. And we also know that Babesia, that's a very common infection in kangaroos and wallabies and is a similar infection to mosquito malaria. Amina: (17:08) And recent studies just last year have come up with Australian ticks ... The one study, they had 21 viruses that they actually found in the ticks and they were actually affecting penguins down south of Australia. But in the studies, they weren't so sure if these particular viruses are going to affect humans, which is a very kind of, I think, controversial subject and could be. So the point is, the ticks are also carrying a lot of viruses. In fact, in this particular study, two of the viruses hadn't even been discovered. No one really knew what they were. So they're pretty yucky things. Hence, we call them nature's dirty needles. Ticks, they really are a bit of a problem. Mason: (17:57) So just back to a couple of things. So you were talking about vectors, the possibility of passing on Borrelia by utero. And I think we got asked this question just after the mold podcast that we'd put out. It was one of the reasons I thought we've got to do a specific Lyme podcast, because someone was asking in terms of whether it can be sexually transmitted or via saliva. Amina: (18:22) I'm not sure via saliva. I, from a practitioner perspective and upon conversations with many other practitioners from Australia and overseas that deal specifically with Lyme, I'd say clinically, anecdotally, yes. It can be passed on sexually, considering it is actually very similar. It's a spirochaetae bacteria that's very similar to syphilis bacteria, which is passed on sexually, of course, and very similar way of presenting within the body. Like, the initial syphilis, you'd get the canker sores and Borrelia, you may get the erythema, target-type rash. May not, as well. And then the symptoms can flare up for a couple of weeks or so and then, maybe, be a little bit dormant for a few months and flare up. That can happen with the syphilis for sure. Amina: (19:16) So I think, yes. And why I think this is because I have seen families that we have tested the whole family and the mother might think she got it from the father for some reason. And upon testing, they all do have it. And the father or the mum says, "I've never been bitten by ticks or not to my knowledge." And then the children have it. So that has happened on a number of occasions. So I would say, yes. Mason: (19:44) Yeah. Okay. So going back to the dirty needles of nature. Obviously, we were talking about the simplicity before with understanding patterns of your body so you can read your body and take very simple actions. And then you accumulate an incredible amount of benefits through taking ownership and responsibility. I think what's confusing, definitely has been for me, is just the simplicity of that. You get lost in just how potent that small accumulation of practicing that, what that can do for your health. Mason: (20:20) In relation to Lyme, I think it's definitely worth something not being paranoid about, yet being extremely vigilant about, especially in the east coast of Australia, where we're at. The same as east coast of America and all these places where, obviously, you just need to be very real and not stay in your little box in your concrete jungle and be unrealistic about the fact that you live within gnarly nature and there is the possibility for many vectors to come and bite you. So in terms of just basic principles of prevention, have you got some just quick tips for people to embody into their lifestyles when they are camping or when they're foraging, as you do? Amina: (21:07) Absolutely. I live out in ... I've got acreage. So every day, I go for a walk through the forest. And with my dog and I sometimes go through long grasses. So of course, the first thing is to make sure that you check yourself for ticks when you get home. So I recommend people wear light clothing if they can and then you can see the ticks. And whenever I've gone for a walk, which is pretty much every morning, I just strip off and just get straight in the shower and those clothes end up going in the wash. I also check my dog, as well, because my dog is running around with me and she does get quite a few ticks, but we get them quite quickly. Amina: (21:48) So just be mindful of that. If it's a hot day and you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure ... because it's a lot of washing, otherwise. If you've got a bunch of clothes, you're not sure, it's a hot day, just put your clothes in a suitcase in the car. The ticks aren't going to survive in the heat of the suitcase. Or put clothes in the dryer for a few minutes. But definitely, you just need to check and be diligent about ... and just know, just check all over your body or your nooks and crannies. Amina: (22:19) I mean, I have had quite a few tick bites and, of course, I go straight in with my herbs, my echinacea and my astragalus and garlic, anyway, because I actually am taking my regular immune herbs and vitamin C every day. So I'm keeping my body healthy. So I think it's important to just be healthy, as well, of course. It comes down to diet, all that sort of thing. I mean, that's the extreme, walking through forests and long grass. If you're just going for ... You need to get out. If you're just going in a park or something, just be mindful. There's lots of places you can go where the grass is short. Tuck your pants into your socks sort of thing and just enjoy. I think the benefits of being out in the nature and out in the fresh air is so helpful for your nervous system and immune system, anyway. At the end of the day, you have to live. So this is really important. Mason: (23:22) And it always helps to have ... Well, I like using those tick-specific tweezers, having those around when you get the ... Amina: (23:29) Oh, yes. For sure. Always have good tweezers and you can use things. There are some sort of ... People use citronella and sometimes even a little bit stronger that they can spray onto their clothes, but I think if you're going to brush up against a tree or something like that, that's when you're more likely going to ... if you're brushing up against plants and if you have animals, because animals will bring ticks in the house. So you take your boots off in the house and go and make sure you have a ... get in the shower and just don't be sitting around on your bed sort of thing with your clothes that you've been out in the forest with. Things like that. Just be really diligent. Mason: (24:08) And in terms of if you do get a tick bite and you remove it, are you a fan of popping on dragon's blood? Any little myths that you want to bust around what you should be doing, topically? Amina: (24:23) I actually use ... I've got a medicinal throat spray that's got sage and thyme and echinacea and I actually spray that on the bite. Mason: (24:34) That's a great idea. Yeah. Amina: (24:38) I think if you can use your herbs, topically, I think something like good-quality manuka honey is really good. But otherwise, just keep an eye on it. I mean, if you're going to get bitten by these sort of types of insects and ticks and mosquitoes, you just need to be mindful and just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't come up in a rash. If it does, then you take further precaution. And, yeah. There's not really anything more I would put onto a tick bite, no. Mason: (25:10) Yeah, great. Just those little things to add to your culture. That's what people, over the years, when I ask ... I always get curious when people have all the herbs. And living in particular areas. Astragalus, for a lot of people, they're like, "Yep, in autumn." And then if I get a tick bite, comes up quite often that they ... just as you said. A little echinacea, even just getting a little bit of manuka inside of you, but they'll take a big does of astragalus, as well, if they have a tick bite. Amina: (25:39) Absolutely. Mason: (25:40) Just as a little precaution. Amina: (25:41) Absolutely. Mason: (25:42) And mushrooms, as well. I mean, you can get the shiitake, maitake, reishi's, and chaga's in and give it ... because there is going to be, at the time of consuming medicinal mushrooms and the beta-glucans they do in astragalus, as well. They're going to get into the bloodstream and you're going to see, most of the time, a direct impact on white blood cells and natural killer cells and macrophage activity. So that's the other one that always comes up. Amina: (26:08) Absolutely. Definitely. I've been using some medicinal mushrooms in my clinic recently. So just some new formulas and I'm just finding, yeah, the benefits are really awesome. I think it's great. Anything you can do to boost your immune system up, but definitely the shiitake, ganoderma (reishi), and so forth are really definitely helpful and part of keeping the immune system as strong as possible. Mason: (26:35) Yeah. I think we've got to make sure we stay in touch for when you really dive into the medicinal mushroom literature. It would really be good just to jump on and have a jam. Maybe at that point, that's what we can do when I get up to the sunny coast and I can come and visit you up there. Is it just called Hillier Retreat? Amina: (26:52) Yes. Mason: (26:52) Okay. I'm coming to visit you up at Hillier Retreat and we can go have a forage, because you've got ... Amina: (26:56) Absolutely. Mason: (26:57) The mushies up there are incredible, especially because obviously, being tropical, you can even find the tremella's snowflake mushrooms. Amina: (27:06) Oh, yeah. There's so many. It's actually fascinating. Every day when I go for a walk, I find new mushrooms and it's just because we've got a lot, there's tree's fallen and it's just the perfect environment. Oh, it's just amazing. Mason: (27:21) Can't wait. So then the other time we get a lot of questions, so probably the most for us is people writing to us and saying, "I've just been bitten by a tick," and they're not used to it. They haven't been in the shrub much and so ... But then after that, we do have a lot of people writing to us, whether it's themselves or their children, identify that it's been a tick bite, possibly, because I know that the rash or the bullseye esha is, I think ... what is it? Like, 60% of the time or something like that, that that..? Amina: (27:52) Different statistics. I've heard anywhere between 30 and 60% of people will get a rash. And if you've been bitten on the scalp or some nook and cranny, you're not going to notice a rash. And don't forget, some of the ticks are so minute, they're nymph, the size of a pinhead, the baby ones you're not even going to notice. You wouldn't even know. You'd just rub it up with a towel and you might not be aware of having one at all. Mason: (28:22) So just to help us consolidate our advice or if we're going to refer people to this podcast, what would be those first steps? What would you be looking out for symptomatically and what would be something that you'd go, okay, now you want to actually turn your head to that and knock it on the head? Amina: (28:39) Okay. So if you know, yes, there's just definitely been a tick or a tick was attached, you might not know how long it's ... If it's just literally crawled on your arm and you feel it attached, just take it off and it's not likely going to have passed anything on too severe. But we don't know how quick. The bacteria has to actually be passed on through the tick's hypostome, it's little, pointy sort of appendage that sticks into you. And it needs to be really actually feeding in a proper feeding moment for the bacteria to release from its stomach. So depending on how long the tick's been on you, just get the tick off as quickly as easy as you can without squeezing the tick. Amina: (29:27) Then, just be mindful. So you could certainly put any sort of antiseptic or a lot we just said, topically onto the bite. And then I would boost up with vitamin C. I would definitely boost up with those herbs. What to watch out for, if you do get a rash, then I would be more than likely, if you get a specific bullseye rash, I probably would recommend just go to a doctor and get a couple of weeks of Doxycycline, at least. Amina: (29:54) If there's no rash ... Sometimes it can just be a bit red and puffy and swollen. Lymph glands swell up. It could just be a normal sort of allergy reaction to the tick because that can definitely happen. So just keep an eye on symptoms and, at this point, I would definitely be boosting up those herbs. Your anti-spirochete ones, so your astragalus, echinacea, as we said. Siberian ginseng, for example. Garlic ginger, which I would recommend you get the practitioner support with that, with the dosages. Mason: (30:27) Would you put cat's claw in there, the uña de gato ? Amina: (30:30) You can, but it's very difficult to get good quality cat's claw in Australia, right now. Mason: (30:36) Yeah, you know what? I stopped stocking it because of that. Amina: (30:40) Yeah, it's very difficult. I would love to be ... I did use it a lot, but I haven't been able to get it for a good couple of years and until I know that my quality sources that I get it from are available and I'm not really trusting any other ones. But there's plenty of other herbs. Andrographis is another beautiful one for these initial infections. Amina: (31:02) So definitely, prevention is better than anything. So boost up on the herbs, anyway, and just be mindful. So that infection, you might not get any symptoms but, if in the next couple of weeks, two or three weeks, you do get some flu-like symptoms, I would go and get tested. As in, go and get checked with the doctor and just get checked. Things like rickettsia will come up quite quickly. You might need to wait about six weeks before the tests will actually show anything positive in those early stages, but I think that's a good cause for, if you have all of those symptoms, the rash, feeling not so good, lymph glands up, and then you get the flu-like symptoms, a bit of fever, it could be not necessarily Borrelia, it could be rickettsia, it could be a bit of babesia depending on the symptoms. So therefore, I would get onto it. Boost the natural packet treatment with your practitioner and you may need to go on antibiotics. Amina: (32:05) I say this very open-mindedly that there is a place for the antibiotics, of course, for traditional medicine or conventional medicine. And we can work together on that. So I think if that is the case, otherwise, if it's just a case of, "I've got bitten and now I'm okay a few weeks later," you've been taking your herbs, eating well, resting, and nothing really flares up, I'd say that you're probably okay, but just be mindful of those. It's the symptoms that come up like the aching joints, the knee pains that, "Mmm, didn't have that before," and you haven't been running or anything in particular, to know that there is an ongoing infection. And it's really ... yeah. Mason: (32:56) I assume it'll be similar symptom presentation in children? Amina: (33:00) Yes, but children often won't explain exactly what's going on, but you'll know. I mean, a child might get fevers. You'd know that. The glands are up, maybe. And if they're young, they'd probably be crying a lot, feeling very uncomfortable, irritable, not feeding so well. The stools might be a little bit loose, showing there's systemic inflammation that's affecting the gut, as well. Rashes, doesn't have to be the bullseye. A bartonella rash can be almost like stretchmarks on the body. Any sort of rash, I think, needs to be dealt with. Mason: (33:37) Yeah. And that was, when I got bit ... I think we've spoken about it. I mean, for some people might be new here, my interest was really spiked. And it was three years ago, and I got bitten by a tick, but it was very micro and it stayed on me for about three or four days and we just didn't catch it and we thought it was something else. And it was at that point, it had been feeding because it became engorged. And at that point, now I understand, oh, that's when you really got to watch it, when that engorgement has occurred there can be a transfer of bacteria. Got it out and then we were a few months away from having a baby and then I went down, the esha presented. "Okay," kind of kept on going. Kind of like, I don't know. I don't know if it was just because I was just so healthy and was just like, "Right, cool. I'll charge through this." And then after a few days, started getting fevery and started getting aching through the joints in my right hand, somewhat in my knees. Mason: (34:33) I'd listened to enough of Stephen Harrod Buhner. You can't listen to him or read his books without coming across Lyme quite extensively. So I was like, "Right. I kind of know what this is." And so at that point, in came the andrographis, the high dose vitamin C's, a lot of astragalus and all that. But it went on for, I think it was seven to ten days it went on and I just continued to deteriorate in fever and just couldn't get out of bed. And then I was listening to one of Stephen Buhner's podcasts and he was just reiterating that, at that point, this is when you ... He's teaching about antibiotic resistant bacteria now, running rampant as many awesome herbalists are. Yet, he's like, "At this point, that's when doxycycline is going to be very useful for you to knock it on the head," and I was just in that position. I definitely had that solid belief that I would never be turning to anything like that for the rest of my life, but yeah. That one Monday night, I was deteriorating thinking, "Geez, we're having a baby soon." Mason: (35:40) I'm at this point, and this is what I want to discuss with you next, I'm at this point where it's possibly able to be dealt with on a surface somewhat level, on acute or subacute level. And I obviously want to ensure that these bacterium aren't able to really dig their way into my system to cause that long-term infection. And so I did. I went Monday night to the emergency in Byron, showed them the rash because, here, they're a little bit more open minded. They were like, "Oh, yeah. We know what that is. Here's your doxycycline dose." And I know a lot of people have been turned away. However, I know a lot of doctors in emergency rooms have turned people away. So I'm not sure if you have any advice there on what they can ask for or say, but that sorted me out in 24 hours. And then I just continued to maintain that protocol of completely supporting my immune system and my nervous system for months. My whole lifestyle was that, but high, high doses of these herbs for quite a few months to get it out. Mason: (36:44) But, yeah. I think it's nice to hear that that's the advice that's still standing, still quite nice and simple... Amina: (36:53) Yeah, I think so because I've seen patients that, for example, they may have been bitten by a tick in California or in Germany and, straight away, they went to a doctor and they were only given maybe two or three weeks of doxycycline or similar. That's the main one, antibiotic. And even just taking it for that very short period of time did make it help their body, but they didn't end up getting a full-on chronic Lyme symptoms, have that go on for years and years. And how long you take it for is really dependent on the patient because some patients, in those acute times, may need it for quite a few months, that particular antibiotic and other antibiotics. But I think if you can just get in there as soon as possible and the herbal medicine, then you've got a really good chance. Amina: (37:48) And we can sort the gut out later. We can deal with the side effects of the antibiotics and we can work on that. It's better to, I think, initially do that. And some people can't take antibiotics, it's as simple as that. So therefore, we have to just do the herbs. But this is in the real acute, black or white, yes, you've got it. There it is and we need to deal with that infection. I think it would be negligent to not have it treated with the antibiotics and using the herbs. So when I see patients that are ... most of the patients I see that are more chronically Lyme, then it's a different story. I do feel it's a different story than if ... It's questionable whether the antibiotics might help them at that point if they've already had it for two years, also, it's like, mm, okay, that's where I probably would go more herbal medicine, but I'd go in very gently. I don't go in with the hardcore antibacterial herbs at high doses, whereas I would with the acute Lyme. Mason: (38:54) Yes. I mean, well that's ... Chronic Lyme seems to be, whenever I see anyone explaining the fact that we will have herxing reactions as you're removing infection from the body or busting up open biofilms, it's always Lyme disease that's used as the example. "Such as in Lyme disease..." Amina: (39:14) Yeah, absolutely. And it's very important to ... it's almost two disease, acute tickborn infections and treating someone that has chronic Lyme that they may not have even known whether they ever had a tick bite or anything but ... they may have a positive Borrelia, they have all the symptoms and then we need to treat it. That's when it becomes a beautiful example of how naturopathy can help by putting all those pieces on the puzzle and treating that person holistically. And if you don't treat all of the systems, if you miss out treating the adrenals, they're going to stay tired. If you don't detox them properly and work on the liver, they're not going to eliminate those lipopolysaccharides, the dead bits of the outer shell proteins of the bacteria upon killing them. Amina: (40:05) And inflammation has to be addressed at all times. The gut's got to work well every day. Every part of the body needs to be working at its best. When I talk about the jigsaw puzzle that I put together, there's so many factors then in chronic Lyme that are pieces of the puzzle then. It's not just about, yes, someone got bitten by a tick. Now we're looking at a full piece of toxins, mold, so forth, and the viruses. Mason: (40:37) Well naturally, because your immune system and your energy levels, your hormonal cascades are going to be out of rhythm during that time if you've had months or maybe years of chronic infection, as well. Right? So naturally, just on the back of that, not to say that there was stealth infection or stuff going on beforehand. Naturally, it's going to come into a ... And it often seems like a perfect storm. I've met a lot of folks, especially around area, had long-term chronic Lyme and they're exhausted from the treatment protocol. I've never seen more of a bit of a jadedness towards how much they need to do and keep their finger on the pulse to get well, when it is extremely chronic. Do you feel like by bringing back a little bit more flow in the sense of understanding the puzzle, understanding how the holistic nature of what phase we're in of treatment and also what the consistent pieces of the puzzle, as you were saying, got adrenal liver. Of course, they're going to be primary. What's your take on managing the mental load and the emotional load of that whole treatment protocol? Amina: (41:50) I think it's important to ... When we talked earlier about just taking charge of your health, you don't have to be knowing what to do, you just need to be understanding what's going on. And then work with someone that can put it all together. So for example, it can be quite simple. I can have someone with many, many piece of the puzzle. All those heavy metal toxins and genetic, MTHFR and pyrroles, and the mold exposure. It's all along there. Mason: (42:29) All the trendy things to get diagnosed with at the moment. Amina: (42:32) Yeah. All of those things. The tooth infection, the mercury fillings. It's all on there, you know? Mason: (42:38) You know what? Maybe a bit of SIBO. I know that's pretty hot right now. Amina: (42:41) Absolutely. SIBO. They've got adrenal depletion from stress that they've had. Usually, there's a period of time when they've had stress. So there's often many pieces of the puzzle. And then we need to sort of put it simply. And simply, I just look at the systems that need, basically, support. So diet. Diet alone can be amazing just to help the person with a personalised diet that's going to work for them. So making sure that they've got enough iron, enough vitamin B-12 for detox methylation, enough protein, amino acids for detoxification again, and neurotransmitter support for their nervous system chemicals. Amina: (43:30) And diet, I think, is such a ... obviously, it's a really important part, but I think it can be so overwhelming in itself for people of what they should eat. "I've got histamine sensitivity and salicylates and oxalates and ..." Mason: (43:44) Yeah. I mean ... Amina: (43:44) It can be very overloading. So I think just bringing it down to really simple, a simple basic diet, simple vegetables, and understanding what works for that patient and what doesn't, because everyone's different. So I think that the diet is the most important thing and reducing any sort of inflammation triggers. Obviously, alcohol, coffee, the basic things that would be better to reduce or eliminate if possible. I like to use anti-inflammatory herbs to reduce inflammation because inflammation is going to make everything worse. And stress is going to make inflammation worse. So we've got to also work on the nervous system, the adrenals for the adrenal support. Amina: (44:35) So in answer to your question of how do we put it all together, I think was what you were asking, is just looking at it and it just really needs to be simplified. Even looking at the liver and make sure the person is detoxing well. Well, you know, it's a case of how you feel when you eat. Do you feel nauseous after you take your B vitamins? That might indicate that your phase two detox pathways aren't working so well. You're not able to tolerate garlic of sulfurs or ... What's going on? Is there methylation problems? We can actually look, by understanding the symptoms, what may be going on there and offer that very basic liver support that might be just a case of having the right amino acids, proteins. Having some tumeric, some broccoli, sprouts. Making sure that maybe a bit of N-acetylcysteine might help just with ... obviously, we're trying to boost the Glutathione and make sure that the liver is doing its job. I love St. Mary's thistle for hepatoprotection and just to help the liver naturally do what it is supposed to do. Amina: (45:38) So it's just about looking at the areas that really need the most addressing. And symptoms of things like brain fog and memory and focus, concentration. That can just be often due to inflammation. So often, just having some anti-inflammatory support. tumeric, amazing. chamomile, calendula, fennel, marshmallow, beautiful herbs that will support gut and inflammation can actually reduce those symptoms just by working on reducing the inflammatory markers. Mason: (46:11) So a couple of things that are coming up. In previous conversations, we've honed in to certain explanations of particular issues using Classical Chinese terminology. And there's one thing I feel like, really, when I've gone down the depths of trying to understand naturopathy and that pathway and tried to ... I know for yourself, as well, I know the immense amount of success that you're having, which is incredible and I feel like, although I get the conversations from people who are in that exasperated state when it comes to not just naturopathy, but all doctors and all the different things that they're trying, and so I always try and not focus on that but really try and find out the key things that are, what's up? What's going on that lead to that exasperated state where someone can't really get on top of it? Hopefully, get through their symptoms and then get on the mend where they have that health sovereignty. Mason: (47:14) Something about the way that you talk about all this, I was trying to figure out why I feel comfortable and why ... Dan Sipple, I don't know if you know him. He's a naturopath down south of Sydney. Amina: (47:25) Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mason: (47:25) Yeah. So he's a good friend of mine. Our personal naturopath, but especially working with my mum. He originally introduced your work to me and he really liked your stuff, as well. I think there's a nice bridging there. Not that you can merge systems. I definitely don't think we can merge and lay over Classical Chinese medicine with naturopathy, but there's something that flows in when you talk that you don't so much purely sit in that, "All right, what's the symptom? Bang. Here, slap this protocol on." There's a looking, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a looking for somewhat of the pattern that's leading to the pathology with a particular person and then a desire to understand what's constitutionally going on for them, which leads to a bit more of ... And I know that's the theory a lot of the time in naturopathy and that's the theory of, now, modern, traditional Chinese medicine which has deviated from the classical nature and deals with symptoms, but I feel like theoretically what they say they're doing and what's actually happening is two different things because, and quite often, what's in the way is living it as a way of life. Mason: (48:38) I feel like that's kind of what I feel is there's a bit more flow with the way you're talking about this and possibly why we see you getting such high success rates because there is that little bit of extra time in order to identify what that underlying pattern is, not just focusing on the shiny thing that is the symptom or the pathology. Amina: (49:04) That's exactly right. And one thing I'd like to bring up is what I'm doing a lot of work with at the moment, are the underlying causes of why are the people not getting better, or why they ... Sorry, that's my dog out there. Mason: (49:21) That's all good. Amina: (49:22) Beautiful Jessie. Why people start getting better when they start working on their bacterial infections, but then other symptoms arising and it's viruses. We're just not paying enough attention to the underlying viruses. And I think this is something that I'm really doing a lot of work on and I'm ecstatically excited about because I'm realizing that, when I'm working on the viruses with the patients ... For example, someone in their jigsaw puzzle, they had Epstein Barr virus, glandular fever, when they were a teenager. And they had immunoglobulins tested. So it would come up IGG. So, yes, they had that Epstein Barr virus virus a long time ago. The IGM may not be coming up, sort of active antibodies, but they're still presenting with funny sweats and aches and pains. And this is almost like new symptoms and we know that, with borreliosis and a lot of these Lyme-like illnesses, symptoms do move and change. Amina: (50:29) So looking at it, when you look at the person, you realize they had Epstein Barr virus, they've still got active herpes, or they had cytomegalovirus. Oh. And when we test, they actually had Ross River virus or Dengue fever comes up a lot, Barmah Forest. Coxsackie virus, which is your mouth, sort of your hand, foot, mouth disease viral thing. And what I've realized is that upon further testing ... There's a lab in Germany that, ArminLabs, that's actually looking at more detailed Epstein–Barr viruses and actually seeing that, even though a person had IGG antibodies, they're actually coming up with high levels of lytic Epstein–Barr virus within the cells. It's not the latent Epstein–Barr virus, which shows that basically the virus is now almost reactivating. Amina: (51:25) Now, viruses are not like bacteria. They have their own DNA or RNA, but they're not like bacteria. They have their own organelles. The virus needs to get into a living cell, be it a red blood cell or a bacteria and it uses the cells organelles. So it needs to use our own cell organelles in order to replicate. So if a virus is in a system that maybe that person's not massively healthy or they have low levels of mitochondria, which is your energy powerhouses of the cell, or the cell is not very sort of full on effective at that time, the virus will just sit there and hang out until the cell is more nourished or ready. Or the virus will go and find another cell. Amina: (52:20) Now what happens is, say the person starts dealing with their chronic Borrelia infection or their other bacteria, their gut dysbiosis or parasites, then it's like almost when the person starts getting a bit healthy, then the viruses will start replicating. Mason: (52:38) Oh, god. It's so ... Amina: (52:38) This is what's going on now and that's what I'm feeling is a big area. And I know that there are quite a few other, specialist practitioners that deal with chronic fatigue and retroviruses and things like that. There's a Doctor Dietrich Klinghardt in America that's looking a lot at retroviruses. And I would have to agree, because this is what I'm seeing, as well. And I think being mindful of that, we need to make sure that the person also has viral support and that we understand and the patient understands what's going on. Because otherwise, what happens is they take herbs and go, "Oh, yeah. I did this, but it made me worse." you know a full on Herxing that's not being dealt with because they're not detoxing well or ... Mason: (53:29) Yeah, sorry to cut you off there, but it's really poignant and I feel like it brings up a position where I've sat with so many years, having essentially given people access to tonic herbs and to these medicinal mushrooms and then educating them as much as possible about appropriate ways to integrate these with intention. But then when you get these questions about, "Well, this is presenting and this is presenting, what's happening to me?" it is only so far and I feel like I like presenting five or six different options of what's possibly going on. And the nature of saying it's a detox reaction or it's a herx has, seemingly over the last few years, seemed too simplistic just to put out there. You know what I mean? Amina: (54:22) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep. Mason: (54:24) And so just hearing this, it's just further bridging for me. I never expect them to be simple answers that come forth when people get clue ... there's always a chance that a herb isn't for somebody, which is always the first that I like to put forth. And as well, also, doses being too large at a particular time. Amina: (54:48) Absolutely, absolutely. Mason: (54:50) So that gets presented first. And then going on to what comes down the line, which I ... and the general attitude, and I can feel it in you and I feel it as well, is, "Well, this is bloody exciting because there's something going on here." And just hearing that nature of, "I'm getting better," but then, bam, I just get another hit in the face and then I go down again to some new symptoms. That trap, that loop when you are working purely symptomatically and you're not going for that underlying pattern. Or in that sense, you haven't figured the pattern that the reason there's a backlog or a bottleneck within a person who's, because phase two detoxification isn't actually able to occur and because they gut these and actually were able to eliminate, that I feel like ... Mason: (55:39) The word that's coming forth, which you are using in a practitioner mindset, which I feel can very easily be transferred into someone's everyday life before going and looking for solutions from one herb or looking to find the exact reason why you are reacting positively or negatively, seemingly, to a practice or a herb or whatever it is, is you can bring in these very sensible ideas of looking at what is the pattern that your body is going to need to be supported in in order to basically stop that bottleneck of symptoms from occurring? Or even the bottleneck of positive effects from a herb. Mason: (56:21) If you take a herb, as far as I'm concerned, you don't necessarily want to be feeling waves of energizing and vitality straight away. It shows that there was maybe a little bit of a deficiency. Amina: (56:33) Yeah. Mason: (56:34) So that level of sensible nature, that seems like that and you kind of ... I don't know if you feel it. I know I try not to feel dismissive in this nature when I talk to people and go, "Look, back off. I want you to be really making sure that your gut, your nervous system and adrenals and liver," you hit on them before, it's where I land, as well, "are absolutely running on optimal and are optimised so that you can possibly eliminate any of the reactions from occurring in the first place." That's the ideal situation. But sorry, I just wanted to touch base on that because I feel ... I'm going to have my whole team, especially the team who I'm chatting to customers, just listen to this so we can get a bit more context of how to communicate it. Amina: (57:23) Sorry, what were you wanting me to ... Mason: (57:25) Nothing. I just stopped there. I didn't even ask a question. But I did interrupt you when you were in the middle of talking about what's going on, just after you were talking about the retroviruses, that I interrupted you there. But either I can go on with another question or is there any more of that? Because this is super interesting and [crosstalk 00:57:48] Amina: (57:47) Oh, there is so much more. I think it's just something ... Our science, at the moment, we just don't know enough about the types of viruses. Like I said, the tick study that just came out last year showed that the Australian ticks have 21 viruses. There's studies showing that estimations of ... We have 320,000 mammal viruses that are present in our current world and possibly more, but that's just based on looking at different types of animal genre and looking at the types of viruses that might be specific to them. And it's an estimation, but I think it's a reality. Amina: (58:33) And you think about a virus, a virus is the size of a pea compared to a bacteria that might be the size of a watermelon, compared to the size of a red blood cell that would be the size of one of those giant gym balls. So a virus is a tiny, micro, micro, microscopic thing, yet it can be so powerful. I think the whole looking at the retroviruses that mean that the viruses are either RNA or DNA. And the retroviruses, they start off the single-cell RNA strand virus into a cell. They can actually, as I said, use the cells organelles to replicate itself, but they can actually, change themselves to become DNA-type viruses and they actually change the DNA of the cell, because when that cell that now is full of this active virus that's changed itself, and it's now using the human cell's DNA, now when that cell replicates it actually has already some of the viral DNA or RNA within it. So it actually is changing us genetically. Amina: (59:48) And that's actually not a bad thing because, environmentally, evolution, we need viruses. We need viruses. We need retroviruses to change us for evolution. It's normal. That's been happening for thousands of years, but it's just interesting. I think, at the moment, due to the way we are, our toxic bodies, electromagnetic radiation, all the chemicals, glyphosate that's being used. All of that stuff is actually exacerbating this growth of the retroviruses. That's the problem. Mason: (01:00:25) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm really happy that you brought up the necessity there of just the fact that we are sharing an environment and we are co-evolving with a virus, because it does bring up that reminiscence of when germ theory was really rocking and we're still in the medical model trying to destroy bacteria and can conquer bacteria when bacteria is, in fact, a part of us and the origins of our cellular matrix that is our ancestors and likewise. We, to an extent, have been evolving and have the possibility of living in harmony with viral loads that'll have that mentality of going to war. Never really going to ... Mason: (01:01:14) If that's the entirety of your mindset towards it, it's never going to allow you to get into what the Tao and what all these ancient philosophies were talking to was to start to get into unison with nature and with the elements. And that's where those basic principles can come about to ensure that you are not overexerting yourself. If you can take the years, and years, and years to not ... you need to alter your lifestyle so that you find yourself being able to come predominantly at the world, I'm really working on this myself at the moment, from a parasympathetic space and ensuring that you are getting your beautiful amount of sun exposure, walking and moving consistently, remaining hydrated, a diet that is working for your constitution and your intuition and is somewhat simple in that nature and not shrouded in dogma, then you've got those basic patterns and principles that will hopefully allow you to get back into unison with nature. And then we have our little tests and our supplements and our things that we can take to help us compensate for the way the world is going for as much as we possibly can. Mason: (01:02:27) So that, to an extent, these bacteria, these nasty viruses, perhaps we can slightly get back into a place where we are living in harmony or able to have our own cells and immune system be able to manage them so they don't lead to chronic illness. And it always comes back to that simplicity. Amina: (01:02:50) It is really about living in harmony. Sometimes I feel like I just want to sort of say to patients, we really need to accept the fact that everyone is going to have a lot of chronic stealth infections. We have up to two kilos of bacteria in our gut. We need bacteria to survive. [inaudible 01:03:15] bacteria beneficial and commensal and then you disbiotic when it gets out of balance. And of course, like I've mentioned, the viral role is an evolution thing. It's not something we can stop. Viruses don't all necessarily have to be bad, but if the body is not in balance, that's when the viruses will affect ... There's a lot of bacterial viral interactions that go on and I think this is what gets missed in these chronic patients. It's not just the fact that they have underlying viruses that haven't been treated. It's the fact that the viruses are now coinciding with the bacteria and actually ... Amina: (01:03:58) For example, there's direct interactions like influenza, just your normal flu virus. When it comes into contact with, say, a staphylococcus-type bacteria, like staphylococcus aureus, for example ... and there's been studies proving this. The influenza virus, it's like a big sort of ... well, it's not, it's tiny, like a round shape and it has lots of appendages, like lots of sticky things sticking out of it, like lots of sort of protease is what they're called, like these cleavers. And the staphylococcus can actually make the viral appendages split. So therefore, say the virus has a hundred little arms coming from it, it splits them so it now has 200 appendages. So it has more ability to cling onto the cell wall that it's wanting to attack or to intrude. Amina: (01:04:59) So the bacteria actually help the virus when it's first initiated into the body to survive. And other ones, like your herpes virus, can actually cause an immune suppression type environment that actually can lead to ... I think there's a gingivalis type bacteria that specifically, if you've got herpes and you've got that particular gingivalis bacteria within the mouth, they're actually going to work together so that the virus can actually survive a lot easier. [crosstalk 01:05:35] Mason: (01:05:35) Mm-hmm (affirmative). So amazing. I don't know. I find that really fun. I find it really exciting. Kind of reminds me just not to be a snowflake with the fact that there are so many opportunistic organisms around us and it's not because they're bad, it's nothing evil, it's just ... Amina: (01:05:57) They just want to survive, but we're all trying to survive. Everyone's doing the best they can, including the viruses. And at the end of the day, I think we're almost ... What I was saying I'd like to say to patients sometimes is that we almost energetically need to make these are friends and we really need to love our body. And that's where it comes down to. It's a very spiritual aspect, I know, but loving ourselves, loving our body, accepting what is and just allowing the balance to occur. Not neglecting oneself, but in the best environment you eat well, you breathe well, you sleep well, you eliminate well, you'd be outside, be mindful, be in nature, do all of those things that you can do to create optimum holistic health. And then because the viruses are going to do what they're going to do and the bacteria's going to do what they're going to do, but we create an environment that everything is in balance and in harmony and no one takes the mickey because, otherwise, they become opportunistic in that toxic environment. Mason: (01:07:03) Yeah, it's like having a bunch of delinquent children sometimes inside, but. And I really appreciate ... We'll bring this home because I know you've got stuff to do, but I really ... having off the back of a conversation that's so practical and in reality, and shrouded in testing and understanding exactly what's going on and which organ systems need to be supported in order to come back to optimal within 3D reality. I 100% agree that, at that point where you mind feels comfortable, that you're moving and you're on top of that, then going in and reestablishing your relationship with yourself and the viral and bacterial and everything else loads that, within you, can often ... I've found it to be often one of the keys. Obviously, there's many keys along the way that will get people over a particular hump. Mason: (01:07:53) And I feel ... I guess that's ... It especially brings up ... I have a friend who does a lot of this work in reestablishing your relationship with the entity of even wifi and 5G. And if you are just doing that and that alone and not being real about what's actually going on on a cellular level, that possibly can be wishy washy, some of us are strong enough to actually ... and I think we can agree upon that just with that reframing can reestablish a flow of Qi and self function in order to bring some protection. But most of all, what it does is it allows us to move forward without an identity that is derived by opposition. When we are opposing our bacteria and we're in opposition to viral load and opposition to this sick state that we're in, we create a massive glass ceiling in what's possible for us to go forth in our emerging identity. Mason: (01:08:52) So I really appreciate you bringing that up. Thank you for that, Amina. Amina: (01:08:56) You're welcome. Thank you. Mason: (01:08:58) I think we've got a couple more. We could probably have a whole ... After you've talked in September, it might even be nice if you'd be up for coming and sharing on an even deeper level what you're discovering and excited about with these viral infections and these ... Amina: (01:09:16) Definitely. Mason: (01:09:17) ... retroviruses. I think, of course, it'd be really fun. And then dive into the mushrooms. And when I get up there, we'll have a deep dive and have a nerd-out on that world of mushie love. Amina: (01:09:28) That'd be
Today Brandon joins Rob and Lee for one of the weirdest stories that they have ever done. The “Biography of Lord As-You-Like-It” 如意君傳 is a work of Ming Dynasty pornographic literature that discusses the only Empress to ever rule China, the Tang empress Wu Zetian. In this pornographic work, the idea of feminine rulership is […]
Finally in this part 3 episode Laszlo gets to the Tang poetry part of the series. After finishing up some of the good stuff that came out of the Six Dynasties, we'll get a first look at the Early and High Tang periods. More poets and more great poetry compilations will also be introduced. A lot of names and titles of works this episode. Feel free to check the terms from the episode and read up on some of them. Plenty of links to translated works of Classical Chinese poetry. If this series is piquing your interest, even a little, there's a whole world out there for you to explore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Finally in this part 3 episode Laszlo gets to the Tang poetry part of the series. After finishing up some of the good stuff that came out of the Six Dynasties, we'll get a first look at the Early and High Tang periods. More poets and more great poetry compilations will also be introduced. A lot of names and titles of works this episode. Feel free to check the terms from the episode and read up on some of them. Plenty of links to translated works of Classical Chinese poetry. If this series is piquing your interest, even a little, there's a whole world out there for you to explore.
Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) - The City University of New York (CUNY)
Porcelain expert and appraiser, Yiping Yin, and Classical Chinese-trained musician, Alan Yip, will highlight some of the artistic pursuits of traditional China as well as delight the senses through the art of tea brewing and the use of fine porcelain for tea vessels and accroutrements; the ancient sounds of the guqin; and the appreciation of incense.
Chris chats with Macro-Ops Co-Founder Tyler Kling. We discuss how Tyler got into the finance world out of school at a family office, then moving on to trading for himself. Tyler is heavily focused on the Volatility Complex and talks about a call he put out on VXX and VIX near the December low’s in the markets and what that looks like now. We touch on the indecision currently in the markets and Chris’s short trade setup and contingency plan on the S&P this week. This week Tyler wrote about a Classical Chinese text from thousands of years ago, the Zhuangzi and how it applies to traders today. Bleak stuff indeed! Check out the article here: https://macro-ops.com/play-to-win-or-go-out-like-broomcorns-uncle/ Optionality, finding smart beta with a macro overlay and looking to get paid by the market for that risk. Getting out of the reactive state and making the best decisions when they are the most obvious. Then finally we get to Poker! You can reach Tyler at @TylerHKling on Twitter or tyler@macro-ops.com And you can reach Chris at @chrisDMacro on Twitter and Instagram or chris@macro-ops.com
Strayer Chapter 5 Section 3
In this episode, I spoke with Brian Caswell from the Art of Acupuncture in St Pete, Florida... Winner of 2016 & 2017 “Best Acupuncturist” in Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay Awards. The lineage that he comes from is of Jeffrey Yuen, 88th generation Daoist priest of the Jade Purity School, Lao Tzu sect. He studied at Daoist Traditions in Asheville, NC which is a Classical Chinese medical school Classical Chinese medicine explains why points and channels in Traditional Chinese medicine work and where they come from. We discussed elements of Chinese medicine and healing the body, mind, and spirit. Brian explains: "I strive to blend Eastern medicine and philosophy with Western science. What does “blending” mean? One of my teachers answers this question wonderfully. Master Jeffrey Yuen, an 88th generation Daoist priest, introduced me to the concept of the “three treasures.” In order to achieve optimal health for every individual, the body, mind, and spirit must find unity. Through copious training, regular research and study and individualized assessment, I apply this “three treasures” concept with all of my patients--and throughout all of my life. Each patient is approached individually; no two patients will ever be treated or diagnosed the same. The uniqueness of our situation is the same as our fingerprints. Every person I meet with is special and continually evolving; your treatment should be the same! No situation is ever helpless. I thrive on treating conditions and diseases that other forms of medicine have given up on. I specialize in pain, depression, anxiety, mental-emotional conditions, weight loss, and autoimmune diseases. Have something different? I always welcome new challenges. " Brian Online: https://www.artofacu-stpete.com/brian-caswell-dom Eluv- http://www.eluvmusic.com
Associate Professor Ben Penny discusses the significance of the Classical Chinese text 'Daodejing' ('Tao Te Ching'). Books that Changed Humanity is a book club with a difference. Each month, the ANU Humanities Research Centre hosts an expert from one of a variety of disciplines, who will introduce and lead the discussion of a major historical text. All of these texts, which are drawn from a variety of cultural traditions, has had a formative influence on society and humanity. The series aims to highlight and revisit those books which have informed the way we understand ourselves, both individually and collectively, as human beings. hrc.anu.edu.au/books-that-changed-humanity
If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. This Chicago Humanities Forum talk is given by Haun Saussy, University Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature. Professor Saussy’s interests include Classical Chinese poetry and commentary, literary theory, comparative study of oral traditions, problems with translation, and pre-20th-century media history. This talk explores oral literature. Oral literature—songs, stories, poems, jokes, epics—is presumably almost as old as human language, but interest in it is far younger. Saussy will examine when the nature of oral recitation and transmission becomes an important problem for philologists. Sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Chicago Humanities Forum is a series of free public talks by renowned University scholars.
Michael Loewe, is a University of Cambridge academic and renowned sinologist who has authored dozens of books, articles, and other publications in the fields of Classical Chinese and ancient Chinese history. In this remarkable talk, he describes the twenty-five Chinese dynastic histories that range from 221 BCE to 1911, a continuous account without parallel anywhere and anytime, and he ponders over what these unique records do tell us about the Chinese sense of history.
Landscape designer Daxin Liu presents an illustrated lecture on the magnificent gardens of Suzhou, China, focusing on design principles and techniques that can be incorporated into Californian gardens to add classical Chinese touches to the landscape.
-- Subtitle -- He was losing his soul through his eyes. -- Description -- Primary Colors is a sixty minute audio story by Richard Raleigh. -- Excerpt -- Subtly, shade by shade, his green eyes were turning blue, and his soul was evaporating, shimmering like a mirage just out of his field of vision, dancing with the ripples of heat above the sand. Like the stark white clouds along the very fringes of the southern horizon, his soul was drifting away. He stared northward, through the heat and into the center of the desert, his lips touched by the faint smile of a trance, his mind by the blankness of desert hypnosis. With a startling new clarity in his vision, he could see beyond the dunes, beyond the far shore, beyond the emptiness of space. -- Author's Comments -- "Around the time of the first Gulf War, I was researching synesthesia and the neurological effects of light. It turns out that many people who have synesthesia, a crosswiring of the senses, not only experience surprising things -- like being able to taste a sound -- but see particular letters of the alphabet (or particular numbers) each in a unique color and texture. I was also studying Classical Chinese and qigong at the time. The ingredients came together with the idea of a sentient planet, of the Earth’s magnetosphere as large-scale qi, and the story sort of wrote itself.." (Richard Raleigh) -- Credits -- Written by Richard Raleigh Performed by Bob Barnes Art by Omaha Perez Music by James Guymon Produced by MechMuse Audio Anthology at MechMuse.com -- 4:DF8B1B:V:S:0:4 --
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
