Podcasts about daoist

Sometimes it's not what we hear, but what emerges in the space just before—where meaning hasn't formed yet—but something is already calling your attention. It's that quiet edge of awareness where both healing and mystery tend to show up.In this conversation with Christoph Wiesendanger, a jazz pianist with an abiding interest in Chinese medicine, we explore how rhythm, resonance, and reflective awareness shape both music and healing. Christoph's journey from childhood exposure to Daoist classics, to martial arts training, the sonic influence of Milford Graves, and years of study with Z'ev Rosenberg, offers a surprising look at the interweavings of music and medicine.Listen into this discussion as we explore how the pulse relates to rhythm, the difference between keeping time and making it, the idea of cultivating yourself through sound, and how silence and intention shape both clinical and musical presence.

Send us a textIn this episode, hosts Omar and Belinda, joined by Dr. Paul Wang, explore the intense transition from spring to summer—a time of rapid blooming and expansive energy. Omar shares a profound moment of wayfinding amidst a board meeting, guided by nature's messages of patience, kindness, and the unexpected wisdom of a slithering snake.Dr. Paul offers insights from Daoist wisdom and Chinese medicine, emphasizing the power of aligning with the season's fire energy while honoring the balancing yin. As they draw the 14th Gratitude Blooming card, the pasque flower symbolizing Destiny, the conversation turns to how we choose our path—or how sometimes, the path chooses us. They delve into the dance of shadow and light, personal triggers, and how aliveness guides us towards what matters most.Join us for this heartfelt conversation on allowing the season's full bloom to guide your inner journey—and perhaps reimagine destiny not as a final destination, but as an invitation to respond with more presence, grace, and curiosity.Create an intentional practice with your own Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candle and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

In which I continue to speak about yang derangement syndrome from the POV of Daoist nondual animism and decolonial critical pedagogy.This is likely a 3- or 4-part series released in May, June & July/August 2025.You can see video and supportive materials on my substack, free and premium tiers and on my patreon.

Mayway President Yvonne Lau shares the story of Lan Cai He 藍採和, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoist legend. Known for their flower basket and genderfluid presence, Lan Cai He challenges modern ideas about identity while offering timeless insight into transformation, queerness, and the healing magic of Chinese mythology.Read the article here: https://www.mayway.com/blogs/articles/lan-cai-he-a-genderfluid-chinese-deitySee our Monthly Practitioner Discounts https://www.mayway.com/monthly-specialsSign up for the Mayway Newsletterhttps://www.mayway.com/newsletter-signupFollow ushttps://www.facebook.com/MaywayHerbs/https://www.instagram.com/maywayherbs/

Wenn ihr schon mal eines über chinesische Philosophie gehört habt, dann vielleicht das: Ein Mann träumt, dass er ein Schmetterling ist. Kann er nach dem Aufwachen sicher sein, dass er jetzt gerade nicht wirklich dieser Schmetterling ist, der nur träumt, ein Mann zu sein? Der Schmetterlings-Traum ist die bekannteste Episode aus dem Hauptwerk von Zhuangzi. Und das "Zhuangzi" ist nicht nur philosophisch, sondern auch literarisch ein absoluter Meilenstein der chinesischen Kulturgeschichte. In unserer vorletzten Folge zu antiker chinesischer Philosophie spricht Christian mit dem Sinologen und Philosophen Fabian Heubel über Zhuangzi, der neben Laozi als zweiter großer Daoist gilt, den Heubel aber eher als kritischen Konfuzianer bezeichnen würde. Fabian Heubel forscht als Research Fellow am Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy der Academia Sinica in Taipei und lehrt am Institut für Philosophie der Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main.

This episode we look at time and direction and the influence of geomancy--theories of Yin and Yang and a little bit of how people viewed the world through that lens.  For more, check out the blog page:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-127 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 127: Time and Direction in Ancient Yamato   Officers of the court stood in the pavilion.  The soft trill of water could be heard trickling from one reservoir to the next.  They watched closely, as the figure of a court official, one hand out, pointing at a measuring stick, slowly rose along with the water.  Eventually, the figure's outstretched arm indicated a line with a single character next to it. On cue, one of the officials began to beat the large drum that was nearby.  The rhythm was slow, but deliberate, and the sound was loud, echoing out to the mountains and back, showering the nearby palaces in a layer of sound.  Across the palace, people briefly paused, took note of the number of strokes, and by that they knew the time of day.  Without giving it much more thought, they then went about their business.     This episode we find ourselves partway through the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou—his formal reign started in 668, but he had been pretty much running things since the death of Takara Hime in 661 and, arguably, for much longer than that.  668, however, saw Naka no Oe ascend the throne in his new palace of Otsu no Miya, officially making him the sovereign.  And although 645 is the year Naka no Oe and others had started the Taika Reforms, it's not wrong to say that  that 668 and the start of Naka no Oe's official reign, brief as it would be, that he finally had the ability to bring it all together and set it into stone. We've talked about many of these reforms before on the podcast, but a lot of them were associated with the continued push to incorporate continental concepts into Yamato society, covering everything from court ranks to how to organize agricultural production.  Of course, there was also Buddhism, which we've covered numerous times, but there were other concepts coming across as well, including ideas about history and writing, as well as ancient STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  This included architects, and new ways of constructing buildings.  And it also meant ways of seeing the world, including things like directions and time.  And this is what I want to focus on this episode, taking a break from the primary narrative to spend some time on what we might call Yamato concepts of science, especially how they thought about the structure of reality organization of time and the universe – their cosmology, as it were.  After all, to better understand the reasoning and motives of people, it is helpful to try and understand how they saw the world, not just for translation—understanding what it means when an entry says something like the “Hour of the Horse” on an “Elder Wood” day—but also for understanding how things actually worked in their eyes.  For instance, the idea of ”auspicious” and “inauspicious” times and directions is something that most listeners probably don't incorporate much into their daily lives, but the Chroniclers and the people of Yamato absolutely did, so understanding concepts like this can sometimes be the key to unlocking why historical people may have taken the actions that they did.  In particular, we'll talk about things like yin and yang, five elements, ten stems and twelve earthly branches, and what all this meant for the Yamato ideas of organizing time and space. A large part of Yamato cosmology is tied to something called Onmyoudou, literally the Way of Yin and Yang, which in the organization of the Ritsuryo state fell under a particular ministry, known as the Onmyo-ryo.  If you've heard of Onmyoudou before, you likely have heard about the “Onmyouji”, practitioners who studied the flow of yin and yang—and who could reportedly do miraculous things with that.  A 10th century Onmyoji, the famous Abe no Seimei, is perhaps the most well-known, with numerous stories about his exploits, which were then turned into a fantastical series of stories by the award-winning author, Baku Yumemakura.  Those were then turned into Manga, movies, and more.  Abe no Seimei is like Japan's Merlin, or Gandalf, at least in the stories. Back to the organization we mentioned, the Onmyou-ryou was responsible for Yin-Yang theory, or Onmyou-dou, which included divination, as well as astronomy, or Tenmon-dou, and calendar making, or reki-dou.  While some of this was based on straight up natural observances, a lot of it was explained through older concepts of Yin and Yang theory.  Today, you might encounter a lot of this in the theories around Feng Shui, and this can also be referred to as “geomancy”, or earth divination.   To give a broad overview of Onbmyoudou and its origins, it is part of a large corpus of concepts focused around a concept of energy known as qi or ki—which forms the basis for a lot of Chinese and Japanese cosmology, or their concept of how the world worked.  Much of this is tied up in concepts that are modernly broadly called “Daoist” or associated with so-called Daoist practices.  That term can be a bit misleading, as strictly speaking, Daoism refers to the teachings of the legendary philosopher Laozi, in his book, the Dao De Jing, as well as works attributed to later authors, like the Zhuangzi. There is some controversy as to when and to what extent this strict Daoism came to Japan.  However, in the broader sense, the category of “Daoist “ practices includes an entire panoply of various folk practices, including concepts of Yin and Yang – and in the archipelago, many of these concepts were imported with the various books that people had acquired on the mainland, even if they weren't strictly tied to Daoist religious practice.  For example, there were aspects that were borrowed by various Shinto shrines, and others formalized into ritual practices under the new government.  And of course many of these became linked to various Buddhist teachings and practices, as well.   But what did this actually look like in concept and practice for practitioners of Onmyoudo in Japan? Let's start with the idea of yin and yang.  One of the earliest references comes from the Zhou Yi, the Zhou Book of Changes, the core of what we also know as the Yijing, the Book of Changes.  Here we see the idea that the universe began with a single force that split into two, and those two forces make up all of creation in one way or another.  Yin and Yang, or In and You—or even Onmyou—refer to these forces, which are characterized as shadow and light, moon and sun, female and male, cold and hot, etc.  So these forces are opposites, but it should be noted that they are not necessarily good or evil.  After all, too cold is just as bad as too hot.  Likewise too much darkness is as blinding as too much light. As most people have seen, yin and yang are often depicted as a circle divided into two comma shapes, with a smaller circle in each.  One side is white with a black circle and the other is black with a white circle.  This is the “Tai Chi” diagram, but the diagram itself doesn't seem to have been depicted like this prior to the 11th century, at least that we are aware. But the concepts are much older.    Now if you've heard of the Yijing, where it came from is something of a mystery.  One theory is that it started as a written account of folk wisdom, and may have even given instructions for things like when to plant and when to harvest, based on changes in various heavenly phenomena.   But overall it is organized into 64 chapters, each associated with a particular hexagram.  Start with a line, that can either be a full line – representing yang – or a broken line representing yin.  Stack three of these on top of one another and you get a trigram.  If you chart out every single possible combination of yin and yang lines, you get 8 unique trigrams, sometimes referred to as the baqua.  Stack two trigrams atop one another and you get a hexagram, a combination of 6 lines that can have 8 by 8 or 64 unique variants.   It's theorized that the Yijing resulted from taking all of the collected sayings or aphorisms and bits of advice and cataloguing and dividing them into 64 chapters, each one associated with a given hexagram. Going further, each line of the hexagram is  associated with particular line in Yijing, and various meanings are ascribed to it and its association.  It's a complex and fascinating system and I don't have time to go into it fully, but I would note that this was used as a form of divination—yarrow stalks or other means of random lot drawing that gives you a binary outcome – zero or one, yin or yang – could be used to determine the six lines of any given hexagram.  This, in turn, would reference a chapter in the Yijing which was then interpreted as a sign as to how to read a given situation that you might find yourself in. What's really important to understanding the worldview of the time is this idea, represented by the hexagrams in the Yijing, that you can encompass everything about the universe by making and cataloging different amounts and arrangements of yin and yang. It's a science, as it were – a systematic approach to understanding the differences in the world by breaking it into component parts.    And if this seems preposterous, consider this:  today we understand that all things are made up of tiny atoms.  And these atoms are all made up of the same material—protons, neutrons, and electrons.  And yet, how those atomic particles combine create atoms with wildly different qualities.  And how those atoms then combine into molecules and so on and so forth describe how we explain everything around us.  So is it really so far-fetched? I'm not saying that we should suddenly start to figure out the measurements of yin and yang in everything, but if we want to understand how the people of the time saw their world, it may be helpful to hold an open mindand understand the assumptions that they were working from and where they came from.  As human beings, we naturally look for connections in the world around us, and this was no exception.  People would observe facts, know how that it worked, and often then would back into the reason for it.  This is a tale told across cultures, and we still see it, today.  At the same time, we've developed structured approaches to test out our theories, empirically. So for the moment, let's leave the trigrams and hexagrams, and talk about another idea that also gained traction as people were trying to figure out how the world worked.  This was the five elements theory also known as Wuxing, or Gogyou, in Japanese.  The five elements in this case are Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth.  Some may notice that these, along with the sun and the moon, are used in Japanese for the days of the week:  Nichi (sun), getsu (moon), ka (fire), sui (water), moku (wood), kin (metal), do (earth). Buddhists, by the way, also had an elemental system with only four elements,  Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, possibly connected with some Greek influence, and brought along with Buddhist practice.  For now, however, let's focus on the five elements. The idea in wuxing is similar to that of yin and yang in that everything in creation is made up of these five elements in some degree and configuration.  Furthermore, there are creation and destruction cycles.  So fire creates ash, or earth.  Earth gives birth to metal.  Metal creates water—look at a cold piece of metal in a warm environment and see how the water droplets form on it, and imagine what that looks like without understanding humidity and how there could be water vapor in the air.  And then water creates wood, or plants—any farmer could tell you that without water the plants die.  And wood is where we get fire from. Of course, the reverse cycle is the opposite.  Fire eats the wood.  Wood drinks up the water.  Water rusts metal.  Metal tools plough the earth. And Earth can be used to douse fire. Finally, there is another cycle of weakening. ,. Because fire heats and weakens metal, metal chops down wood, the trees roots break up rocks, the earth soaks up water, and water likewise puts out or weakens fire. So the theory went, if these elements make up all matter, these relationships continue on a more complex scale in everything.  So if something was thought to contain a lot of “fire” element, then it would be potentially helpful if you needed “Earth” but destructive or at least weakening to metal and wood.  Properly accounting for these elements was important to achieve the results you were looking for, whatever that may be.   These were the kinds of things that were incorporated into traditional medicine practices, but also applied to auguries or divination about things like where and how to build a building.  Even today, Shrines will sell calendars that help people know the prominence of certain elements, and some folk remedies may look to balance elements, much as medieval European medicine was often designed to balance the four humors that ancient physicians believed were present in the human body. The chart of these five elements and their relationships is something you may have seen.  It is a five pointed star, often inside of a circle.  Of course this is also similar to a western pentagram, though typically drawn with the point of the star up, but it has nothing to do with Christian values or Satan, or anything similar.  Rather, it is just a way to represent these five elements, and you'll see it frequently in reference to Onmyoudou. The elements were used to categorize many different areas into groupings of five.  This includes grouping the various directions into five directions.  Of course, you may be wondering about that, since most societies usually mark four cardinal directions, and in this case, they did the same, but added the fifth as “center”.  And so you get things like the north is water.  It is related to cool, or cold weather.  It is represented with the color black. To the south, opposite of the north, is fire.  It is hot, and the color is red.  Of course, this probably doesn't take a huge leap to see the connections they drew: since these civilizations are in the northern hemisphere, the farther north you go, the colder it gets, and the farther south you travel, the warmer it gets, generally speaking, at least until you reach the equator. Meanwhile, the west was related to metal, and the color white, while the east was related to woods and forests, and the color…. Blue.  Alright, that last one, in particular, probably doesn't make sense to a lot of us.  After all, we likely associate blue with water, and wood, or trees, would be associated with brown or, possibly, green.  Well, in this case, it goes beyond that.  The north is water, but it is also associated with darkness—shorter days in the winter, and things like that Sothe association of north with black makes sense, but many also look at the ocean and don't necessarily see it as “blue”, or dark or even black, like Homer's famous “wine-dark sea”. Furthermore, although they have a word for it (midori), “green” was not a primary color in Japan, instead  considered more of a shade of “aoi”, or blue.  Even today they refer to a “green” traffic light as an “aoi shingo, not “midori” shingo.  So if you asked someone in the Asuka period to describe the wooded hills and fields, they would have likely used “aoi”.  And of course, we are missing the fifth element.  In the center we have the element earth and the color yellow. A lot of these different concepts were brought together during the Han period, when they were trying to syncretize all of the various philosophies and attempts to describe the world and bring them all together into a single system.  This meant that the Yijing, the wuxing theory, and others were mixed together with various other philosophies and theories of how the world work.  Things like the Shanhaijing, the Classic of Mountain and Seas, along with stories about immortals, the Queen Mother of the West, and more were all rolled together, and basically assumed to be true.  This included various real-world observations.  Therefore, there were many attempts to try and reconcile these various theories together. One of the other concepts, which we've discussed before, was the system of ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches.  We've mentioned this before regarding the sexagenary style of counting the years, but we'll recap here.  The ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches are concepts that go back to at least the legendary Shang period, and even show up in various bronzes Andit wasn't until later that they would be associated with other ideas.  The ten heavenly stems were each associated with one of the five elements, with each element being represented by a greater and lesser, or elder and younger, stem.  And then each of the twelve earthly branches were associated with animals—what we often call the Chinese Zodiac. We talked about how this applied to the calendar, in that it was used to track years in 60 year cycles, but also it was used to track days of the year.  The twelve earthly branches were also used for earthly directions.  The first, the rat, was in the north, and the order continued clockwise to the east, the south, west and then back to the north.  Now this means that the four cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—all match up nicely with one of the twelve earthly branches, but as for northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest?  Those were all combinations of two branches.  So, for instance, the northeast was a combination of the ox and the tiger, or ushi-tora. Speaking of eight directions, where have we also heard the number eight come up recently? That's right: the eight trigrams, or bagua.  So each one of those trigrams, each representing a different concept, got associated with a direction as well.  This makes it easier to see where practices of geomancy came from.   You had a system with complex, overlapping associations between concepts and the physical world, and in the Tang dynasty, they used all of this  to understand not only  how things had happened, but also how the world would be in the future—in other words, they tried to use it to make predictions.  Hence the “mancy”. In the Yamato state, all of this became an official part of the government under the Onmyoryou: a branch of the government whose job is to make observations and figure things out from there, for the good of the state and the people.  They made observations of the heavens to figure out how the calendar should be aligned—which months should come at what time, and when there should be “leap months”, or intercalary months, to keep various astronomical phenomena in the correct seasons, which were also further divided up into 24 periods.  They also kept track of the movement of bodies like the various planets, because those planets were also assigned values, and thought to affect the flow of energy within this framework.  And so comets, storms, eclipses, and more were all important because of the theory that everything in the heavens impacted and were reflections of how things were happening on the earth.  Similarly, these various discussions of white animals and other omens were likely captured and catalogued by these officials as well, attempting to figure out what they meant. All of this also influenced things like how palaces, buildings, and even capitals, would be built and laid out.  For the palace, it was important the the sovereign be in the north, looking south.  In fact, many maps would have south at the top because that is how a sovereign would be viewing it, were it stretched out before them.  And one would need to consider various features, including mountains and streams, as all of those things carried various meanings, but it wasn't as simple as just finding the one thing that could affect a person.  As they observed differences they would also have to catalogue what happened and try to determine what the cause could be, based on their understanding of the world.  And in the archipelago this would also include an understanding of Buddhist and local kami-based wisdom and knowledge as well. One of the things in the Chronicles that inspired this episode was something I actually mentioned last time,  a record from 666  talking about Chiyu, a Buddhist priest of the Yamato no Aya family, who presented a south-pointing chariot to the sovereign, Naka no Oe.  this appears to be the same Chiyu from a similar record in 658, which also refers to him building a south pointing chariot.  So did it take him eight years, or is he just now presenting it to the sovereign?  And what, exactly, is a south-pointing chariot? Well, as the name implies, a south-pointing chariot is a two-wheeled chariot that always points south.  More appropriately stated, it is a wheeled device with a figure on top, much like a weather vane, which always points south.  This is usually described as the figure of a person or an official pointing in the appropriate direction.  This was a mechanical, rather than a magnetic compass. As the chariot, or carriage, is wheeled around, the two wheels spin.  The wheels themselves are independently connected to a series of gears.  If the wheels spin at the same rate, then their movement cancels each other out.  However, if one wheel turns more than the other, then it will cause the figure on the top to rotate.  Of course, as the chariot turns to the right, the left wheel, traveling along the outer diameter, will travel farther than the right.  This will cause the figure to turn counter-clockwise to the left, but from an outside observer's perspective, it will continue to point in the same direction, even as the chariot itself turns.  Turning to the left would cause the opposite effect. Though it may have been used earlier, there appears to be reliable written evidence of a South Pointing chariot starting from the third century.  The first one was based on much earlier stories of a similar device, but it is unclear if it was a chariot, some other device, or even just a legend that was told as historical fact.  From the third century on the design appears to have been continuously improved upon. I should point out that all we have is descriptions—we don't have any actual south pointing chariots, let alone diagrams showing how the mechanisms worked.  There is the possibility that it used a kind of differential gear to work automatically, but we don't have any actual evidence.  There are other theories that it may have required some kind of manual switch, so that it would attach to one wheel or the other as needed.  That would require that the chariot be moving in either a straight direction or turning in one particular direction, which seems rather unwieldy. I noted some of the problems with this, and even moreso in a place like Japan, where 70% of the terrain is mountains.  Up and down hills, along paths that are likely anything but the smooth, paved surface we have for roads today—and even those have plenty of irregularities and potholes that could throw off any such device. And if you want to use it for any real distance, then you have to factor in other things, including the curvature of the earth.  After all, with the earth being a sphere, any chariot traveling due west to east or east to west, other than at the equator, would have one wheel traveling farther than the other one.  Granted, at the scale we are talking about, it probably is all but negligible, and the rough terrain and simple slippage of what were most likely wooden gears probably entered a lot more variability than the earth's curvature. One of the other issues is that the chariot only points “south” if you set it up to do so.   And if you know that, well, why do you need a south-pointing chariot?  Ultimately, it seems that this is more of a novelty item, good for impressing crowds and demonstrating some engineering principles, rather than an actual, useful invention.  After all, it was forgotten about and recreated multiple times, often centuries apart.  Had it been a truly useful invention, it probably would have been kept in constant use.  Meanwhile, I suspect that there were a fair number of farmers and others who knew that you could more easily and reliably use the sun and stars, as long as the weather was clear. There is also some evidence of an understanding of magnetic compasses since at least the 2nd Century BCE.  Early Han sources suggest that a spoon made of naturally magnetized ore could be placed on top of a polished bronze surface, and it would align itself north to south.  We don't have any actual surviving examples, however—there are later versions that you can find, where the plate is divided up into various directions, and then a magnetized “spoon” is placed on top, but nothing has actually come from Han tombs.  Furthermore, this seems to mostly be for geomantic purposes.  A more practical compass, with a magnetized needle, seems to have been developed by the 11th century, which could then be used for actual navigation. By the way, the “spoon” as a compass pointer may be in reference to the “Big Dipper” constellation, which was envisioned as a spoon, or ladle, in shape.  The seven stars were often used in geomancy, likely because of their importance, at least in the northern hemisphere, of pointing to the north.  So there's some thought that the “needles” of these early compasses weren't litterally  spoon shaped, but symbolically representive of the Big Dipper or the Northern Ladle.  Quick astronomy lesson, here.  If you are in the northern hemisphere, particularly from the 35th parallel to the north pole, you can see the seven stars that make up the constellation or asterism we know as the Big Dipper.   In English we sometimes also refer to this as Ursa Major, though technically the familiar seven stars are just a part of that larger constellation.  In Japan, the same constellation is often referred to as Hokuto Shichisei, the Seven Stars of the Northern Ladle.  It can be seen further south, but parts of it may dip below the horizon during the autumn season. It is important for several reasons.  One is that it is made up of particularly bright stars, which you can generally see even when other stars may not be visible.  Second, its distinctive shape lends itself to being easy to find in the sky.  And finally, if you draw a line between two of the stars at the end of the “cup” of the ladle, you can follow that line to find Polaris or hokkyokusei, the north star, which means you know which direction is north- and once  you know that, you can use it to figure out any other direction.  And Polaris is less than a degree off of true north, making it even more accurate than most magnets, as the magnetic pole can be quite different, depending on its current position, and magnetic north changes over time as the magnetic field around the earth fluctuates. That said, this was not necessarily the case in ancient times.  Four thousand years ago, the star closest to true north would have been the star Thuban, in the constellation Draco, a star that most of us probably haven't heard of.  Polaris, in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear, also known as the Little Dipper) apparently took over as the north star around 500 CE.  However, even before then, the mouth of the dipper could still be used to indicate north.  In fact, if you draw a line between two of the stars in the back of the constellation, then you also end up finding Thuban.  So even if the north star itself wasn't accurate, finding the dipper would still help you orient yourself, especially if you can find true north during the day and then compare that with the constellation at night. Which helps to understand why astronomy, or Tenmondou, was so important in the Onmyouryou.  Though it wasn't just a study of stars, but of the way of the heavens in general.  And the changes in the heavens, brings us to another important concept—the flow of energy across the seasons.  From the bright days of summer, filled with sunshine and yang energy, to the dark yin energy of winter's long, cold nights. It wasn't enough to just know what happened, and where, but when was also important. Obviously you need to know when to sow seeds, flood the fields, and harvest the rice.  Beyond that, though, you have other concepts, such as how the the day and hour of an event could be symbolically important. And of course, all of these had their own associations with various concepts of the flow of yin and yang energy. Now knowing the year, the month, and even the day is largely just a matter of counting.  But let's talk about something a little more tricky:  How do you know the hour? This brings us to the vignette at the top of the episode, about the clepsydra, or water clock, that Naka no Oe is said to have built. Now we talked about some of the fountains and similar things that have been discovered in the Asuka region back in episode 118.  One thing that they believe they also found evidence of is something called a water clock, which is, as its name suggests, a clock powered by water.  It is typically depicted as a series of three or more boxes or reservoirs that each hold an amount of water.  Water is placed in the top reservoir, and then a hole towards the bottom is unplugged and it is allowed to drain into the box beneath.  The hole is of a particular size, and thus the water flows at a constant rate, filling up the container below, which has a similar hole, etc. all the way to a reservoir at the very bottom.  The multiple boxes mean that the water level in the intermediate boxes stays relatively constant, resulting in relatively consistent pressure and flow rate.  The last reservoir has a measuring stick on a float, so that as the last box is filled with water, the measuring stick raises up.  Since it is rising at a constant rate, one can use that to tell how much time has passed, regardless of anything else.  Thus you can keep time even at night. There is a record of Naka no Oe making one in the fifth month of 660, and he would have another one built in 671, which we will discuss later.  It is interesting that both of these inventions appear twice in the narrative—once during the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenchi Tenno, and once during the previous reign, that of Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tenno.  In this case it is said that 671 is the first time that the water clock, or roukoku, was actually used. From what I can tell, there is nothing that definitively indicates that the Mizuochi site in Asuka was definitely the site of Naka no Oe's water clock.  There isn't much in the Chronicles telling us what it was like or where, exactly, it was built, and there wasn't anything found at the site naming it as the location of the roukoku.  However, the site is in a prominent enough place, with channels for water and a pavilion of some sort.  They definitely found evidence of pipes, remnants of lacquered wood, and reservoirs for water, among other things, that suggest something to do with moving water happened in this area.  So it seems a very strong choice, as it all fits with theoretical archeological reconstructions. A water clock like this is excellent for keeping accurate time at all hours of the day.  However, it does have a slight problem in that anyone without a clock is still going to have to use the sun and similar heavenly cues to know what time it is.  So how do you let them know?  Well, it turns out that the continent had an answer for that as well, and instituted various systems of drums and bells to let people know the hour.  In fact, some of these practices continued, in one form or another, right up to the modern day—with or without a water clock.  After all, the key was to give the community some sense of the passing of time, but I doubt anyone was using it to time things more precisely than a general idea of an hour—though they did have the concept of their own minutes and seconds.  Which brings us to just how they saw time back then. The system of time that the Chronicles seems to use also came over from the continent, where there appear to have been several different methods for telling time prior to accurate clocks.  And while there was an idea of dividing the entire day into twelve segments, the time as it was announced was not always consistent with those twelve segments, or hours.  Rather, time was based around the key parts of the day.  So, for instance there was sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight.  And while noon and midnight remain exactly twelve hours apart, sunrise and sunset change with the seasons.  So if you call out sunrise, and then divide the time between sunrise and noon into equal segments of time, the size of those time segments change with the seasons.  On top of that, because of the tilt of the earth and our slightly irregular orbit around the sun, the sun appears to “move” across the sky faster or slower throughout the year, with a difference of about 30 minutes total between the extremes.  This isn't going to affect most people's daily lives, but would have been noticeable to those taking accurate measurements. In ancient Han, this appears to have been common in cities and towns, with a watch that would call out as they progressed on their rounds at set points in the day and night, relying largely on heavenly cues—which I suspect did not lead to the most accurate timekeeping, but it was sufficient for what most people needed.  The telling of time in this manner was partly to help with keeping track of the time of day, but was just as much an announcement that the watch was on duty and a warning to would-be criminals. Now a water clock was an excellent device for keeping track of a standard, absolute time, such as it were, but it required constant maintenance.  If you already have a watch calling out the time, perhaps they can also keep the water clock properly set, but you did have to have someone constantly filling it up and draining it at known points of the day.  Plus there was the problem that you only knew the time if you could check it, and this wasn't like a clock tower or something similar. And so in 671 it appears that Nak no Oe instituted the continental idea of drums and bells to announce the time to the people—or at least to those at the court.  We don't have a record of exactly how they were, used, but we can infer from other sources on the continent, and what we do know that some tradition of announcing the time with drums and bells continued to be employed in Japan until the Meiji era, though perhaps not without interruption:  Temples and the like had bell or drum towers, and as the day progressed they would beat out the time.  It was not, however, telling time as we might think of it, with one stroke at the first hour, two on the second, etc..  In fact, in many ways they counted backwards, and they only counted 12 hours, not our modern 24.  By the Edo period it seems that it was common practice to toll the bells nine times at noon and at midnight.  From there, they would count down, with 8 bells at roughly 2 o'clock, 7 bells at 4 o'clock, and 6 bells at 6 o'clock.  That would be another issue.  From 6 o'clock, the number of bells that would be tolled continued to decrease, so that at 8 o'clock it would be 5 bells, then 4 bells at 10 o'clock.  It would then jump back up to 9 and start over again. Why these numbers were used for the different hours we are not entirely sure, and I have no idea if these numbers were the same ones used back in the 7th century—though it does seem to match similar continental traditions.  Even the hours themselves were known by the twelve signs that came to be associated with the zodiac:  the hour of the rat, the hour of the ox, the hour of the tiger, etc.  Midnight fell in the middle of the hour of the rat, and noon fell in the middle of the hour of the horse, with each hour being almost exactly 2 hours by modern reckoning. There were other systems in use as well.  One divided the entire day up by 100 and then each of those divisions by another 10.  The key was whether or not it was an absolute or relative measurement. Something like the roukoku would indicate an absolute measurement.  After all, the fall of water from one reservoir to another was not affected by the change in seasons—at least as long as the water didn't freeze.  The flow was constant, as was the measurement of time. For those using other forms of reckoning, such as celestial phenomena or even a sundial, things might be a bit less accurate.  This was especially true when using concepts like “sunrise” and “sunset”.  Still, through observing the changes over the year, people eventually figured out charts and rules to help reconcile absolute forms of measurement with solar time.  There were other methods for telling time, as well.  Perhaps one of the more pleasant was the use of incense sticks.  By the time of the Tang dynasty, incense in stick form was relatively common, and it had been noticed that sticks of incense could burn at a fixed rate.  This meant that you could use incense sticks like candles were used in Europe, counting down how far they had burned to tell what time it was.  If you were really fancy, you could make a single stick out of different types of incense, so that as it hit a new hour, the scent would change, alerting you to the time through your olfactory senses. Speaking of time, we are coming to the end of ours for this episode.  We do have some more information on this on our website, Sengokudaimyo.com, and we'll have links to those sections of the website accompanying our blog. Next episode we will focus more on the reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou, from his seat at Otsu no Miya. Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

In this enlightening episode of Vestiges After Dark, we welcome Greg Ripley—Daoist priest, nature guide, and author of The Hundred Remedies of the Tao. Drawing from the wisdom of the Quanzhen Longmen tradition, Greg offers an accessible yet profound exploration of Daoist philosophy and its practical applications in everyday life. From breathwork and meditation to aligning with the natural world, Greg shares insights into how Daoist practices can cultivate harmony, resilience, and spiritual clarity. We'll also delve into the inspiration behind his latest book and discuss how these ancient teachings offer powerful tools for navigating the challenges of our modern world. Whether you're new to Daoism or seeking a deeper connection with its path, this episode offers timeless wisdom for the mind, body, and spirit.To call into the show with your questions, comments, or stories, dial: (207) 544-1983. International callers may call free 'Skype to Skype' by dialing: eyeoftheseer They will also be taking your questions from the YouTube chatroom, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Spreaker.Music Credits (for full list click here: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbi1DR1JCWHJ0V2xzdGtVMjVKOHhscjJaYWM3QXxBQ3Jtc0tsNkhxV0hPTjRTdlA3SkJPQWU5RlVaUkxudlVHR2ExVXBpMFlvOG1yVE9ETk5HcHBTNGZ5bkJVT2ZqYW1UazRlUjNqaDBfSUV4RWRmV3UtZFZjVTFKUkVHWjBnbDAxS1hONXdFZXhDazg4LUFla0NRbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spreaker.com%2Fshow%2Fvestige..&v=rbLQBvmFw-o. Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Crowd Hammer Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmNQaWtCY2owUzNESnhwRm1TNF8xY1RtU3AwUXxBQ3Jtc0tuNTJvWmxWR0ZQX01wQ1hHd29ZNDBfejJ2ekJpeEpUNFMyYWc1Z0lsbmJ1b2FocU82VjZ2d0FOaXUtLW0xVjk3bHF3Q1M3dUxCSWd4YkRjS1EwSlFQNmlzSlBGQWFER1JWYnA3SW5jREpLR2syUnNCMA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fb..&v=rbLQBvmFw-o. Bumper Music: NoCopyrightSounds Marin Hoxha & Chris Linton - With You [NCS Release] Tobu & Syndec - Dusk [NCS Release] Codeko - Crest [NCS Release] Syn Cole - Feel Good [NCS Release] Floatinurboat - Limbo (feat. ELIØTT) [NCS Release] Rival x Cadmium - Seasons (feat. Harley Bird) [NIVIRO Remix] | NCS Release] Robin Hustin x Tobimorrow - Light It Up (feat. Jex) [NCS Release] Jim Yosef & Anna Yvette - Linked [NCS Release] Kozah - Heavens [NCS Release] NIVIRO - Memes [NCS Release] Song: Mendum & Abandoned - Voyage (Feat. DNAKM) [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqazkwMFh2ZmtMdFphVG9iRTFHWFFLTEcwV2ZfQXxBQ3Jtc0tuLVpfLTF6NndUUEthTW5BcVVfV2lmN1B2YUJQa2VJSnpCN0RwWHZIeGtfeGctTHh2RUN4bkRVLXhmSml5Y1p1c2tLUHY2LXBaNTh4RlRvUjNUWlMtME1ManhNWVVmQzFhY3llVFREVkhfbEJ6RFNBaw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FVoyage&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Mendum & Abandoned - Voyage (Feat. DN... Song: Unknown Brain & Hoober - Phenomenon (ft. Dax & VinDon) [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9LUkEyM3RqZDR4QlRQSUxNdno3dWpxVVZLZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuS3ZIVnVpMC13cWUtYWd1UHNGemhWcjVGaDVzZlhOWFVJNENZRHpsR2YxRURHcXQ3Q1FST1Q4QWx2Y0tXN2ZCeWZ0bGVoNHFvYjJLSThfRzFLUDhuX3dxQ1k1cWVwQlVPWFVwSVZLTGRFMEZsRklfVQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FPhenomenon&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain & Hoober - Phenomenon (... Song: Robin Hustin & Jessica Chertock - Burn it Down [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbm0zTE4wTnlWNllwRGt3dWZHM0FFZVJNUldYQXxBQ3Jtc0tsLTJCRXlLQnFjaEgxNmE2U0ZhbnBhT0pkXzhJdlZuZmdCMHh5cUlJOTJpOXdEbkN0U25EOVB4dUZjeWI1QTJISnE3X2JBR25FX3ZXTTRSZ2pRMkk4cEcyOXFWMmdfcFBzRmctYUs3dU55bVc1ckVjWQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FBurnItDown&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Robin Hustin & Jessica Chertock - Bur... Song: Kozah - Nobody [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3pQZDdoVTBNVGhTREw3TmRIcjZ3a3k0dzFSd3xBQ3Jtc0tuQkg5dGJfR2U4emNMTVV5dWh4eXYtSXFGX2ZLQ0MzLXVUWFdicE5FdGhsVUNBTlQ2cUVLNDIxcHctVGVYbGpkVVpHUFlVQjBwcWtiVU1Td3ItYTFCWUxXdENhQ0kyUkV4R280OXd4dFNoeGZOa2lFZw&q=http%3A%2F%2FNCS.io%2FNobody&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Kozah - Nobody [NCS Release] Song: NIVIRO - Demons [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDRtN1RDNEgyMjJrbkdBWldwMVFLdEZrM0JZZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsTHh6ckxoMkhHREFScDN4UXBnYjZUbGQzMk9tUnRRNHJtTDd4MEZPbk5VbmV5S2FmMThWY0w3V2JPT2dyRG0wWEY5SVkzMENPV1I2S0JqeWN5NVl4NXk0em9FNkZ6dGpxb25PX2xJbjRKSm1Fbmthaw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FNDemons&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • NIVIRO - Demons | Electronic | NCS - ... Song: Unknown Brain - Childhood Dreams [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2xlcThIUkxQOVFEYmZtYUdJMTQ5aWo4Vm92UXxBQ3Jtc0ttWmpOY3Vwd3JGSmtjT1lDTG5laTVMNjB2Uk5YSklpWjRuQ0g0MkdFUnBoNE95aHJLX0NUQ2gzSVpvSXFkcm84Vlg0bEpDSnZMNElQQTZLdEpCRzktV013RnAxX24yRVVOaUJHR1dLZTNJMkt4RmZoQQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FChildHoodDreams&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain - Faceless (Album MIX) ... Song: Syn Cole - Time [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa0FSSXFmYXB3TGpfZWFib3czdEJJOTd2UmpLQXxBQ3Jtc0tuWlhNZ2RkTGVfZUZPWnFFT1lTMVVpQzdacEtOX0JnMHZEUmtWVVZqU2ozSnI4UGVJR3R1c2FBLVhiQlJua3R6QU9ZRXZiOEJVY1Y0Zkpqb1hpdHhwaE9wSTVZX01MM2xZTXlBVTRTM1NJU3lvbnRFcw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTime&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Syn Cole - Time [NCS Release] Song: Jim Yosef - Fall With Me [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEFIaEpPWXpNVjFlOFFYeE56NXR4cEJ5YkFDd3xBQ3Jtc0trMHBUNU5Ea2lqaU5tRDNqemFwdm1wU3FTbXBMdUg2VmxQbVFnTjFmZ1doNXF0QWVhd0ppc2lYTnlSMlRpMDFNMjcwNU9sdXpfZFYzamVoR29QekN2bWJHSkk1a3dEWFh0SFhyUGhiYUYza2J5blhhWQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FFallWithMe&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain - Waiting (feat. Lox Ch... Song: Mike Vallas, Jagsy & quaggin. - Left My Heart In Pain [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDZuMi03LTU4Sk9hSzdxQ1k4V0ozNUE2QjBWQXxBQ3Jtc0tubm01alhFQ3VLRTZqMzNmNGMzN0twZElWVnpaWEhMYldkSmJyUy1JV2ViWVV4a0thbEotcDZKcmtMaHBNMmJsdEJxMldYWnRqQ21fTWw1V1JlTmFNTlhERzZYbnduaW5ISWtkanJZNGxyOVpEbm9UVQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FLMHIP&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Mike Vallas, Jagsy & quaggin. - Left ... Song: Barren Gates - Devil [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW0yLUQ5QzQ4aGlfZXZUNFJ6eS1PWmc3Y0xNZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsZ3J6d1NKbk1kMm81R0xYY3BDLTBDNGN0Tlg0NjM2bm9vZ3d3UVB4WmZsajcwZDd6V3puS2twRUkzdnE2MHJUc1lWckd5aktlMUhZZjFRVDRzQjhJejZRZkNvZzRYR1Y0T1RELUV1cHRFdmhmUno2UQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FDevil&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Barren Gates - Devil | Trap | NCS - C... Song: Inukshuk - The Long Road Home [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTRlRF80c2lYbldlanhxOHVUR1hCSFZ2YUZ5UXxBQ3Jtc0tudjRFTFNyNXRZelFMNWVkUTV2N0hqV29GVG9ld0Rwb3QweEdUSUU1b05VcGRVZE5KcWNLT25XYzNDT2hNbnp2cWJqSndHc09qZkFUak1qLVJPcmk2Nm16bXpxTWlQVWQwbnhvM1lqRDJEZmJ3WVFmNA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTLRH&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - The Long Road Home [NCS Re... Song: Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbFJ4eUJTbXVRbVBZblg3dktod1hIdWJ3X1ZiQXxBQ3Jtc0tuSkVEM0dKOEVYdWRFaDUwd3h3T0RCN1FhdkdOVlRDcUJJQjBmcEg5X3ZQbzlyeTduQkhkbXdJU3RYMTUwWXZJTHlURW9Ha1BoVlAwcUFWMHJINUJSVmNjZ0thMlZuQUVjS2JPQW14OHNyNzZFT0R6SQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTooFarGone&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Song: Inukshuk - A World Away [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXZrYmpGQVE2RHZCd1NwM255VjNyMzRzZ2k5d3xBQ3Jtc0tublFqckgxMTBWYm1yTW9qVmtrMDBQM0I4MFlYdHVuQ3hFUlUtc29ZamxoNUYzaEpfWElONER4RnhkbkJSbmQ0VTgyVXlwZXBPU21NYUUxbEhCRF9fQ01UVlpaeHc2Q0g0ZE1NZUxSZk8yVm9xeTMxdw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2Faworldaway&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - A World Away [NCS Release] Song: Voicians - Seconds [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream:Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/vestiges-after-dark--3076216/support.

In this enlightening episode of Vestiges After Dark, we welcome Greg Ripley—Daoist priest, nature guide, and author of The Hundred Remedies of the Tao. Drawing from the wisdom of the Quanzhen Longmen tradition, Greg offers an accessible yet profound exploration of Daoist philosophy and its practical applications in everyday life. From breathwork and meditation to aligning with the natural world, Greg shares insights into how Daoist practices can cultivate harmony, resilience, and spiritual clarity. We'll also delve into the inspiration behind his latest book and discuss how these ancient teachings offer powerful tools for navigating the challenges of our modern world. Whether you're new to Daoism or seeking a deeper connection with its path, this episode offers timeless wisdom for the mind, body, and spirit.To call into the show with your questions, comments, or stories, dial: (207) 544-1983. International callers may call free 'Skype to Skype' by dialing: eyeoftheseer They will also be taking your questions from the YouTube chatroom, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Spreaker.Music Credits (for full list click here: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbi1DR1JCWHJ0V2xzdGtVMjVKOHhscjJaYWM3QXxBQ3Jtc0tsNkhxV0hPTjRTdlA3SkJPQWU5RlVaUkxudlVHR2ExVXBpMFlvOG1yVE9ETk5HcHBTNGZ5bkJVT2ZqYW1UazRlUjNqaDBfSUV4RWRmV3UtZFZjVTFKUkVHWjBnbDAxS1hONXdFZXhDazg4LUFla0NRbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spreaker.com%2Fshow%2Fvestige..&v=rbLQBvmFw-o. Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Crowd Hammer Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmNQaWtCY2owUzNESnhwRm1TNF8xY1RtU3AwUXxBQ3Jtc0tuNTJvWmxWR0ZQX01wQ1hHd29ZNDBfejJ2ekJpeEpUNFMyYWc1Z0lsbmJ1b2FocU82VjZ2d0FOaXUtLW0xVjk3bHF3Q1M3dUxCSWd4YkRjS1EwSlFQNmlzSlBGQWFER1JWYnA3SW5jREpLR2syUnNCMA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fb..&v=rbLQBvmFw-o. Bumper Music: NoCopyrightSounds Marin Hoxha & Chris Linton - With You [NCS Release] Tobu & Syndec - Dusk [NCS Release] Codeko - Crest [NCS Release] Syn Cole - Feel Good [NCS Release] Floatinurboat - Limbo (feat. ELIØTT) [NCS Release] Rival x Cadmium - Seasons (feat. Harley Bird) [NIVIRO Remix] | NCS Release] Robin Hustin x Tobimorrow - Light It Up (feat. Jex) [NCS Release] Jim Yosef & Anna Yvette - Linked [NCS Release] Kozah - Heavens [NCS Release] NIVIRO - Memes [NCS Release] Song: Mendum & Abandoned - Voyage (Feat. DNAKM) [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqazkwMFh2ZmtMdFphVG9iRTFHWFFLTEcwV2ZfQXxBQ3Jtc0tuLVpfLTF6NndUUEthTW5BcVVfV2lmN1B2YUJQa2VJSnpCN0RwWHZIeGtfeGctTHh2RUN4bkRVLXhmSml5Y1p1c2tLUHY2LXBaNTh4RlRvUjNUWlMtME1ManhNWVVmQzFhY3llVFREVkhfbEJ6RFNBaw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FVoyage&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Mendum & Abandoned - Voyage (Feat. DN... Song: Unknown Brain & Hoober - Phenomenon (ft. Dax & VinDon) [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9LUkEyM3RqZDR4QlRQSUxNdno3dWpxVVZLZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuS3ZIVnVpMC13cWUtYWd1UHNGemhWcjVGaDVzZlhOWFVJNENZRHpsR2YxRURHcXQ3Q1FST1Q4QWx2Y0tXN2ZCeWZ0bGVoNHFvYjJLSThfRzFLUDhuX3dxQ1k1cWVwQlVPWFVwSVZLTGRFMEZsRklfVQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FPhenomenon&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain & Hoober - Phenomenon (... Song: Robin Hustin & Jessica Chertock - Burn it Down [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbm0zTE4wTnlWNllwRGt3dWZHM0FFZVJNUldYQXxBQ3Jtc0tsLTJCRXlLQnFjaEgxNmE2U0ZhbnBhT0pkXzhJdlZuZmdCMHh5cUlJOTJpOXdEbkN0U25EOVB4dUZjeWI1QTJISnE3X2JBR25FX3ZXTTRSZ2pRMkk4cEcyOXFWMmdfcFBzRmctYUs3dU55bVc1ckVjWQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FBurnItDown&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Robin Hustin & Jessica Chertock - Bur... Song: Kozah - Nobody [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3pQZDdoVTBNVGhTREw3TmRIcjZ3a3k0dzFSd3xBQ3Jtc0tuQkg5dGJfR2U4emNMTVV5dWh4eXYtSXFGX2ZLQ0MzLXVUWFdicE5FdGhsVUNBTlQ2cUVLNDIxcHctVGVYbGpkVVpHUFlVQjBwcWtiVU1Td3ItYTFCWUxXdENhQ0kyUkV4R280OXd4dFNoeGZOa2lFZw&q=http%3A%2F%2FNCS.io%2FNobody&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Kozah - Nobody [NCS Release] Song: NIVIRO - Demons [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDRtN1RDNEgyMjJrbkdBWldwMVFLdEZrM0JZZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsTHh6ckxoMkhHREFScDN4UXBnYjZUbGQzMk9tUnRRNHJtTDd4MEZPbk5VbmV5S2FmMThWY0w3V2JPT2dyRG0wWEY5SVkzMENPV1I2S0JqeWN5NVl4NXk0em9FNkZ6dGpxb25PX2xJbjRKSm1Fbmthaw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FNDemons&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • NIVIRO - Demons | Electronic | NCS - ... Song: Unknown Brain - Childhood Dreams [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2xlcThIUkxQOVFEYmZtYUdJMTQ5aWo4Vm92UXxBQ3Jtc0ttWmpOY3Vwd3JGSmtjT1lDTG5laTVMNjB2Uk5YSklpWjRuQ0g0MkdFUnBoNE95aHJLX0NUQ2gzSVpvSXFkcm84Vlg0bEpDSnZMNElQQTZLdEpCRzktV013RnAxX24yRVVOaUJHR1dLZTNJMkt4RmZoQQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FChildHoodDreams&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain - Faceless (Album MIX) ... Song: Syn Cole - Time [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa0FSSXFmYXB3TGpfZWFib3czdEJJOTd2UmpLQXxBQ3Jtc0tuWlhNZ2RkTGVfZUZPWnFFT1lTMVVpQzdacEtOX0JnMHZEUmtWVVZqU2ozSnI4UGVJR3R1c2FBLVhiQlJua3R6QU9ZRXZiOEJVY1Y0Zkpqb1hpdHhwaE9wSTVZX01MM2xZTXlBVTRTM1NJU3lvbnRFcw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTime&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Syn Cole - Time [NCS Release] Song: Jim Yosef - Fall With Me [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEFIaEpPWXpNVjFlOFFYeE56NXR4cEJ5YkFDd3xBQ3Jtc0trMHBUNU5Ea2lqaU5tRDNqemFwdm1wU3FTbXBMdUg2VmxQbVFnTjFmZ1doNXF0QWVhd0ppc2lYTnlSMlRpMDFNMjcwNU9sdXpfZFYzamVoR29QekN2bWJHSkk1a3dEWFh0SFhyUGhiYUYza2J5blhhWQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FFallWithMe&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Unknown Brain - Waiting (feat. Lox Ch... Song: Mike Vallas, Jagsy & quaggin. - Left My Heart In Pain [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDZuMi03LTU4Sk9hSzdxQ1k4V0ozNUE2QjBWQXxBQ3Jtc0tubm01alhFQ3VLRTZqMzNmNGMzN0twZElWVnpaWEhMYldkSmJyUy1JV2ViWVV4a0thbEotcDZKcmtMaHBNMmJsdEJxMldYWnRqQ21fTWw1V1JlTmFNTlhERzZYbnduaW5ISWtkanJZNGxyOVpEbm9UVQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FLMHIP&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Mike Vallas, Jagsy & quaggin. - Left ... Song: Barren Gates - Devil [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW0yLUQ5QzQ4aGlfZXZUNFJ6eS1PWmc3Y0xNZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsZ3J6d1NKbk1kMm81R0xYY3BDLTBDNGN0Tlg0NjM2bm9vZ3d3UVB4WmZsajcwZDd6V3puS2twRUkzdnE2MHJUc1lWckd5aktlMUhZZjFRVDRzQjhJejZRZkNvZzRYR1Y0T1RELUV1cHRFdmhmUno2UQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FDevil&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Barren Gates - Devil | Trap | NCS - C... Song: Inukshuk - The Long Road Home [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTRlRF80c2lYbldlanhxOHVUR1hCSFZ2YUZ5UXxBQ3Jtc0tudjRFTFNyNXRZelFMNWVkUTV2N0hqV29GVG9ld0Rwb3QweEdUSUU1b05VcGRVZE5KcWNLT25XYzNDT2hNbnp2cWJqSndHc09qZkFUak1qLVJPcmk2Nm16bXpxTWlQVWQwbnhvM1lqRDJEZmJ3WVFmNA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTLRH&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - The Long Road Home [NCS Re... Song: Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbFJ4eUJTbXVRbVBZblg3dktod1hIdWJ3X1ZiQXxBQ3Jtc0tuSkVEM0dKOEVYdWRFaDUwd3h3T0RCN1FhdkdOVlRDcUJJQjBmcEg5X3ZQbzlyeTduQkhkbXdJU3RYMTUwWXZJTHlURW9Ha1BoVlAwcUFWMHJINUJSVmNjZ0thMlZuQUVjS2JPQW14OHNyNzZFT0R6SQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2FTooFarGone&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - Too Far Gone [NCS Release] Song: Inukshuk - A World Away [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXZrYmpGQVE2RHZCd1NwM255VjNyMzRzZ2k5d3xBQ3Jtc0tublFqckgxMTBWYm1yTW9qVmtrMDBQM0I4MFlYdHVuQ3hFUlUtc29ZamxoNUYzaEpfWElONER4RnhkbkJSbmQ0VTgyVXlwZXBPU21NYUUxbEhCRF9fQ01UVlpaeHc2Q0g0ZE1NZUxSZk8yVm9xeTMxdw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fncs.io%2Faworldaway&v=rbLQBvmFw-o Watch: • Inukshuk - A World Away [NCS Release] Song: Voicians - Seconds [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream:Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/vestiges-after-dark--3076216/support.

In this episode of The Psychedelic Podcast, Paul F. Austin welcomes Dr. Pedram Shojai, known as The Urban Monk, a former Taoist monk and doctor of Oriental medicine.  Find full show notes and links here: https://thethirdwave.co/podcast/episode-304/?ref=278 Pedram shares his journey from intensive martial arts training under one of the last living descendants of a Daoist monastery to bringing ancient wisdom into modern life. He discusses the challenges of integrating monastic practices into householder living, the relationship between physical vitality and spiritual growth, and offers a balanced perspective on psychedelics. Dr. Shojai explores the importance of strengthening one's vessel before seeking peak experiences, the risks of "shortcut spirituality," and how ancient contemplative practices can help us live with greater presence in today's fast-paced world. Dr. Pedram Shojai is the founder and director of The Urban Monk Academy and the New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, The Urban Monk, The Art of Stopping Time, Inner Alchemy, Exhausted, Trauma, Focus, and Conscious Parenting. He's the producer of the movies Vitality, Origins, Prosperity, and The Great Heist, as well as the docuseries Interconnected, Gateway to Health, Exhausted, Trauma, Conscious Parenting, Hormones Health & Harmony, and Gut Check. He hosts "The Urban Monk" podcast and is a key influencer in the health and personal development space. As a prominent physician in the functional medicine space, he's known for his ability to bring people together around ideas that matter. In his spare time, he's a kung fu–practicing world traveler, a fierce global green warrior, an avid backpacker, a devout alchemist, and an old-school Jedi biohacker working to preserve our natural world and wake us up to our full potential. Episode Highlights:  From Kung Fu to contemplative practice The path of the "fire monk" Strengthening the vessel before spiritual work The life garden: mindful householder practice Vitality as prerequisite for spiritual growth Integrating ancient wisdom into modern life Jing, Qi, and Shen: energy management principles Nervous system preparation for psychedelics Awareness as background process, not app Atlantis origins of contemplative practices Episode Sponsor: These show links may contain affiliate links. Third Wave receives a small percentage of the product price if you purchase through the above affiliate links. Golden Rule Mushrooms - Get a lifetime discount of 10% with code THIRDWAVE at checkout

This is the audio version of the monthly talk i give to premium subscribers on my substack thenightgarden.substack.com.In this episode, I talk about the Daoist (nondual animism) historical ideas & protocols about the month of May, which begins the summer season in the northern hemisphere. I add to this a critical pedagogy lens (ala Paolo Freire) to unpack what I call the "yang derangement syndrome" epidemic in the western, colonial, post-modern worldview and culture.If you want to go deeper, I have the substack, a patreon where I teach classes, and private sessions.

Send us a textWhat if awe begins with remembering? In this episode, co-hosts Belinda Liu and Omar Brownson are joined by Dr. Paul Wang to explore the seasonal shift from budding to blooming—and how the heart holds the wisdom to navigate both. Rooted in Daoist philosophy, plant medicine, and the Gratitude Blooming card of Simplicity, this conversation offers a gentle invitation to slow down, feel more, and choose what truly matters.Don't miss the guided somatic practice at the end of this episode to support your emotional resilience and heart-centered mindfulness this spring.

Have you ever felt trapped by the need for certainty in your life? Allison Carmen, a spiritual teacher, author, and podcaster, shares her journey from being addicted to certainty to embracing the power of "maybe."Allison takes us through her early years, where anxiety and worry dominated her life. She recounts the pivotal moment when a simple Daoist story about a farmer and his horse opened her eyes to a new way of thinking that would change her life forever.From Certainty Addiction to Embracing the UnknownHow Allison's need for certainty affected her daily life and relationshipsThe power of the word "maybe" in shifting perspective and reducing stressLearning to find hope and possibility in life's uncertaintiesNavigating Life's Unexpected TurnsAllison's experience of using her own teachings to cope with a sudden divorceThe importance of accepting what is while maintaining hope for the futureHow embracing uncertainty can lead to personal growth and new opportunitiesCultivating a "Maybe" MindsetPractical ways to incorporate "maybe" thinking into your daily lifeThe difference between using "maybe" as a tool and adopting it as a life perspectiveHow this mindset can help in making decisions and facing challengesAs you listen to this episode, consider:In what areas of your life might you be clinging to certainty?How could adopting a "maybe" mindset change your approach to stress and worry?What possibilities might open up if you embraced uncertainty more fully?This conversation reminds us that life's uncertainties can be a source of hope and potential rather than fear. Allison's journey offers practical insights for anyone looking to reduce anxiety and find more peace in the face of life's unknowns.About Allison CarmenAllison Carmen is an author, TEDx speaker, podcaster, business consultant, and CFO/General Counsel at the Motherhood Center of New York. She holds a B.A. in accounting, a J.D. in law, and a Master of Law in taxation. Allison's books include The Gift of Maybe: Offering Hope and Possibility in Uncertain Times and A Year Without Men: A Twelve Point Guide to Inspire and Empower Women. She also hosts the podcast 10 Minutes to Less Suffering, where she shares tools to help alleviate daily stress. Allison is a regular contributor to Psychology Today, The Daily Beast, and AARP and is a sought-after speaker and media guest.Connect with Allison CarmenWebsite: allisoncarmen.comPodcast: 10 Minutes to Less Suffering on Allison's websiteBooks: Available on Allison's websiteSocial Media: Find Allison on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn via her website.Resources: To listen in on more conversations about pivotal moments that changed lives forever, subscribe to "The Life Shift" on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate the show 5 stars and leave a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Access ad-free episodes released two days early: https://patreon.com/thelifeshiftpodcastSubscribe to The Life Shift Newsletter:

On today's episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, I'm joined by Jiaming Ju @kunhealth, a second-generation traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner and health economist who co-founded Kun Health with her father. From leading one of the world's largest longevity data projects to creating personalised Chinese herbal formulations, Jiaming brings a rare and fascinating perspective to holistic fertility care. We dive deep into the roots of Chinese medicine and its powerful role in treating unexplained infertility, recurrent miscarriage, and postpartum recovery. Jiaming shares why customized herbal medicine—rather than a one-size-fits-all approach—is key, and how stress, liver qi stagnation, and over-medicalisation can often stand in the way of conception. We also discuss the importance of preparing the body and mind for pregnancy, how men's health is often overlooked in fertility journeys, and the practice of wu wei—doing nothing—as a healing principle. This is an eye-opening and empowering conversation for anyone navigating fertility or seeking a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of health, mindset, and tradition. Key Takeaways:  Chinese herbal medicine offers a deeply personalized and effective approach to treating fertility challenges, especially unexplained infertility and miscarriage. Liver qi stagnation and chronic stress are common root causes in fertility struggles. True healing goes beyond quick fixes—it involves preparing the whole body and mind for pregnancy, not just aiming for a positive test. Partner health, especially sperm quality, is often under-acknowledged and under-tested in fertility journeys. Practicing wu wei—intentional rest and non-productivity—can help calm the nervous system and enhance reproductive health. Guest Bio: Jiaming Ju is the co-founder of KUN Health, where she partners with her father to offer personalised Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) care rooted in decades of lineage and wisdom. Before stepping into the world of herbal medicine, Jiaming led one of the largest global data projects on aging, spanning from New York to Singapore. With a background in health economics and longevity research, she brings a unique perspective to healing—bridging ancient Chinese traditions with modern insights. Together with her father, she helps individuals restore balance, improve fertility, and honour the heritage of Chinese medicine through customised herbal formulations and deep one-on-one care. Websites/Social Media Links: Learn more about KUN Health hereFollow Jiaming Ju in Instagram —------------- For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com To learn more about ancient wisdom and fertility, you can get Michelle's book at: https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility The Wholesome Fertility facebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ _____ Transcript: **Michelle Oravitz:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the podcast Jiaming.  **Jiaming Ju:** Thank you for having me.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yes. I would love for you to share your background. I know you're second generation, um, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, which is really cool. Um, I love the fact that you actually have your roots there and your father does too, and I feel like. That kind of takes it to a whole other level when you're working and learning from your parents. So I'd love to hear your background and have you share it with the listeners. **Jiaming Ju:** Uh, so I'm a health economist first. So I was in health, I was in economics basically for 10 years. Um, and. I think before Covid I was running one of the largest think tank on longevity, uh, data collecting in the world at the time in Singapore. Um, and then I came back to the States in 2019 and decided to [00:01:00] retrain for four years. It takes four years in California. And then, um, that's when also around the same time I opened Quinn.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Awesome. So, um, do you Longevity? I think of longevity and I think about fertility. 'cause a lot of times when we treat fertility, we're actually doing a lot of anti-aging. Um, we don't call it that 'cause we're working on mitochondria and really kind of getting the health, um, of the eggs and the uterine lining. So tell us about your experience with fertility and what you've, um, what you've seen. In practice. **Jiaming Ju:** Well, I mean, I work with a lot of people who have unexplained infertility. That's actually an area that, um, that I work a lot in. And, uh, this applies to both men and women among my patients. So I will have. A lot of patients who, uh, you know, they probably had a failed, failed rounds of IVF. [00:02:00] Um, and then that's when we work together. I also have a lot of patients, um, who have repetitive miscarriage, uh, which is increasingly, uh, common, unfortunately. And then I also work with a lot of women on postpartum, which is more on the traditional side, as you know, in Chinese medicine.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yes, and so I know that we often get asked this, and I get asked this too, but I love always hearing the different perspectives on Chinese medicine. To explain to people in layman terms, why does acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I know Chinese medicine's a big umbrella. Acupuncture is really one part. I think most people think just acupuncture, but of course there's MOA herbs. I mean, there's so many different things. There's also auricular, you can get really detailed on that. So can you explain what Chinese medicine could do really to regulate periods, to regulate ovulation? Just kind of help fertility.[00:03:00]  **Jiaming Ju:** Well, I mean, first off, I think I grew up in the Chinese medicine family business, so to me it's very bizarre when people separate them. Um, you  **Michelle Oravitz:** the acupuncture and the herbs and the, **Jiaming Ju:** treatment from the, herbal treatment. However, I think, um, customized herbal formulation has always been the elitist form of Chinese medicine. It takes a lot of family lineage. Um, you know, pre bottled stuff aside for the modern human really, you know, whether you have fertility issues or not is really that one has to take a one-on-one approach to effectively treat something that's very complex. So having said that, um, I only work at Quinn for customized herbal formulation, so we don't do, although I'm licensed, I don't do acupuncture, uh,  **Michelle Oravitz:** Oh, got it. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought you did acupuncture as  **Jiaming Ju:** no I don't.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Oh, okay.  **Jiaming Ju:** We have all of you guys who are.  **Michelle Oravitz:** actually, um, I know in China they do separate it. A lot of times people will get really, really [00:04:00] focused on one aspect.  **Jiaming Ju:** Um, yes and no. I think in if, because in China and Korea they have TCM hospitals, right? So you have different departments where post-stroke, you go first off to the acupuncture people, which is the physical therapy part of Chinese medicine. And then. Depending on the severity of the stroke, you likely will get customized herbal formulation on top of that. Um, I usually say that, um, acupuncture is amazing, is like a great deep spring cl that everyone needs it often, um, customized herbal formulation and diagnosis is more like a renovation, so they're entirely different projects. I think when you consider a human as a house, right, you're building a house, you need, you have different needs. Um, in terms of female, I think we go back to the topic. I always like to talk about how, uh, women are fundamentally very, very important in Chinese medicine [00:05:00] because Chinese historically are obsessed with babies. Um, so this is the reason why a long time ago in all these empress, like, you know, like palaces, you will have. Uh, a whole college of hundreds of royal physicians, and they're all Chinese medicine doctors. And their goals are not only to keep, to make sure the emperor can live for as long as possible, is to make sure all these concubines can produce as many kids as possible. So this is why I think the, the practice, um, has a lot more interest in the history, right? The history is being that. We love kids and you want, China has one of the largest population in the world throughout history and you know, so it has a lot of that. You want kids and you need to care about women's health. So in a nutshell, I really like what you mentioned before, like when I actively worked as a, basically a longevity economist and my job was to advise countries in terms of, um, you know, fertility policies, aging population, right? How can you encourage, [00:06:00] and I often say that women's. Women friendly policies are essentially longevity policies. You don't have women giving birth to kids, then you won't have a, you know, sustainable population. This is one of the same. So I really liked you pointed that out. That is totally right. I think not many people think like that. Um. And so in a nutshell, like there is the historical interest then that would mean that in terms of research, there is the interest in the research, there is interest in data, there is, uh, Chinese medicine has been around for 3000 years and gynecology in particular in that field has been around for 3000 years. This is very different with how western medicine has developed. Right? Like c-section technique for example, was developed, I dunno, a hundred years ago, like it is very. It's, it is, it is. So it's really like not comparable in terms of history, even sheer patient number and uh, patient cases. So I think Chinese medicine really in many ways excel in understanding women's health [00:07:00] and fertility. I.  **Michelle Oravitz:** For sure. And I, I always say like with medicine, one of the key things that you wanna look at is how well does it age And Chinese medicine ages really well. So a lot of times you'll see new things, new pharmaceuticals, and then a couple years later you find out it's not as great and then something else comes out with Chinese medicine. I mean, it looks at nature, it really looks at like the elements of nature. That is something that is consistent. It's just part of really understanding that and then understanding ourselves. So I think that that is so cool about Chinese medicine. **Jiaming Ju:** Right. The internal is very much so the physical, right. I have, I'm sure you have too, a lot of patients who on the surface they're like. Really healthy. Uh, but they haven't had a period for three years. So, you know, this is, this is not, and then they will spend the money on Botox. But which then you're like, okay, you look good for maybe a [00:08:00] month, and then you have to do this again. Right. It, it is very different perspective. I think, um, many people say that, you know, why do, for example, in the practice of, uh, postpartum recovery, right? I'm sure you see it, and I see it a lot from the practice where. People who don't have, who are not on top of their health condition, especially in terms of digestive health. I'm more prone to have thyroid issues or, you know, uh, preeclampsia in the last trimester and then post burst. This doesn't only drag their health just downhill. And then also impact how you're going to have a second kid or a third kid if you want to. It really completely like, you know. Like it really completely wrecks your house in a ways that you didn't even see this coming. And that is a completely different perspective, right? Because often I will have patients who say that, oh, you are the first person who listens. How do you know I have these issues? Before I even tell you, I. It is really patterns. And I go back because [00:09:00] I am a nerd and I am an economist. Like I go back to data collecting Chinese medicine like in my father's, you know, practice. Like he will start seeing a kid at the age from the age of five and then she's, he sees the same kid when the kid is 35. You see a person's in a whole families right Conditions throughout their whole life, and That's The best possible data collection you can dream of, and you can think of. This is not just a, oh, here is some pills for antidepressant, for postpartum depression. Like give a women a pill like that. They will still have gazillion other issues, like what does this solve? And you will hear often for people who have postpartum depression, for example, right? Like they will then be dependent on depre antidepressant for the rest of their life. Then one questions. What does that serve? Right? Where does that put you as a human? Do you feel like you are out of control for your own health? Um, so Yeah. it's a different approach.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yeah, completely. Uh, it's interesting you say about [00:10:00] antidepressants because I feel like it's almost, um, a screen in between me and the person. I feel like I'm not able to fully get through to the person with the treatments because there's something in the middle, in the way I. And um, and of course I don't tell them just stop because I know that that is a whole process. They have to be under the care of a doctor and tell them how to come out of it, because it's not something that you can just suddenly take out. I often feel like that. And I'd much rather if I can just treat it with nothing else, it'll be a lot easier. And then another thing too is um, that I thought you said that was really interesting and true is, um, you know, I think a lot of times often people just want that positive pregnancy, but you talked about something that is actually crucial. If people want a healthy pregnancy and then also healthy afterwards for more kids, you really have to think big picture and not just quick fix. And I [00:11:00] think that we're so conditioned for the quick fix that we don't think about the whole garden and really tending the soil. And I always think about it like that. It's like, yeah, we could throw a seed in and maybe that's gonna sprout. But if we don't give it the conditions it needs, those roots aren't gonna go deep and it's not gonna be a sustainable, like rooted sprout, which I think similar with pregnancy, you want not just pregnancy, but you want a healthy pregnancy, and you also want a healthy mom and baby. You need it all. It's not like you can have an unhealthy mom, healthy baby. You have to have the whole picture working together. **Jiaming Ju:** I think that's why like many people getting on IVF, and if you consider it a percentage of success rate for IVF is actually not that high. Right? Um, and then everyone is, and a lot of people are disappointed because they feel like I paid all this money and I, I, I got it. Why is it not happening? I think first off is because we're all conditioned to think that pregnancy is such a simple thing, right? You do it and you'll get [00:12:00] pregnant. Uh, the, in Chinese medicine we always say mental is the physical and vice versa. The impact of stress of our day-to-day demand, of being a modern human, whatever, whatever that means, has a huge number in other fertility potential, right? I often says to, I often say to my, uh, patients, um, and I say like, you know, often because. My patients might, in the middle of it, they're, they didn't come to see me For, fertility, but like after they healed from like long covid or something, they're like, I want to have kids. You know? Now I can really think about it and I will usually say that, you know, definitely be careful with like when you wanna get pregnant, because the healthier you are, the fertile you are, the more fertile you are. Often I think in this society where we talk about IVF technology, ever since it has been introduced, it has become a thing where people feel like, oh, so long as I do it right, I will, it will happen. And often people get very disappointed when [00:13:00] it doesn't happen. And I'm sure you see in your practice a a lot in recent, in the past five years, you know the, there is an increasing percentage of people who have to DOIs. IVF like twice or three times and still maybe without success. Right? Um, so I think there is a lot of, um, a lot to be said about looking at fertility, not just as a functionality that you as a woman or you as a human will just somehow have, but it's really about your overall health, right? Like, and I often talk to people who have repetitive miscarriage. I'm like, your digestive health is everything. Who is gonna carry the baby is gonna be you. Now, if you are having, already having like nausea, dry gagging, like five times a day, even when you're not pregnant, your chances of basically having repetitive miscarriage is probably quite high, right? So we have to fix what's, what is the fundamental thing. It is. Not that let's have a kid, because often [00:14:00] I, um, and I very, I talk about this not very often. But I do treat kids, and you often see a lot of kids who have incredible intolerance for food early in age is due to the fact that mother had a very difficult pregnancy.  Um, so this is very much so linked. It's not, like you said, it's not like the mother has to be in perfect house. So you have a chance, the mother and father in perfect house. So you have a chance of this baby being in perfect house often, even if you could get pregnant, if you have a kid who has so many problems, um, in the first two or three years there, basically. Um, you know, there was one time with a patron of mine who, when he came to see me, he was two and a half years old and he was basically deemed a failure to thrive because he couldn't gain weight and he was having leg diarrhea. Often. He was having crazy eczema. And then you find out the mom during [00:15:00] pregnancy and before pregnancy had a lot of issues. So this is all interlinked. Yeah.  **Michelle Oravitz:** it really is. Another thing I see often is people who do IVF and then they go to the doctor and the doctor says, well, you barely have anything. You really need to start immediately. And I always encourage them, spend a little time prote, you know, preparing yourself if they've never, if they haven't come to me and I say, you're much better off waiting a few months. Taking care of yourself, nourishing yourself, then doing IVF, then rushing into it. 'cause we're just looking at numbers and not kind of thinking about the quality and the preparation.  **Jiaming Ju:** Mm-hmm. ' **Michelle Oravitz:** cause in three months, it's not like you're gonna just lose everything. It's gonna just drop off a cliff. I mean, it's gonna be a few more months. You're gonna be in much better position. **Jiaming Ju:** I think that's totally true. I mean, in, in the old country, in East Asia, when you prepare for pregnancy, six months is very standard. That's when your partner quits smoking. They quit drinking, you know, you both eat [00:16:00] healthy. All of those stuff, Right. Um, and in this country we don't, it's almost like nobody necessarily prepare it. Everyone just expect it would just happen until it doesn't happen after a while and suddenly it goes from, oh, I'm really casual about it, to now I'm in a panic. I must do IVF. Right? Um, and. A large, obviously unexplained infertility has a lot to do with, there are multiple root causes. One of the most common ones I have seen is actually intense liver g stagnation, where often a women consider themselves as a failure for not being able to get pregnant. And the more you and I usually be able to tell with a patient when the first, for the first consultation, they'll say, I need to be pregnant by this date. **Michelle Oravitz:** Right. **Jiaming Ju:** You're not a machine, we're not ai. It doesn't work like that. And often, I also, I don't know whether you experienced this in your practice as well, but I [00:17:00] often, uh, I always ask about better the partner, uh, or whoever, is the sperm donor better? They have tested, oftentimes they have not.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yeah, I agree.  **Jiaming Ju:** has done all the  work then,  **Michelle Oravitz:** I've seen that a lot and and sometimes the doctors don't even mention it.  **Jiaming Ju:** Right. And it is shocking to me because as we all know. through research, uh, I believe it was the newest study done using collective data from Europe, uh, the sperm quality, both in terms of speed and quality per say, is 50% lower than like. 20, 30 years ago, and this is understandable due to drugs, due to not sleeping, due to not taking care of ourselves, Right. Due to stress. So why is it always that we're plowing the field of a women? And I always say this, I said the worst thing would be I'm p plowing your field. And the seed is subpar then. So,  **Michelle Oravitz:** Correct.  **Jiaming Ju:** right? Like, it's so, like, it's So easy. for the man to get checked. [00:18:00] It takes no time at all.  **Michelle Oravitz:** I know. **Jiaming Ju:** So like how is it in this, like, you know. this is almost common sense both in terms of money, in terms of time, get your, get your sperm donor, you know, partner  checked first. Um, it's, uh, It is interesting. **Michelle Oravitz:** It is for sure. And then also, I mean it's, what's interesting is, yeah, you can get checked and everything looks normal and they're like, everything's perfect. But then the DNA might have something off, which. A normal analysis does not cover that. It's a special test that people take after, and usually they won't do that unless there were like miscarriages or there were failures with, um, the embryos to grow. So they'll, they'll then they'll check the sperm. DNA fragmentation. **Jiaming Ju:** It is always a little too late. And interestingly, um, I think even given my own experience, like I have two kids and they were born in different, two different countries, and I. Uh, [00:19:00] the second one who was born in the us I think the, the, even the md, the gynecologist like checkup is very minimum. There was, you know, like if you want like a, a better, clearer picture, you gotta pay more. Like there is like, I think the, the, the standard of what women are provided in this country in terms of like basic, you know, um, like a, a basic kind of gynecological service, um, throughout is very low compared to other countries. Uh, but I mean that also creates a lot of. Tension and anxiety from first time moms. Right. You don't know. And then you show up and then you said you're having some pain and doctor's like, it's okay. And then You know, there  **Michelle Oravitz:** supported because you know, internally something's off. Like, you're like, I know something's off. I'm not crazy, but like, ah, you're fine. It's in your head.  **Jiaming Ju:** right. And I think through and, and I think that's really the fundamental difference between [00:20:00] Chinese medicine and western medicine. Right. Chinese medicine. This is why a lot of people ask me, they're like, you're a Columbia educated economist. You wrote for the Economist magazine, and then you know, you run Nobel Prize winner think tank like, but like Chinese medicine, it must be so different. It's actually not. Health economics is all about getting subjective health data from. The person you interview, that's not so different from what, what we do in Chinese medicine. It's about you being the patient who knows best about your health, right? So if you say you have a pain, you have a pain, I'm, I'm don't live in your body. I don't get to judge you. I think this is also the reason why so many people feel heard. Chinese medicine clinics, um, where they feel like you're just another pregnant person, like time is up, you are leaving. So it's um, it's a very different process. Yeah.  **Michelle Oravitz:** It is such a different process and I actually remember myself the first time I went to an [00:21:00] acupuncturist. This is like kind of what started it all. I was, uh, in a completely different career and I all I could get from every single doctor I went to was the birth control pills. And people hear hearing this, a lot of my listeners already know my story, but it was just basically I had irregular periods and that was the only answer I can get. Never made sense to me on a intuitive sense. I was like, this just doesn't make sense. There's gotta be something. They're like, Nope, that's just your body. The only time you can have normal periods is if you take this. So I went through 12 years of that and the first time I met. My first doctor, Dr. Lee, who's from China, and he actually happened to specialize in gynecology. He sat with me and one of the biggest takeaways, like the biggest impacts that it had, was him listening to me and asking me questions and showing me interest in every part of my life. And I was like, wow, this is crazy. This is so cool. I've never gotten this much attention from anybody [00:22:00] on like, what's going on in my body? **Jiaming Ju:** right.  **Michelle Oravitz:** And then, um, so that was really fascinating. Of course, that did change my period and I was resolved. I, I did the, you know, real raw herbals and the acupuncture. But then also, uh, looking back when I went to school, one of my teachers said, and it kind of like never left my mind that part of the healing, like the therapy starts before a needle goes in. Just by listening and the second you feel heard, that by itself has an impact on your healing. **Jiaming Ju:** Right. The, the physical is mental and that is, um, observed and in every single way we treat patients. I have, I would just say like 90% of my patients not only have like physical ailments, they have a lot of like mental. Concerns as well. Right. Um, and usually as both the, the [00:23:00] mental improved physical improvement and vice versa. And this usually seems very, like, it's like a huge surprise or a big relief to the patients because they're like you. I mean, I, I didn't have to take antidepressant pill for this whole time. Right. Um, it's, I think is, is is, it is a very interesting. Myth we are told, um, and I, I don't mean this as a, as a, something like a, like I'm simply raising this as a question. How is it that we all come in different shape and form, race, color, experience, lifestyle, choices, all of that, and sexes. And then when you say, okay, someone is suppressed, you give everybody exactly the same. The only thing that varies is in the dosage. **Michelle Oravitz:** Yep. **Jiaming Ju:** Isn't that weird?  **Michelle Oravitz:** Mm-hmm.  **Jiaming Ju:** Right? Like it, and if you ask people who are depressed, um, I'll give you an example because I have a lot of A DHD patients, um, [00:24:00] especially, um, and The first thing I always ask when I examine the tongue, um, for A DHD patients is better. You have anemia. And often they do. Um, but as we know in Chinese medicine, even if the lab says you don't have anemia, your tongue can tell me you have anemia. The, the chance of you being anemic and showing a DHD symptoms is very high. So is that actually a DHD or not? Oftentimes is actually not true. A DHD. This is the reason why a lot of women who, uh, thought they have a DHD got on A DHD medication and then they crash when they don't take the medication, right, their energy crash, their focus crash. Then if, I mean, this is really a questions like if you take something, it works. The minute you stop, it doesn't work. Did they ever work? Right. It's almost  **Michelle Oravitz:** it resolve it? It's not resolving, it's not a, a true solution.  **Jiaming Ju:** Right. And then [00:25:00] when we talk about pregnancy, it's a similar process, Right. Is this just we implant a child in your body? Great. I'm glad technology works, but I think if I recall back in the days when, uh, IVF was invented, It was not supposed to be used so widely in today's environment. It was for, I believe, for specific reason, Right. There was a, a really strong infertility, I believe structurally for. Was it the researcher? We invented it. So like it was not supposed to be. It's the same thing with C-section. It was not supposed to be widely used. Like today's, I remember when I lived in Singapore, uh, C-section was so popular. It was like, you can pick your date. It was a thing you can pick, pick a auspicious date to give birth to your child, and everyone goes to have a csection on the same day. It wasn't designed like that. It wasn't meant to be used like that. So I think. Modern human need of getting things done. [00:26:00] Like I need to have a child. Here is the child, and here the child is delivered like this need of doing, boom, boom, boom. Just click on your life. To-do list is preventing us to see the garden you talked about is preventing us from really taking care of ourselves and really do the way that we are supposed to do that. Nature enables it because we probably wants too much. I don't know.  **Michelle Oravitz:** It's a too quick to, you know, quick fix. It's, it's going against the dao. It's going against that present moment, that being present because I, my theory or 'cause it wasn't really something that I specifically learned, but like, the more present you are, the more life force q you have because you, in this portal, your energy, your attention, like you said, no separation between the mind and the body. So the more present we are, the more energy could be here. If our minds are here and then it's somewhere else, or our bodies are just here and our minds somewhere else, we're scattered all over the place. [00:27:00] And, uh, so let's actually go back 'cause I thought that was really interesting what you were saying about the liver chi, like really, really severe liver cheese stagnation. Uh, for people listening, I've talked about the liver before, but liver cheese stagnation is severe stress. It's really being, to me it's kinda like being in major fight or flight chronically. **Jiaming Ju:** Mm-hmm. And it is interesting because the liver store is the blood. So some people will say like, especially, it's funny because I lived in New York for a long time and I will always spot a patient from New York, uh, from a mile away because whenever you ask them like, are you stressed? They're like, no, they look really stressed, but they're like, no, I can't handle it. This is intense Stress.  Handling it, you know,  doesn't  **Michelle Oravitz:** first of all, I lived in New York, so I know exactly what you're talking about. 'cause I'm a re recovering New Yorker. And then secondly ahead, I have a, like, I have a patient I could just picture in my head right now. I'm like, how are you doing? Everything's perfect. Everything's fine. Sleep is good. Good, good, good. Great. You know, and I'm like, she, and, [00:28:00] and then like every needle that goes in, oh, oh, you know, she's. **Jiaming Ju:** I think this is the hardest lesson in life. Um, I feel. Um, is to desire something and not getting it, like, either, not on your timeline or like not the way you want it. And I think, um, liver cheese stagnation is exactly that. I mean, traditionally we say, oh, it's anger is more manifested in road rage. But really in today's society, I like to interpret liver cheese technician manifested in ways. That is like a mild, like a irritability, like a constant irritability. You're just waiting people to, to do something wrong and you are snap at them, right? We are all familiar with that kind  **Michelle Oravitz:** It's resistance. It's resistance to life.  **Jiaming Ju:** frustration, right? You're like constantly frustrated. Someone [00:29:00] else got a promotion, you think you are deserve the promotion, you're not seeing anything frustration. It is. What you think in your head you deserve. And the reality, and there is a gross, like mismatching here. Um, and I, every single time I have a patient who comes because of, you know, infertility issues and I will always spend so much time talking to them about their psychology, like mental health. I, the way I do consultations. I have a huge part, at least I think. Total 30% of my total questions about the mental this matters in particular to people who have been having difficulty pregnant because, and I explain it to my patients like this, if you are so stagnant, if your body is so full of stagnation and cheat, where do you think a baby can sit? The baby. The baby has nowhere to sit. There is no room for the child. And [00:30:00] that in a way. Is indeed the hardest lesson because to be pregnant, to be a parent to me personally, I think is the hardest thing in life is, is the uncertainty. You can do everything you do. Right, right. In, in parenthood. You don't know how it's gonna turn out, and this is, this process actually start from getting pregnant. Like so many people feel so certain, oh, I just do it, you know, a couple of times. And during ovulation I will be pregnant. It doesn't work like that in Chinese medicine. You know, when it advocates for healthy pregnancy, it is the Jing, it is the Chi, it is the Ansys, it is the spirit and body of you and your partner.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yep. **Jiaming Ju:** I'm not even a religious person, but I would say that is rather agno agno agnostic like process, right? Because it depends. You need a bit of luck For a [00:31:00] person who is intensely chi stagnant, they don't believe in luck. You, I'm, I don't know whether you've checked this with your patients,  **Michelle Oravitz:** yeah. No, they, they put everything on their shoulders. They think that it's all up to them, and that's why they feel like they need to control, and it's being in that fight or flight because you're in survival mode. And when you're in survival mode, there's not plenty to go around. You need to scrounge and you need to work, and you need to fight to get whatever you need. And that's, um, that's ultimately, you know, from an observer's perspective. Yeah, that's what I see. **Jiaming Ju:** Right. And it is, you will see whenever that happens, you know, it's almost like you as a provider, you are being told like. This is the only thing you're doing. You're, you're giving me a child and then like, this is never gonna work. This is never gonna work because liver cheese stagnation. Really, I feel like clinically is one of the major reasons for unexplained fertility. And that in turn frustrates the person even more because you're telling them structurally there is nothing wrong, [00:32:00] but they just cannot get pregnant no matter what they do. Right. Um, so this is already a deeply frustrating process and telling them that, leave it to. Just follow the protocol and leave it to fate. And you, I will always notice that 50, not 50%, like you always have like 20% of people or 30% of people who are just not, they'll ask you like, what are the best thing I can eat to make this happen faster? Right? Like, what, what is, um, you're going against what you, you know, you're, you're doing exactly the opposite of what you're supposed to. Um, but that is hard. I think  **Michelle Oravitz:** It is hard. Yeah. It, it's, it's one of those things that is often missed and I, I, I actually wrote a book about that. 'cause in the book I don't give any diet tips or anything. Like, I'm like, that's not what's needed. Because everybody can look up like the best diet and there's plenty of great books about what can help. And of course everybody's different and, you know, really understanding kind of your own sensitivities and et cetera. But. [00:33:00] My point is, is that many times people going through the fertility journey are actually very smart. They're very educated, and they educate themselves on. Supplements and what to do. And so they're, they, they have that down, but that's not what it's about. I mean, it's about also the nervous system and I, I say the nervous system 'cause it's more late layman terms, but it's ultimately what the QI does. Like the QI needs to move and to flow. And if we're in this fight or flight, it's stagnates. And so you see that often? **Jiaming Ju:** I think that's really true because it is really about the difficult, the most difficult thing in life is to dive into uncertainty.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Mm-hmm. **Jiaming Ju:** You have two types of people who, well, you have three types. One type who just like go with the flow, right? Nothing wrong with that. You have one type who always wanna get ahead before everybody else. They always wanna know everything that's supposed to be done, it comes to being pregnant, having a healthy delivery, [00:34:00] that's actually not how it works. And I think that's, you gotta have a openness. To say, I'm going to dive into this uncertainty because you know what, when a baby is here, when you have to raise this child, right, um, you're gonna need that when they start going to school or even when you homeschool them. It doesn't matter. Like you cannot control everything. And I think that is a very important thing that, uh, really starts even during pregnancy preparation.  **Michelle Oravitz:** You know, I will say it's kind of like meeting the love of your life  **Jiaming Ju:** Right,  **Michelle Oravitz:** and you're not like, you are gonna be the one that I marry. You know, you can't, you, it doesn't work like that. Then the person's gonna wanna run, run away.  **Jiaming Ju:** right. you. can't just come with your list and be like, well, You check every single list here. Right. Um.  **Michelle Oravitz:** it's gotta be a little more romantic and have those, you know, moments of quiet and silence and, and kind of have this dance [00:35:00] happen. **Jiaming Ju:** Yeah. But you know, I, I think the world has in increasingly, has increasingly become a place where. People want bandage solutions. And I think that where, uh, the economy, if you're looking at some like rising industries, that that's what it gives like, right? A product. This is especially the case in America where it's all about something has a product, right? Like what is the one-off solution you could give to that? But things where humans have been doing for centuries, like procreation. Defies the odd of that, no matter how many one-off Band-aid solutions you're gonna have, it's not going to click. And I keep telling this to all my patients who not only just for fertility, but for every odd syndromes under sun, as I have a lot of patients who have very difficult, complex disorders, [00:36:00] is that. When you commit to something that is trying to get pregnant or trying to get better, it's like when you go to a Taoist pimple or you go to any church or any religious place you go and you put a slice of your peace of your heart and peace of your mind there because you are really committed right in that given moment. And that's all I'm asking for as a provider. Um, I always don't always go into it with. But what about this? What about this? What about this? Like, why don't we settle this one first? Um, so, you know, talk about nervous system. You can come down first. Otherwise your nervous system is all over the place where you are like, you're not doing anything like, you know, fully. So.  **Michelle Oravitz:** And what other suggestions do you ever give people, um, suggestions that they could do outside of the. What you're helping [00:37:00] them with. Because I would typically say even like you can come in, do the acupuncture, even take the herbs and supplements. But if you're going back and having a crazy stressful time, then it's going to pretty much negate a lot of what we did. So I'll suggest things even like rounding or spending a little time in the morning of silence or peace just to kind of get themselves into a partnership really with me on their health. **Jiaming Ju:** Um. We have a 16 page behavior report that we customize for every single new patient, um, that I will hold 'em to it. That includes  nutrition and also lifestyle tips for people who try to get pregnant specifically. Um, I give, like, I consider this not as tips. I consider this as just like you need to do it is to get your [00:38:00] husband or your partner or whoever donates the sperm tested as soon as possible and making sure they're not drinking like six. Bottles of beer a day. Like, you know, like if you're in this like, you know, situation prep, pre uh, preparing for pregnancy, they should too. Um, and I usually advocate for morning intercourse rather than night intercourse. During ovulation to increase the chances. Um, and there are a bunch of specific ones. I usually give like on a patient to patient base, but I also will tell people to, um, spend at least one or two hours of, of a day to practice the Daoist principle of Uwe. **Michelle Oravitz:** I love that. That's my favorite, by the way.  **Jiaming Ju:** and I, you know, your New York patients will be like, no. But like, um, can I actually go cycling during that time? I'm like, no. The point of Uwe is you do nothing productive. [00:39:00] Then they have, you put them in a conundrum because they're like, then I'm just wasting my time. I'm like, no.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Wait, so people who don't know wwe, can you explain. **Jiaming Ju:** So WWE is the Daoist principle of doing nothing. Um, it's a practice I regularly issue to people to forcefully calm their mind. So I give a bunch of suggestions through what you can do for your wwe. Like for example, uh, you can knit, but not because. You're knitting for a nephew or something, you're learning to knit, not because you're good at it, it is because you want to. So it's to completely deviate from a lifestyle where we are chasing daily achievement all the time, right? It's more about resting your body and mind and focus on what matters on the present, which traditionally you to think it doesn't matter. So one of my favorite thing, even when I lived in New York City, was to really sit in a random coffee shop and just sit there, read my book or like judge [00:40:00] people's sense of fashion. So I will like people judge when I'm in the cafes. Like, what did you do during that time? Nothing. But I always feel like, great.  **Michelle Oravitz:** But it's like effortless effort. You're still there. It's not like you're totally inactive. You're, you're still there, but you're like in this neutral flow  state.  **Jiaming Ju:** Right, and then that's very important because there is nothing more difficult to a person who tries to get pregnant than thinking they're losing time. They're being told that they're losing time. They're late by every possible doctor under the sun. But you know, that is a time, is a, being late or not is a relative concept, as we say in Chinese medicine,  **Michelle Oravitz:** It's true. **Jiaming Ju:** So oftentimes you'll see people like signing off for IVF, not because they're physical ready, It's because they are told they are short on time, right? You don't do this now, you can't do it in three months. But statistics don't work like that. Like you said, you know, [00:41:00] within three months, your body's not going to dramatically change. You, you must well spend the time to take care of yourself, then really increase your chances rather than, I'm gonna dive into this when I'm super stressed. Um, pinning so much hope on this. Um, so yeah, again, I mean, I, I think that's really the thing, like having a child and being pregnant is not just something you must do in life. It's a, it's more than that. It's a mild, it's, it's, um. It's a face in life. One doesn't have to have it, but if you do decide to have it, I, I really think that people need to take a broader view on it.  **Michelle Oravitz:** 100%. I think that is so beautifully put because it is a big picture and it's um, you can't just take the part and then look at the part and say, okay, that's it. You have to look at like. How it interplays and works together as a [00:42:00] whole organism. And that's when you get the big picture. And, um, yeah. And I think about like, you know, the yin and the yang, you know, being too young all the time, you're gonna burn out the yin and that's ultimately the nervous system right there, having that balance. **Jiaming Ju:** Yeah, exactly. I think the society demands us to constantly deliver.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Mm-hmm. **Jiaming Ju:** The question is, what are you delivering? There isn't a return policy for a parent once the child is here. You are responsible for them for life. Um, so this is not just, I'm just, I just wanna get pregnant. This is a how it's going to completely transform your life wrecking you because your identity will be rewritten the minute you are pregnant, uh, when you become a parent. Um, and I think people need to probably, you know, take it, I always say like, take it more seriously, but [00:43:00] also take it less seriously. I. Because I think people take it really seriously on the, am I pregnant or not pregnant part, Right. But that don't take that too seriously, but like people need to consider what that means. The implication at your health more seriously.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Yeah, for sure. And so if people, and it's, it, it really helps to have somebody to work with because I think that. There's a lot of reminders that can be done from somebody who's looking at it more objectively and not in it because it's very hard to understand, um, what you're sharing if you're not working with somebody else. And I think that that's like the benefit on top of obviously getting the therapy, but also getting, you know, the treatments and also. Getting that perspective because when you're too in it, it's very hard to decipher. So I think that that is very priceless. Um, so for people who want to work with you, what do you offer? **Jiaming Ju:** [00:44:00] I think the, if you're interested in, and I always say this as a dare and those are kinds of my favorite tongue, tongue readings to do, is that people who say like, no, I won't tell you anything. I just give you my tongue, and then they're completely in shock when I spell out all your, their life secrets. So I think That's the number one thing you can do. Um, and in these tongue readings, I also give three quick suggestions, but I give a very good overview of like what you're not telling me about what's happening, wizard Health. Um, and that's a very fun thing to do. 'cause everyone has a tongue, right? And tongue reading is one of the most traditional things we offer in Chinese medicine. Uh, but usually the serious, more serious part. Is the one-on-one consultation with me online. And um, and then customized herbal formulation. I would say like 95% of my one-on-one patients on customized herbal formulation. And then. We do the monthly follow up for [00:45:00] that. And then there is also a bunch of digital small booklets, recipe books like that we, um, that I have written. For example, I have a postpartum recipe booklet that I highly recommend for anybody who is pregnant. And you don't know what, what really you heard about this myth about Chinese women eating different things postpartum. You don't know what that is. Uh, I wrote. A 20 page I believe, recipe book that  includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snack. Uh, for that. So That's a lot of like self study resources as well. Yeah, **Michelle Oravitz:** That's great. Um, sounds awesome. And you do raw herbs.  **Jiaming Ju:** no, I only do gran.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Oh, granule, which is so easy, but it also is effective because it's easy to digest, easier  **Jiaming Ju:** right. And everything is made to order. So we have patients from Scotland to, to Singapore. It's, it. is we, so it's, uh, everything is made to order and I co-write a formula with my dad for every single [00:46:00] patient. So,  **Michelle Oravitz:** Fantastic. And how can people find you? **Jiaming Ju:** Uh, you can follow us at Quinn House, KUN House. Uh, I believe we're on TikTok as well, but I never check TikTok. I'm a little bit scared of TikTok, so, um, Instagram is my  **Michelle Oravitz:** It's funny, I never got into TikTok too. I just do reels on Instagram. I just love Instagram. **Jiaming Ju:** Yeah, I think TikTok is a little bit of a wild scenario, but, um, yeah, Instagram is where I, I think do the most, so.  **Michelle Oravitz:** Awesome. Well, it was such a pleasure talking to you. You sound like a wealth of knowledge and I love your perspective and really how you understand, um, really from diet and, and also herbals, which is an art in itself. So thank you so much for coming on today. It was such a pleasure talking to you.  **Jiaming Ju:** you. [00:47:00]     

From Cocaine Cowboy to Mindfulness Mentor: Transforming Lives Host John Duffin sits down with Bob Martin, a former high-profile defense attorney turned educator and mindfulness expert. Bob discusses his journey from being labeled the 'Cocaine Cowboy' during his time defending notorious criminals to finding redemption through mindfulness and meditation. The conversation covers the importance of finding your authentic voice, the transformative power of meditation, and practical approaches to overcoming emotional and moral conflicts. Bob also shares insights into how he uses his decades of experience in law and education to guide others towards a happier, more fulfilling life.Martin shares his own gritty journey, touching on his transformative experiences, including his time as a 'cocaine cowboy' lawyer in Miami and his eventual shift to mindful living after meeting a Daoist master. He highlights the fundamental principles of meditation and mindfulness, emphasizing the cultivation of positive attributes like loving-kindness and empathy. Through personal anecdotes and practical examples, Martin illustrates the power of mindfulness in overcoming negative narratives and achieving a balanced, fulfilling life. The episode also explores effective teaching methods for mindfulness, combining technological tools with personalized coaching to ensure sustained practice and profound transformation.When you want to learn more about Bob Martin, check out the links below. bob@awiseandhappylife.comhttps://www.awiseandhappylife.com/home/LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-martin-995b30127/When you are ready to share your story with me, on PodMatch, click the link to get "Your Message Received!"https://www.joinpodmatch.com/duffin_jd00:57 Meet Bob Martin: Mindfulness Leader01:49 Finding Your Authentic Voice07:06 The Role of a Defense Attorney12:51 A Life-Changing Encounter14:16 The Power of Mindfulness and Meditation22:30 Applying Mindfulness in Everyday Life32:03 The Power of Digital Meditation32:26 Understanding Meditation: It's Not About Quieting the Mind33:06 The Wandering Mind: Evolution and Modern Stress35:53 The Practice of Meditation: Returning and Beginning Again36:38 Building Mental Strength and Metacognition42:11 The Role of a Meditation Coach43:07 Combining App and Teacher for Effective Meditation46:02 Addressing Obstacles in Meditation Practice47:30 Emotional Awareness and Grounding Techniques54:38 The Importance of Listening and Authenticity58:39 Conclusion and Contact Information

The Awake Space Podcast is 100% listener supported Check out the patreon at http://patreon.com/theawakespaceIn this episode of the popular talk show The Awake Space your host astrologer, Laurie Rivers explains how to use the Taurus New Moon energy to your advantage, has an engaging conversation with Daoist master, San Qing, and walks you through understanding what our souls intend when we incarnate into the physical world.Guest Info Taoist Master San Qing is a profound healer. When he talks, there is something else that goes on in the room. The room is filled with light and love. Taoist Master San Qing has over 30 years' experience guiding people, teaching people, opening people up to their true potential as a human being, as a light being, as just being. San Qing is an ordained priest and 66th generation lineage holder and 126th generation lineage holder of Taoism. San is a Taoist master of Qigong and Neigong, is a prolific channel and healer who has built a reputation for direct access to the spirit realm. He is grateful every day to his teachers, the Three Pure Ones and the Tao, for allowing him to witness miracles. San works with people all over the world showing them, that the impossible is possible.San's social Links*Brand New Book* Buy the TAO TE CHING transcribed by San Qing as a direct channel of Lao Tzu https://buy.stripe.com/8wMdSe0s8ayIgtq4jC?locale=en&__embed_source=buy_btn_1PCJtqLqVWuQP7qZFOPvn24WThe Way 126 APP LIVE now on web, IOS and Androidhttps://theway126.com/instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/theway_126Apple Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/consciousness-of-the-way-126-podcast/id1710027363SummaryIn this episode of the Awake Space Astrology Podcast, Laurie Rivers discusses the significance of the new moon in Taurus, emphasizing the importance of setting intentions and grounding oneself. The conversation delves into the nature versus nurture debate in astrology, exploring how one's upbringing can be reflected in their astrological chart. Laurie and guest San Qing discuss the power of manifestation and affirmations, the impact of trauma on personal growth, and provide astrological predictions for the upcoming week, highlighting the need for self-realization and sustainable security. In this conversation, Laurie Rivers and San Qing explore the intricate relationship between astrology, healing, and self-realization. They discuss the themes of navigating life's challenges, the power of imagination, and the importance of embracing change. The dialogue delves into astrological insights for the upcoming month of May, emphasizing the potential for personal growth and co-creation in a rapidly changing world. The speakers encourage listeners to reflect on their journeys, the significance of emotional healing, and the transformative power of self-discovery.Chapters00:00 New Moon in Taurus: Planting Seeds of Security05:45 Manifestation and Setting Intentions18:50 Introduction to Sun King: Taoism and Presence55:45 Introduction and Patreon Highlights58:38 Celebrating Community and Personal Growth01:01:39 Humanization and Understanding in Society01:04:42 Astrological Predictions for the Week01:07:56 Navigating Volatility and Change01:10:50 Looking Ahead: May Predictions01:13:48 Embracing the Energy of May01:16:47 The Role of Predictions and Responsibility01:19:43 Finding Beauty in Complexity01:22:43 Creating a Deliberate Future01:25:40 Conclusion: Empowerment and Awareness

Sifu Boggie share how our bodies are meant to be self-healing. How our thought and emotions can affect our genetics at the intersection of epigenetics and Daoist practices like Qi Gong, illustrating how the way we think, move, and feel can profoundly influence our physicaland emotional well-being.  ShunDao.USCREEN.io Feel the reassurance of a Psychiatric Service Dog—Train your own dog if theyrecognize and reduce any psychological symptoms, to fly, be in 'no-pet' housing, with no pet fees and access public places under ADA law. Training from Joanne S. Williams, LCSW. A 30-second free guide to see if you qualify at ServiceDogPro.com!   Free 30 minute focus call with Joanne to talk about what would work best for you for your emotional health. Get the Free- Workbook to turn your negitive "What Ifs" in positive possibilities 

Clarity isn't about having all the answers; it's about finally hearing the truth that's been waiting inside you.   What if the fog you keep running into isn't a barrier, but an invitation? In this episode, Nesha Pai sits down with Emily Paul, the founder of Aum Holistic Healing Arts, to talk about what it really means to come home to yourself. Through her work rooted in Daoism, alchemy, and intuitive guidance, Emily helps people reconnect with their purpose, not by chasing something outside themselves, but by learning to listen inward.   Nesha and Emily discuss how clarity often arrives quietly, after we've started shedding old stories and tuning into the parts of ourselves we've been taught to ignore. Emily shares how her approach, including the Nine Palaces of Daoist alchemy, offers a structure for understanding the different areas of life like health, wealth, creativity, wisdom, and how they can work together to bring us into alignment.   This episode reminds us that clarity grows when we pause long enough to ask better questions and stay open to what rises up.   Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Introduction 02:02 Why Clarity Matters 05:18 Navigating Inner Fog 10:32 The Challenge of Going Inward 13:31 Resistance as an Ally 14:37 Taoist Alchemy and the Nine Palaces 19:04 Returning to Your True Nature 23:04 Soul Purpose vs. Societal Norms 24:04 Intuition vs. Mental Noise 27:48 Clarity's Role in Leadership 30:36 Follow the Nudge Connect with Emily Paul: https://www.aumemily.com/nine-palaces-compass/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-paul-83712774/   Connect with Nesha:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neshapai/ Website: https://www.neshapai.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neshapai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neshapaicpa Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm  

In this podcast episode, Carl Abrahamsson explores the concept of finding one's own path in life, emphasizing the balance between societal expectations and personal authenticity. Drawing on Daoist philosophy, he uses the metaphor of water, which flows effortlessly around obstacles, to illustrate the importance of adapting to one's natural inclinations rather than conforming to rigid structures. Abrahamsson argues that while traditions and systems can provide valuable guidance, they should not be mistaken for absolute truths. Instead, individuals should approach them with discernment and respect, understanding that their unique experiences shape their journeys. He highlights the significance of cultivating stillness, observing one's inclinations without judgment, and embracing paradoxes in life. The episode encourages listeners to practice non-attachment to outcomes and to develop a nuanced relationship with established frameworks. Ultimately, Abrahamsson asserts that the most authentic path arises not from rebellion or conformity but from a natural flow that honors one's true self while participating in the broader journey of existence. LINKS OF RELEVANCE CONTACT/SOURCE MAGIC MENTORSHIP & RUNACLES: carl AT carlabrahamsson DOT com NEWSLETTER/WEBSITE: https://thefenriswolf.substack.com THE FENRIS WOLF @ AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3AUS9iM CARL ABRAHAMSSON @ AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3CyEu1d PUBLISHER: https://www.trapart.net PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl ART & CULTURE: https://anartapart.substack.com ABOUT CARL: https://www.carlabrahamsson.com MAGIC: http://www.societyofsentience.org VANESSA SINCLAIR: https://www.drvanessasinclair.net RENDERING UNCONSCIOUS PODCAST: https://renderingunconscious.substack.com

This is the first part of an interview with my original Qi Gong teacher Zhenevere Sophia Dao. She is without doubt one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever met - poet, philosopher, neo-Daoist, neo-Romantic, blacksmith, Kung Fu expert… In this podcast we talk about both spiritual awakening and gender awakening as Zhenevere gives a deeply touching account of her own transition from man to woman.

Tibetan astrologer, translator, and author: Keith Miller returns! What's going on in Daoist wizard sleeves? Does it even matter if you have free will? Two age old questions, answered in one single interview.The Patreon is back! You can support the podcast at:www.patreon.com/mothmanaor via donation on Ko-Fi: www.ko-fi.com/manaaelin Find Keith:www.turtlesandcrows.comkeith@turtlesandcrows.comFind Mana:www.mothmana.com

Send us a textHow might simplifying your focus create space for what truly matters to flourish in your life this spring? A delightful spring energy infuses this conversation as co-host Omar Brownson shares his transformative experience with the Ubuntu Climate Initiative in South Carolina's Gullah Geechee lowcountry. His beautiful poem "Purple Sarongs" captures the essence of gathering on historically significant land where Dr. King dreamed his "I Have a Dream" speech—a powerful setting for visioning 150 years into our collective future.The synchronicity of simplicity emerges as an unexpected through-line when co-host Belinda Liu reflects on her annual community spring equinox experience in Mount Shasta.  She picked the simplicity card in the opening ritual when exploring the threads between money, resources and exchanging in community.Dr. Paul Wang, our special guest for this season, illuminates Daoist cosmology's approach to seasonal change, explaining how April serves as an intentional transitional month and rite of passage towards flowering through the process of budding.  This cycle is an ideal time for us to reconnect with our values and honor what's shifting within and around us. He describes spring's budding energy as concentrated potential—focused rather than dispersed—and offers a powerful three-step simplification process: 1) essentialize core values, 2) eliminate what doesn't align, and 3) embrace what remains by braiding it into unity.When they collectively choose the Gratitude Blooming card represented by the Nasturtium flower with its theme of friendship, the conversation deepens around how self-friendship forms the foundation for authentic community connection. Omar visualizes this as a vessel—a "friendship" carrying us forward together through periods of growth and change. They reflect on how trust accelerates transformation, noting that "change moves at the speed of trust," and how the clearer we can envision possibilities beyond current challenges, the more effectively we can practice that world today.Join us for our first Gratitude Blooming retreats in Mt. Shasta and on the Big Island. Use this promo code to get 20% off your retreat ticket >> BIGTHANKSWhether you're seeking to navigate personal transitions, deepen your connection with natural cycles, or find community in uncertain times, our podcast and in-personal gatherings offer practical wisdom for concentrating your energy where it matters most. -------Create an intentional practice with your own Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candle and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Your purchase helps us sustain this podcast, or you can also sponsor us here. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest: Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

What fills your cup—and what coats it in dust?In this free monthly episode of Living the Tao, Master Steenrod dives into two essential metaphors from Daoist thought: the vessel and the red dust. You'll hear how the "filled cup" reflects our capacity to give, learn, and grow—and why sometimes, we must empty ourselves before receiving anything new.But the episode doesn't stop there. As the walk continues, we step into the deeper terrain of the “red dust”—an ancient metaphor for the social forces that cling to us simply by existing in society. What is the social mind? Can we resist it? And what does true liberation mean in the modern age?Whether you're new to Daoism or walking the path already, this is a conversation about self-care, choice, and awakening in a world that doesn't stop trying to fill your cup for you.

Struggling with stress, chronic pain, or low energy? Sifu Boggie reveals how Tai Chi and Qigong can regulate your nervous system, ease discomfort, & enhance longevity with minimal effort. He'll break down the bioelectric principles behind these ancient practices, showing how breathwork, movement, & the Dao's wisdom create effortless resilience & balance. Whether you're looking to improve recovery, sharpen focus, or increase vitality, this episode delivers powerful insights into optimizing health with time-tested methods. Learn these & more on today's episode, ‘Ancient Arts for Longevity' Meet our guest Sifu Boggie (Paul Brighton) is a Daoist guide, mentor, & self-healing practitioner with 40+ years of experience in Daoism & Qigong. Trained by renowned masters, he specializes in Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Shun Dao philosophy, Reiki, Reflexology, TuiNa, Tit-Tar, Acupressure, & Daoist Shamanism His teachings blend Daoist wisdom with practical energy & bodywork techniques, guiding individuals to unlock their own healing potential. With a diverse background from law enforcement to baking, he brings humor, storytelling, & deep insight to help others find balance, transformation, & self-discovery Thank you to our partners Outliyr Biohacker's Peak Performance Shop: get exclusive discounts on cutting-edge health, wellness, & performance gear Ultimate Health Optimization Deals: a roundup article of all the best current deals on technology, supplements, systems and more Gain mental clarity, energy, motivation, and focus with the FREE Outliyr Nootropics Mini-Course The simple, guided, and actionable Outliyr Longevity Challenge helps you unlock your longevity potential, slow biological aging, and maximize your healthspan Key takeaways Qigong is like musical notes & Tai Chi is a composition of those notes, combining various Qigongs The symbol often called “yin yang” is actually named Tai Chi, representing the balance of yin (black) & yang (white) Taoism recognizes three minds in the body—one in the head, one in the heart & one in the gut Modern science supports brain-heart coherence, a key concept in Tai Chi & Qigong Star Wars & the concept of the Force are inspired by the Tao, with chi as the basis for "the Force" Qigong helps with conditions like IBS, fibromyalgia, diabetes & more Qigong applies in martial, medical & meditational contexts, showing its versatility Episode Highlights 9:49 Understanding Dao: Flow & Change 24:50 Health & Life Benefits of Tai Chi & Qigong 48:12 Practical Daoist Tips & Philosophies 1:01:41 How to Deal with Trauma Stored in Your Body Links Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ppbBW36NTt0  Full episode show notes: mindbodypeak.com/203 Connect with Nick on social media Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Easy ways to support Subscribe Leave an Apple Podcast review Suggest a guest Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for us? Let me know in the show notes above and one of us will get back to you! Be an Outliyr, Nick

Aaron French is a Spiritual Mentor, Medium and Akashic Reader. With a deep nondual foundation rooted in Daoist teachings, Aaron creates a grounded and heart-centered container which reveals the messages from the Akashic Records and our Guides, Angels and Ancestors. For more, please visit his website: naturalheartalchemy.com. You will NOT be disappointed!Please rate us on Apple and/or Spotify and subscribe for free at mikeyopp.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikeyopp.substack.com/subscribe

BONUS Episode 6 – The Call to Wu WeiWhy do some of us feel an unexplainable pull toward something deeper—toward the flow?In this bonus episode, we go beyond pop-philosophy and into the lived, raw terrain of Wu Wei, one of Daoism's most iconic yet misunderstood concepts. While modern culture likes to equate Wu Wei with “flow state,” the truth is far more layered. We peel back the linguistic drift, social media buzzwords, and surface-level interpretations to return to the source: the old-school Daoist practices rooted in physical discipline, internal alchemy, and spiritual transformation.Together, we ask:What is Wu Wei really, and how has its meaning changed?Can you train for Wu Wei—or must it arise naturally?Why do some people chase the Dao, while others walk away?How do questions themselves become the first steps on the path?Whether you've glimpsed the Dao before or are just starting your journey, this episode invites you to examine your motivations, recognize the illusions of control, and maybe—just maybe—begin the long walk toward true alignment.✨ “You don't get the magical flow without being highly accurate. And accuracy starts with asking real questions.” ✨Taoist resources: https://linktr.ee/taoismforthemodernworld

 https://www.iservalan.com https://www.taletellerclub.comChapter 2: Classical Antiquity – Pleasure, Power, and Myth(Greece, Rome, India, China, Japan)Erotic Art in the Classical World: Sensuality, Divinity, and the Human FormThe civilizations of Greece and Rome profoundly shaped Western attitudes toward eroticism, beauty, and the human body. Meanwhile, in Asia, India, China, and Japan developed their own rich traditions of erotic art, where sexuality was intertwined with spirituality, aesthetics, and philosophy. Across these cultures, erotic imagery was not just about desire—it was deeply connected to mythology, religious devotion, and social identity.The Greek Celebration of the Nude and the DivineAncient Greek art (c. 800–146 BCE) is renowned for its idealized representations of the human form, including sensual and erotic depictions. Unlike later Western traditions, which often moralized sexuality, the Greeks saw eroticism as an essential aspect of life, closely tied to their gods, heroes, and social structures.The Male Nude and Homoeroticism in Greek ArtGreek sculptures and vase paintings frequently depicted the nude male body as a symbol of beauty, strength, and divine perfection. The kouroi (statues of young men) and later the works of sculptors like Phidias, Polykleitos, and Praxiteles showcased a balance of realism and idealism.Homoeroticism played a significant role in Greek culture, particularly in the institution of pederasty, where older men (erastai) mentored and formed relationships with younger men (eromenoi). While controversial today, these relationships were embedded in Greek education, social bonding, and military camaraderie. Erotic vase paintings and sculptures, such as those on the Warren Cup, openly depicted same-sex relationships without stigma.Aphrodite and the Feminine EroticThe goddess Aphrodite, associated with love and beauty, was a central figure in Greek erotic art. The first known fully nude female sculpture, Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles (c. 360 BCE), marked a shift in the portrayal of female sensuality. While earlier depictions of women were clothed, this work introduced the eroticized nude female body as an artistic norm in Western art.Rome: Eroticism, Excess, and Moral ContradictionsThe Romans inherited much from Greek artistic traditions but added their own flair for luxury, satire, and explicit eroticism. Roman erotic art ranged from refined frescoes in wealthy villas to bawdy graffiti in brothels, revealing a culture that embraced sexuality in both elite and everyday contexts.Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Window into Roman EroticismThe eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE preserved vast amounts of erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum, offering an unparalleled glimpse into Roman attitudes toward sexuality. Frescoes from the Villa of the Mysteries and Lupanar (brothel) depict explicit scenes, suggesting that sexuality was not hidden but woven into public and private life.One of the most famous artifacts, the Priapus fresco, shows the god Priapus weighing his exaggerated phallus against a bag of money—a humorous but symbolic image of fertility and prosperity. Romans often associated large phallic imagery with protection, luck, and virility.Satire and Social Commentary in Roman EroticaWhile erotic art was common, Rome also saw moral pushback against sexual excess. Writers like Ovid (Metamorphoses, Ars Amatoria) celebrated love and seduction, while others, like Juvenal, satirized the decadence of Roman society. The Augustan moral reforms (1st century BCE) attempted to impose sexual restraint, yet erotic art continued to flourish, reflecting the contradictions within Roman attitudes toward pleasure.Erotic Art in Ancient India: The Sacred and the SensualEroticism in ancient India was deeply entwined with spirituality, particularly through Hinduism and Tantra. Unlike in the West, where sexuality was often seen in opposition to religious purity, Indian art frequently depicted sensuality as an extension of divine energy.Temple Eroticism: Khajuraho and KonarkThe Khajuraho temple complex (c. 950–1050 CE) and the Konark Sun Temple (c. 13th century CE) feature intricate sculptures of deities, lovers, and erotic acts. These reliefs, far from being mere decoration, reflect the Hindu belief that sexual union mirrors cosmic unity and divine creation.The Kama Sutra and Indian Erotic TextsAttributed to Vātsyāyana, the Kama Sutra (3rd century CE) is one of the most famous texts on love and eroticism. Contrary to its popular perception as a sex manual, it is a sophisticated treatise on pleasure, relationships, and aesthetics. Accompanying illustrations in later manuscripts helped visualize its teachings, making it one of the most influential works of erotic literature.Erotic Art in Ancient China: Daoism and Sensual BalanceIn China, erotic art was shaped by Confucian ideals, Daoist philosophy, and later Buddhist influences. While Confucianism promoted restraint, Daoism embraced sexuality as a path to harmony and longevity.Daoist Sexual Arts and Painted ScrollsDaoist texts, such as the "Art of the Bedchamber", describe sexual practices believed to extend life and health. Erotic scroll paintings from the Tang (618–907 CE) and Song (960–1279 CE) dynasties often depicted intimate scenes with poetic inscriptions, emphasizing sensuality rather than crude explicitness.Later, during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, erotic books known as "spring pictures" (春宫图) became popular among the elite, blending humor, philosophy, and eroticism.Japan's Shunga: The Floating World of SensualityJapanese erotic art, or Shunga (春画), flourished during the Edo period (1603–1868). These woodblock prints, created by masters such as Hokusai and Utamaro, depicted erotic encounters with both aesthetic refinement and explicit detail. Unlike in the West, where erotic art often faced suppression, Shunga was widely enjoyed across social classes.Shunga as Art, Satire, and InstructionShunga prints were not just pornographic; they served multiple purposes, including sexual education, humor, and even political satire. Some depicted fantastical elements, such as Hokusai's famous "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife", blending eroticism with mythology.Conclusion: Classical Eroticism as a Reflection of CultureThe erotic art of classical antiquity reveals a diversity of attitudes toward sexuality:Idealized beauty and divine connection – Greek and Roman art celebrated the nude as an emblem of perfection.Religious and cosmic symbolism – Hindu and Daoist traditions saw sexuality as a path to spiritual enlightenment.Humor and satire – Roman and Japanese art often infused eroticism with wit and social commentary.While some traditions embraced erotic art as sacred, others saw it as a source of indulgence or controversy. The tension between openness and censorship would continue to shape erotic art in the centuries to come.The Warren Cup (1st century CE, Roman) A silver drinking cup featuring detailed homoerotic scenes, the Warren Cup provides insight into Roman attitudes toward male-male relationships. Hidden for centuries, it is now a key artifact in LGBTQ+ art history.Khajuraho Temple Reliefs (10th–11th century CE, India)These intricate sculptures depict a range of erotic acts, reinforcing the Hindu belief in sexuality as a divine force. Unlike Western art, which often separated the sacred from the sensual, Khajuraho integrates both seamlessly.The Frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries (1st Century BCE, Pompeii, Roman Empire)The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii contains one of the most famous and enigmatic fresco cycles from ancient Rome. While not explicitly erotic, many scholars believe the images depict a Dionysian initiation ritual, potentially related to sacred sexuality and mystery cults. The frescoes feature semi-nude figures, suggestive interactions, and themes of divine ecstasy, linking sexuality to spiritual transformation. This example highlights how Romans often blended eroticism with religious and ritualistic themes rather than treating it as purely physical pleasure.Shunga by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806, Edo Period, Japan)Kitagawa Utamaro, one of the most celebrated ukiyo-e artists, created numerous Shunga (春画, "spring pictures"), which depicted intimate encounters with exquisite detail and elegance. His prints, such as Poem of the Pillow, emphasized the sensuality of touch, fabric, and movement, offering a refined and almost poetic take on erotic imagery. His work also often featured women's pleasure and agency, making it a significant contribution to the study of feminine desire in erotic art.#stencilart #originalart #investment art #blinkfrictionart #blinkfrictionfashion #reclaimart #reclaimfashion

Yun's Mandarin - Taiwanese Online Course: https://mailchi.mp/31034d6eda68/2025-vip-1-1-mandarin-taiwanese-courses Thanks to Thomas, 赫克托, and Joe for your support this month. You help keep this Taiwan content running and benefit more learners who seek cultural insights about Taiwan. Transcript for this episode for everyone: https://yunchih.art/54-why-are-there-so-many-temples-in-taiwan-台灣為什麼有那麼多廟？/

Learn how ancient Daoist philosophies can be applied to modern life, offering guidance in a fast-paced and chaotic world. For this, we are invited into the world of Daoist arts with Sifu Boggie, exploring his journey and the profound impact of self-healing. Discover how Qi Gong and Tai Chi serve as powerful tools for achieving physical, emotional, and energetic balance. Tune in for inspiring success stories and practical advice on beginning your own journey of self-healing and transformation.More on Sifu: https://shundao.uscreen.io/ Stream All Astro Gnosis Conferences for the price of one: https://thegodabovegod.com/replay-sophia/The Gnostic Tarot: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/synkrasisHomepage: https://thegodabovegod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteAB Prime: https://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ Virtual Alexandria Academy: https://thegodabovegod.com/virtual-alexandria-academy/Voice Over services: https://thegodabovegod.com/voice-talent/ Support with donation: https://buy.stripe.com/00g16Q8RK8D93mw288Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/aeon-byte-gnostic-radio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Talking with repeat guest, author and local Hawaii resident Charles Hugh Smith on the importance of living in the real world, insights from the scientific process, experimentation for incremental change, building your own utility, self reliance, behavioral modification, questioning the mythology of progress, anti-progress, technology worship, the value of something, economic externalities, Aina, AI and AI Gods, Digital Ice Nice, social change, social engineering, collective value systems, and strategies for staying sane in a digital world… Excerpts“ ​Try to live in the real world as much as possible because then you're more likely to avoid the derangement. And again, a back to basics is my approach. Question everything that you're doing your behaviors. Are they benefiting you or not? And if they're not benefiting you, then how can you modify them? Incremental is the way to go. To use the Daoist phrase: The journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. Everything we do to improve our lives is incremental. It's possible to revolutionize your life. And if that opportunity exists and for sure, go for it. But for most of us, incremental is how we change.Accepting that we can change a lot by our behaviors, what we think of as priorities and incentives. That's how we change. We don't necessarily need a new life, per se. We just need to change our behaviors and what we value.”“ And I think the problem is not technology per se. It's our worship. In other words we're like blindly obedient to it. And in other words to the idea in the mythology of progress.” “ Because there are limits and to claim there that you have limitless power is to set yourself up for the fall…. it's actually a psychological failing as well. You don't have to believe in karma or religion. If you aspire or claim godlike powers, then you're setting yourself up for self destruction just psychologically because it's disconnected from reality”“ I tend to see things more as organic - that these systems are complicated.There's a lot of dynamics. We're not really in a position to control as much as we think is, my view and that, it's better to let people make their own decisions. And if it's if it stops working for them, then they're gonna open their mind and be willing to try something else.”Follow Charles Hugh Smith @ oftwominds.comOn Twitter @@chsm1thOn Substack @ charleshughsmith.substack.com/Timestamps02:18 Exploring Solar Energy: Projects and ExperimentsCharles shares his experiences with solar energy projects, discussing the economic challenges of solar power at small scales and importance of self-reliance, focusing on reducing dependence on fragile global supply chains.10:04 Behavioral Changes for Energy EfficiencyCharles details his efforts of behavioral changes rather than technology. 23:56 The Value of ExperimentationHe emphasizes the importance of experimentation as a tool for understanding and adapting to change, whether in personal resilience, self-employment, or daily consumption29:13 Questioning the Mythology of ProgressCharles challenges the conventional view that technological advancements and economic growth always equal progress. He argues that progress can sometimes be anti-progress when it degrades quality of life or damages the planet.33:36 Objective Analysis of Progress and Anti-ProgressTo break free from blind faith in progress, Charles advocates for an objective assessment of technological and economic developments, considering both benefits and negative consequences rather than uncritically accepting advancements.36:14 Technology Worship and Its ConsequencesTechnology is often worshiped as an unstoppable force, arguing that society needs to question its trajectory rather than passively accepting every technological development as progress.43:35 AI and the Mythology of ProgressCharles discusses how AI fits into the broader mythology of progress, highlighting the misplaced belief that AI advancements are inherently beneficial. He critiques the economic incentives driving AI development and the illusion of intelligence in machine learning models.47:28 The Limits of AI and Human IntelligenceHe examines the limitations of AI, particularly its inability to truly understand or possess human-like intelligence. He also critiques the misconception that intelligence is purely rational, emphasizing the role of emotions in human cognition.50:27 A New Mythology for the 21st CenturyCharles proposes that humanity needs a new guiding mythology that acknowledges limits rather than blindly embracing technological expansion. He suggests shifting status away from excessive consumption and toward sustainable, meaningful contributions to society.01:03:21 Social Change and the Role of TechnologyHe explores how social change happens organically with contrasts of top-down efforts to engineer social change.01:08:42 Staying Sane in a Digital WorldIn closing, Charles advises treating the digital world cautiously—like plutonium—while prioritizing real-world experiences and behavioral changes. He stresses the importance of small, incremental steps toward resilience and personal well-being. Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

A lovely conversation with Roslyn, about starting an online class to teach Daoist and complementary practices to women - about trepidation and confidence, pacing and patience, foxes and drunkenness, elephants and armies... Her reading was Hexagram 64, Not Yet Across, changing at lines 2 and 6 to 16, Enthusiasm: changing to Links I mention in the audio: to share a reading on the podcast: onlineClarity.co.uk/share. to join Change Circle (where membership also includes private readings): onlineClarity.co.uk/circle.

Czym jest Qi Gong? Jaki ma związek z długowiecznością? W czasach stale rosnącej presji coraz częściej zadajemy sobie pytania o jakość naszego życia. Jak to, w jaki sposób żyjemy, przekłada się na długowieczność? Jak długowieczność w ogóle rozumieć? Odcinek nagrany jest w języku angielskim. Na YouTubie dostępny jest videocast z napisami.(ENG)What is Qi Gong? What does it have to do with longevity? In times of constantly increasing pressure, we increasingly ask ourselves questions about the quality of our lives. How does it translate into longevity? How to understand longevity at all? And what does the complete system of Qi Gong have to do with it? Qi Gong builds the foundations for all kinds of work with the body and internal energy. It covers all aspects of a person's life from physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Qi Gong is a very complex system. Its history dates back thousands of years, and its teachings have been passed down to students through many generations of masters. Qi Gong builds the foundation for any kind of bodywork, work with energies and martial arts. It embraces all levels of human life and of the body (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual).Ron Timm. Born in Germany in 1970, he is the principal teacher and founder of Path of Dao, a school promoting Daoist practices such as Qi Gong, Taijiquan, Bagua and the practice of silence. He has been developing his skills for over 30 years. Since 1999, he has studied with Master Peng Wu Chi in Taiwan, and since 2007 he has been a student of Bruce Frantzis, specializing in Water Path Qi Gong. In 2015, he founded Path of Dao to inspire harmonious living through Daoist practices. His approach combines physical, mental, and spiritual development, helping students at various stages of development, introducing them to the principles of Daoism in a practical and understandable way.(PL)Qi Gong buduje podstawy do wszelkiego rodzaju pracy z ciałem i wewnętrzną energią. Obejmuje wszystkie aspekty życia człowieka, od fizycznego po emocjonalny, mentalny i duchowy. Qi Gong to złożony system, jego historia sięga tysięcy lat, a jego nauki były przekazywane uczniom od wielu pokoleń mistrzów.Ron Timm – urodzony w Niemczech w 1970 roku, jest głównym nauczycielem i założycielem Path of Dao, szkoły promującej daoistyczne praktyki takie jak: Qi Gong, Taijiquan, Bagua i praktyka wyciszenia. Od ponad 30 lat rozwija swoje umiejętności. Od 1999 roku uczył się u mistrza Peng Wu Chi na Tajwanie, a od 2007 roku jest uczniem Bruce'a Frantzisa, specjalizując się w Qi Gongu ścieżki wody. W 2015 roku założył Path of Dao, by inspirować do harmonijnego życia przez daoistyczne praktyki. Jego podejście łączy rozwój fizyczny, umysłowy i duchowy, pomagając uczniom na różnych etapach rozwoju, wprowadzając ich w zasady daoizmu w sposób praktyczny i zrozumiały.Podcastu „Osobiste rozmowy holistyczne” możesz posłuchać na platformach Spotify, Apple Podcasts oraz YouTube.

Aaron is a Psychic Medium, Akashic Reader, and spiritual practitioner for over 30 years. With a deep nondual foundation rooted in the Daoist teachings, Aaron creates a grounded and heart centered container within which the Akashic Records and messages from our Guides and Angels are revealed. During a deep period of awakening in 2019, Aaron started receiving increasingly frequent messages from his own Ancestors, as well as a constellation of Spirit Guides and higher Angels - all of whom communicate through him with the sole purpose of encouraging our Collective Awakening.  They have shared the deep truth of our Unity with the Universe, and that Right Now is a period of powerful transformation within the Earth's energy field.  https://naturalheartalchemy.com/links

Jake Lee Pinnick has been training martial arts since 2010 when he made his initial voyage to Wudangshan, China. He is now dedicated to daily cultivating his practice and understanding of Wudang Daoism. He shares his special voyage with us. Listen in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Healing With Angelica Podcast With Guest Joy X Episode: 115Podcast Overview:The Power of Acupuncture: Restoring Balance & Vitality | Joy X highlights how acupuncture, an ancient practice, promotes healing by balancing the body's energy flow. It explores its benefits, like stress relief, pain reduction, and renewed vitality, offering a modern, holistic perspective on this timeless therapy.Guest Information: Sister Dr. Joy 2X aka “The Qi Mechanic” has been studying and practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) for over 13 years, receiving her Masters and Clinical Doctorate studies from Daoist and Traditional Chinese Medical Colleges on both the east and west coasts. In TCM, it is understood that the body innately knows and desires to heal itself. She is also the former co-host on the podcast, The STEM Files. The medicine she offers in person, and virtually , is to assist you in your healing journey, like a mechanic for your vital energy! Over the past decade she has been on a journey into the history and, application of Indigenous East Asian Medicine. Having had unique experiences as a patient, student, teacher, herbal pharmacist, and Director of Operations, while working with Chinese medicine, she has enjoyed connecting more with her own Afro-Indigenous roots (Honduras) to the classics of Chinese Medicine and in her own healing journey. She has had the honor of working with hundreds of patients while an intern for 5 years, helping them with pain management, substance overuse and abuse, mental health, fertility, neurological and metaphysical dis-eases. Sister Dr. Joy enjoys the co-creative space made during treatments, “as we empower each other through organic medicine.” When Sis Joy is not practicing medicine with her “mini light sabers” (acupuncture needles), she loves collecting and listening to vinyl records, gardening, stone/crystal medicine, and writing. It is her hope to help make this medicine accessible to everyone, especially in her hometown, and surrounding areas, where she fundraised, with her community, for the first of its kind, a mobile acupuncture clinic. Her next goal is to make access to natural medical care possible by teaching more online and in-person courses. Sis. Dr. Joy is also the Point of Contact for The Ministry of Health & Human Services at Muhammad Mosque #92. Support this platform with a small donation to help sustain future episodes!DONATE|CONTRIBUTION Cash App :$healingwithangelicaZell: healwithangelica@yahoo.comVenmo: @healingwithangelica

Sarah Thomas, BS, MAc, LAc is an inspired healer and educator who owns Clarity Acupuncture in Asheville, NC, where she has performed over 10,000 stone, crystal and acupuncture hybrid treatments with many beloved patients. Sarah developed North Carolina's first Studies in Mineral Healing Program and teaches yearly at Earth medicine conferences and healing summits across the U.S. She is the founder and lead instructor at the Upper Clarity School of Stone Medicine, which has served as a loving alchemical container for thousands of students across the world. Students gain full certifications as crystal healing and stone medicine practitioners with roots in ancient Daoist wisdom and spiritual practices. Sarah's own Dao is to resurrect the vast knowledge and uncharted potentials of healing and awakening with stones.   ➡️ Upper Clarity School of Stone Medicine: UpperClarity.com  

Many of us feel more intuitive and connected to the mystical and the magical in the second half of the menstrual cycle and today I'm directly exploring the connection between menstrual cycle awareness, witchcraft and psychic capacities.Our guest is Mimi Young, a Taiwanese-Canadian, Daoist, animist, spirit worker and medium, who serves her community through ancient Chinese esoteric practices, dream interpretations, unconventional tea ceremonies, and occult education with her witches coven community. Mimi first experienced her intuitive and psychic gifts as a child, but they went underground until five months of bed rest while pregnant with her second child. And together we share a very unfiltered, raw and wild conversation about how Mimi works with the different skills and capacities that awaken in the four phases of the menstrual cycle in her divination and spellwork.We explore:Why you can't work with spellcraft or psychic gifts without being fully present and connected with your body, and how menstrual cycle awareness supports this. How to work more consciously with the premenstrual phase of the cycle as a gateway to your intuitive, psychic, magical and shadow work capacities. Mimi's animist approach to building a relationship to your menstrual blood as a conscious, alive, intelligence, and some ideas for working with our blood in magical ways. ---Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolSophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy

In this episode, we dive into the Year of the Dragon, exploring its rich cultural significance and the lessons it offers as we move into 2025's Snake year. We discuss how this powerful symbol can inspire growth, enhance intuition, and improve communication and self-expression. From understanding the complexities of the Dragon's influence to uncovering the wisdom it brings, we reflect on how these insights can shape our personal and professional lives. Join us as we explore how embracing the Year of the Dragon can lead to profound transformation and deeper connections with ourselves and others. Show Notes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elemental Archetypes  – Daoist self-cultivation practices Yang Face⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  — Chinese facial tool brand Connect with us! If you enjoyed this episode, share it and tag us — We'd love to hear from you! To support us, please subscribe, rate and review the show. Follow us on Instagram  @BeautyBirthrightPod⁠

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Powerleegirls Hosts Miko Lee and Jalena Keane-Lee host and Ayame Keane-Lee edits a chat about leadership, growth and change during a time of crisis. Listen to Jalena speak with Meng Hua from Tiger Eye Astrology about her path from palm reading to artistry to bazi. Then hear Miko speak with Zen Master Norma Wong  about her new book When No Thing Works. More information about our guests: Meng Hua's Tiger Eye Astrology  Zen Master Norma Wong her new book When No Thing Works Guide to how to hold space about the book   Pathways To Humanity Show Transcript Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   Ayame Keane-Lee: [00:00:29] Tonight on APEX Express: the PowerLeeGirls mother-daughters team. I'm the editor of tonight's show Ayame Keane-Lee joined by our hosts Jalena Keane-Lee and Miko Lee. Tune in as they interview our guests about Pathways – internal and external journeys we take to connect to humanity. First my sister Jalena speaks with Meng Yu about her journey as a full time artist and practitioner of the mantic arts. Then Mama Miko speaks with Norma Wong, the abbot of Anko-in about her latest book When No Thing Works. So listen in to APEX Express. First up is Jalena's interview with Meng Yu.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:01:08] Hello, everyone. I am here with Meng Yu, who is a Chinese astrologer from Tiger Eye Astrology. And today we're talking all about astrology and learning from the stars and other elements to help guide our life path and our decisions and choices. Thanks so much for being here, Meng.    Meng Yu: [00:01:27] Thanks so much for having me, Jalena. It's a pleasure to have this conversation with you.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:01:33] It truly is. and so I'm curious if you could just start us off talking a little bit, you know, about your practice and how you came to the work that you're doing today.    Meng Yu: [00:01:42] I have been a practitioner of the mantic arts for, over a decade and the mantic arts, include astrology, but also divination. So as part of my practice, I also do I Ching or Yijing divination. and it's a kind of circuitous way of how I ended up on this path. I'm also a, a full time artist. and you know, that's kind of how I make my bread and butter. And it's also. In a way, how I approach, Chinese astrology and divination as well, I guess to backtrack a little bit, I always like to start by honoring my teachers and their lineages. So, primarily my teacher has been Master Zongxian Wu, who is my Bazi teacher and also is the lineage holder of, four traditional schools of internal arts. and then I also have a host of daoist teachers who are also artists. their own right, visual artists, martial artists, writers who live in and embody the Dao. these include Lindsey Wei, Dengming Dao, uh, Tamara Jha, Lily Kai. And so, I also want to shout out to my group. Late sixth great aunt as well. My Leo Gupo, who when I was eight years old, she gave me my first introduction to the art of divination through. palm reading. so she actually taught me, sort of an Eastern style of palm reading at a young age. But growing up, other than that, I, was not influenced by, this, form of, wisdom traditions from my heritage. My parents are, both Chinese and they are both, of the cultural revolution generation, which was a mass genocide that occurred in China, right as they were coming of age. So they're very, survival oriented, practical people, you know, from Just historically in China, from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the rise of communism, much of the mantic arts traditions, were basically lost in the cultural landscape. So, how I came to this work, was not really so much through my upbringing as, The search for, I guess, healing in my own life experiences and coming to, sort of critical junctures, and crisis, personal crises in my life where I really sought, alternative, dimensions and ways of, reconnecting to my My purpose and just healing in my life. So I, over a decade ago found myself, in the jungles of Peru, having very close, connections to a shamanistic tradition involving plant medicine, which opened me up to really asking, you know, what are the shamanic and animistic roots. of the wisdom traditions from my own heritage. And this brought me to working with the Yijing, as well as Chinese astrology. So that's, that's kind of a mouthful. It's a bit of a long and complicated story, but that's, that's sort of the bullet notes version.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:05:18] Thank you so much for sharing that. It's perfect because my next question was going to be about, you know, your lineage of healers that you studied under, but I feel like you covered that already really well. So I'm curious, you know, you talked about Bazi and Yijing, could you kind of give us a little bit of a breakdown of these like different modalities and how you use them?    Meng Yu: [00:05:35] Sure, absolutely. so, In the readings that I do for folks, the most popular readings are actually a combination of Yijing divination and Bazi astrology. So to give a little context for both, the Yijing Translates as the book of change or the book of changes it, although it has roots and what we would call, currently ancient Siberia, ancient China, it actually dates back to Neolithic times. Really before, the formation of these nation states. So it's some of our early human ancestors. It's their recorded search for wisdom through the observation of cycles and patterns in nature over thousands of years. as the book of change, as the study of change, it's the oldest compounded record of, the study of time itself. and the Bazi astrology is a modality of Chinese astrology that really came into prominence during the Han Dynasty. the turn of the century, the common era, and, it translates as eight characters. So ba meaning eight and zi meaning character. So there is a element in animal for not only your year of birth, which is what? Folks are mostly familiar with, but also the month, day, and hour. So these are called four pillars. So sometimes the system is called the four pillars of destiny. And we get a look at, these characters that make up one's nature. And the way that I So when I see the two modalities working together, I often give people the metaphor of, you know, say you're in, the ocean of your life and you're driving a boat or a ship. The Yijing is like a weather report. The Yijing gives us an idea of the changes that we are currently in. So are we headed in a storm? is it clear blue skies ahead? What are the conditions of the wind and the waves? And the bazi chart looks at the kind of ship that you are driving. So it could be, you know, a submarine. It could be a sailboat. It could be an ocean tanker. And they all have different conditions. strengths and gifts and flavors of power, as well as certain kinds of limitations and vulnerabilities. And so the bazi chart really looks at these qualities of our nature and encourages us to embrace who we actually are so that we can learn to drive our ship better.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:08:47] Thank you so much for that breakdown and description, and in addition to offering readings, of which I loved, I absolutely loved getting a reading with you, and it was so informative and inspirational, but in addition to these readings and offerings that you have for other people, I'm curious how you use these modalities in your own life, whether it's with your art practice, or just with life choices and changes how do you, use these ways of knowing for yourself?   Meng Yu: [00:09:12] It's very important for me as an astrologer and as a daoist to, to align my life according to the times, these modalities, both the Yijing and Chinese astrology. What they point to at the foundation of their wisdom is the question of what time is it, right? This is where the roots of the tradition come from. It's from telling time, and through understanding time and studying time, we're able to divine When is a good time? what is the right time? And knowing that gives our lives profound meaning and context. so, on the more kind of mundane level, it's adjusting my calendar to observe time with this additional context of living with the seasons. there's actually 24 different seasons, according to the qi nodes of The Chinese lunar and solar calendar. There's also the lunar cycles as well. And these are not simple, mathematical markings. They have, very deep meanings behind them that help us align with the qi quality of the moment. So they give our lives meaning by showing us, is this a time to sow seeds, to be inspired and enlivened like springtime? is it a time of Growing potential, or are we entering a time where we need to, not be accumulating, in terms of harvest, but actually be engaged in shedding, by observing the patterns and cycles of nature, And following the nature of the forces that we find ourselves in, we can align ourselves to live in harmony, and to be in, better alignment with the dao. So that's one way that I see the Chinese calendar providing context for my life. The wisdom of the Yijing has been such a profound. Collaborator in my life. not only in studying and attempting to apply its wisdom, but also has been an incredible creative collaborator for me as an artist. So, one of my favorite things to do is to divine with the Yijing to help make creative choices in my work, and to really treat the Oracle as a collaborator. So I really enjoyed using it in this creative way and as a practice for listening and channeling, which I think is useful for any artist to engage in a meditative practice where, it's not a sense of creativity coming necessarily from you, but actually through you. and that's something that the Yijing through working with it for so many years has really taught me to embody.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:12:19] I love that so much. have you noticed any changes in your life, your energy levels, or your art practice since kind of aligning your life with these forces?    Meng Yu: [00:12:30] Yeah, you know, I would love to say, Oh, everything's just gotten better and better. Now I just live like the perfect artist life. It's that would, that's really not, nothing could be really further from the truth because I think it's really about being in the school of life. You know that this is a form of education and it's a continual form of practice, and, as I've been engaged in it, in over 10 years, every year, the lessons have, there's been more layers of depth and challenge, which I think is, , Something that unfolds sort of dependent on what you're you're ready for. There is a hexagram in the Yijing that Shows you that you are undergoing a massive transition where you're carrying the burden of a really heavy weight . And one of the things you're encouraged to see is to reflect on how, what you are experiencing now is something that would have completely overwhelmed you a year ago or a cycle ago. We are given tasks. And, asked to carry burdens, given what we are ready for. And so, although I would like to say, Oh, it's made my life so easy. I know what to do all the time now. That's not the narrative at all. I feel like there's a kind of profound, I guess maybe meditative experience where I have a little bit more distance now from things affecting me, in an immediate personal way because now I can, refer to. This collaborator, this friend, for advice or allowing me to see where I am in a cycle to reflect what I have exited from, hopefully to be prescient of what's to come, to identify familiar themes and to see, that I'm continuously revolving around, a spiral where Certain points come back that feel very familiar, but it's a couple rungs, deeper, where it's not like just a circle of things repeating, but it's a spiral where there's new layers of depth that, follow familiar themes, if that makes sense.   Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:15:06] Yeah, that does. and I know you've talked about, too, how it's like a method for communicating with your ancestors and kind of having An additional channel of communication. So I'm just curious about, yeah, that kind of practice of communication and bringing that forward in your work and how that experience has been for you.   Meng Yu: [00:15:28] Yeah. the piece about ancestors is really an interesting one, because I think what the gift of Chinese astrology to me is that it puts The self within a kind of different context where we're encouraged to see ourselves, not as some, definable thing that has innate qualities, but through Chinese astrology, where we see the elements, the animals, the the stars that indicate ancestral influences, the, unfinished business, the karma, the fate of our ancestors that have been given to us. We're encouraged to see the self as just a live kind of wiggly end of 10, 000 dead people. You know, that what makes us who we are is an enormous inheritance. And what we are here to play out in our lives is this dance between fate and freedom. It doesn't mean that we don't have access to creativity in our lives, but that freedom is inherently, explored and discovered through playing with the limitations of our fate. So for instance, in our natal charts, You can see certain hauntings or ghost energies, inherited from ancestors. So for instance, in my personal chart, I have an inheritance called hidden moaning, which shows an ancestor that has not completed grieving and grief work in their lifetime. And so it kind of. imbues my life with unexplainable bouts of sadness. sometimes this can result in, depression, grieving, this like, wailing grief and knowing this in my chart, I'm able to see that kind of sadness is not something that is just mine, meaning, you know, growing up, the question would be like, Oh, why me, or what am I doing wrong? Why do I feel like this? What's wrong with me? When we look at our lives through the context of ancestors, it becomes a lot more relational, meaning your grief, these burdens are not simply yours. They're a call for communication with your lineage and opening up that pathway, that communication itself is how we resolve the fate of our ancestors. by Listening by asking, what is it that they want, our lives are not just lived for us, but our lives are a way for our ancestors to resolve unfinished chi, that they were not able to complete in their lifetimes. So, you know, when I feel these bouts of sadness, I know that it's time for me to open up these channels, that I can sit in meditation, that I can, engage in my creative practice as a way to channel and speak to my ancestors and ask them what it is that they would like to come forth. What messages they have? That they need to share and speak.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:19:11] Wow, you just dropped so many gems and I was like taking notes. I really like that idea of, you know, this dance between fate and freedom and living out our ancestors kind of unfinished business and promises and hopes. And I'm curious also how this practice has impacted or potentially deepened your own understanding of your culture and your relationship to being Chinese or Chinese American or however you identify.   Meng Yu: [00:19:40] Yeah, it's really provided. I feel extremely honored and, you know that I've been able to work with so many amazing teachers and adepts and have been trusted to practice as well as teach these modalities. it has brought me really close to my ancestors in a very intimate way, you know, like I just talked about with hidden moaning, as well as giving me such an appreciation for the wisdom traditions of my heritage. and this really dates back really beyond, again, our understanding of the nation states of, you know, what it means to be Chinese, it actually gives me a lot of respect for what our ancient human ancestors have left behind for us, their legacy, you know, because the roots of this tradition Like I mentioned, it actually goes back 50, 70, 000 years ago to the retreat of the last ice age. And so we're really talking about nomadic hunter gatherers and their survival, how they observed nature, terrains, and sky. Over cyclical time, they survived by following migration routes of animals and celestial bodies that allowed them to engage in an animistic perspective of life, that, all landscapes, including the landscapes of the cosmos, all of nature is sentient. And this. I guess that world view of aliveness of sentience and intelligence, as well as reciprocity and resonance. You know, that all environments and us, because we are innately tied to that, we are nature. You know, that we're in this reciprocal conversation all the time with life, that I think has had the most profound influence on my life, this idea that we're not just caretakers of the environment, but we are the environment. We are all adapting to each other too. The forces around us inside of us that there's this continual movement of cycles and circulation. that I think is really this wisdom core of the tradition that has really made me feel like not just a citizen of my culture and my ethnicity, but really a citizen of this planet, of Earth. from literally, you know, the air that we breathe, down to the food that we eat down to our blood, it's the same movement of circulation that connects us all and this, you know, really informs my, my worldview and my sense of belonging, my sense of, communion with life.   Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:22:54] I feel like these messages and this kind of information about ancestors, unfinished business, purpose in life. It can be both empowering and overwhelming at times. Like, that was my experience of the reading as well. And we're living at a time where In the US for sure and also globally where there's so much going on and it is a moment that can feel empowering at times but also can feel very, very overwhelming so I'm curious if there are certain ways that you practice keeping the faith in amidst times like these or navigating things that are overwhelming but can be seen as, empowering at the same time.    Meng Yu: [00:23:32] Yeah, absolutely. That's a really fabulous question. you mentioned faith, and I think that's a really interesting concept to dig into because I actually hesitate to use the word faith. I like to use the word trust know that we can develop our existential trust through understanding. Tempo with these. modalities, like I mentioned, there's this, putting us back into time, into rhythm, not just Chinese astrology. I think all ancient calendars does this for us, that they Put us back into an earth based tempo and rhythm and helps us understand that the meaning of our lives come from the context of everything that sustains us. And that this isn't some kind of belief system that you have to be indoctrinated in. It is an observable truth that you can see through observing patterns. and cyclical time. Yin and yang is not some far fetched idea that you have to believe in. It's literally night and day, these are the basic rhythms through which our lives have delineation and tempo and when we develop our synchronicity with this type of regularity and rhythm, we develop a kind of trust. and This trust comes from confidence through observation over time, and because we don't like live outside anymore, we're not really in touch with what our ancestors, the ancients observed and recorded in their calendars. You know, the regularity of movement from observing the sun, the moon, the stars and the seasons. And when we can reunite with that, that actually provides a sense of trust. so, when we engage in these modalities, whether it's astrology or divination, we're, we're reading tempo and even with Chinese medicine, Chinese medicine takes a pulse, you know, it's reading your body as a tempo. It's indicating your rhythm, the quality of your rhythm. So even in our medicine, we are reading our bodies temporally. So this idea of time is so fundamental for me in this idea of trust in alignment with rhythm and regularity. In the Tao Te Ching, which is one of the canonical texts of Daoism, the word for trust, Ching, is used many times and it's about, trust is defined. also as a kind of power. It's defined as how beings attain their actuality, that you need trust in order to grow, that it's part of your process of becoming. And through Daoism and through Chinese astrology, which was very much, informed through Daoism. And we learned that the way to grow our Xing, our trust, is to return our body to the rhythm of the universe. Now that the Daoist cure for our anxieties, which stem from a sense of our independent existence. You know, of our, individuality that is such a small, piece of this enormity. The cure for our anxieties is to identify our singularity, our single body with the body of the whole world. And we do that through aligning our tempo, aligning our rhythm. this is one way that we see the intricate ways that we are all interconnected. And I know I just said some really kind of big abstract things, but, I hope that's making sense.    Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:27:49] Yes, no, aligning and yeah, the tempo and pace of the world. I saw something recently that was like, you know, the power of treating our own bodies like gardens that we're cultivating and not like machines. And I feel like that's sticking to what you were just talking about, too, of like, you know, we are also. Plants and beings that need to be tended to and taken care of and to see ourselves that way in alignment with like the world and the pace of the world.   Meng Yu: [00:28:16] Yeah, absolutely. I love that plant metaphor because it brings us back in touch with life and life cycles, that seeds are sown in the spring. Leaves are shed in the fall, you know, that. Life force and life energy also needs to have time to retreat and withdraw in the winter. All the chi is going back underneath the ground where it's not visible. All the outward and external energy is going inward. It's going hidden. That's the power of yin. When we observe and practice modalities that have survived, not just one genocide, but many, many genocides over thousands of years, we can start to build of broader understanding of the patterns of the universe, the cycles of time. And this is one way that we can embrace and this work with the realities of what's happening, you know, in the current poly crises of our times in, civilization and ecological collapse, you know, it's important that we come to terms with where we are in cycles so that we do the practice that is needed of the Grieving of shedding the anger and the sadness that comes with this time to not live in denial of it and to learn from our ancestors and how they have survived through these times through the practice and the wisdom of understanding, The cycles of nature, how we renew and, regenerate life, the daoists were really concerned with, what is called immortality, but immortality is not like one person living forever. Immortality is. A broader concept about the continuation of life, you know, how do we live in a way that is truly sustainable, that is self sustaining in Chinese, the word for nature is zhi ran, which means self: zhi ran self fulfilling, self renewing, self sustaining. So embedded in the wisdom of these practices is this sense of aligning our lives, aligning our choices in a way that allows life to continue.   Jalena Keane-Lee: [00:30:52] Absolutely. Yes. more life and more environments where life can grow and thrive. I'm curious, you know, if anyone who's listening is now really interested in learning more about Chinese astrology, learning more about your work, what would be the best ways for them to start? And then also if there's anything else that you want to share.   Meng Yu: [00:31:11] The best way to find me is to go to my website. I'm not on social media, so, you'll have to get on the web and find me at www. tigereyeastrology.com and from there you can, contact me, request a reading, as well as just read more about, the different modalities that I practice, a little more about myself, and the perspectives that I bring.   Ayame Keane-Lee: [00:31:38] You are listening to 94.1 KPFA and 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno, 97.5 K248BR in Santa Cruz, 94.3 K232FZ in Monterey, and online worldwide at kpfa.org. Next up is Miko's interview with Norma Wong.   Miko Lee: [00:32:01] Welcome Norma Wong to Apex Express. We are so happy to have you with us today.   Norma Wong: [00:32:06] Aloha, Mikko. Thank you for having me.    Miko Lee: [00:32:09] I want to just first start off, you, hold dear to my heart. I just finished reading your book, which I'm excited to talk about, but I just want to start in the very beginning by asking you a question, which is based on a question from the amazing poet Chinaka Hodges. Who are your people, and what legacy do you carry with you from them?    Norma Wong: [00:32:29] Oh, Miko, how much time do you have? my people are people of the Pacific. You know, the people who came, who crossed the ocean, now six generations ago to this place called Hawaii, who are the haka. Nomadic people of China who really traveled all over China came as contract work and my people are the indigenous people of Hawaii, of these islands where I live and where you happen to be right now, on in terms of this interview and, with the indigenous people, the Kanaka Maoli, the native wines of this place. I am blessed to be the ancestors of these two strong strands of people and really, people who have long migrated, irrespective of where they're coming from, where they're going to.   Miko Lee: [00:33:23] That is beautiful. And what legacy do you carry with you from those people?    Norma Wong: [00:33:28] I would say the legacy that I carry is the legacy of remembering food, remembering stories, passing on stories, creating stories into the future so that we may know where it is that we will go to. And I would say that I also carry the legacy of people who can both be with each other and also be fiercely independent with respect to not having to really depend on anything other than their wits, the land that they're on, of the people who are close to them, what the winds may be able to tell them.   Miko Lee: [00:34:11] Thank you so much. I'm very excited. I just finished reading your new book, which is titled, When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, shared purpose, and leadership in the timeplace of collapse. Incredibly long title and incredibly appropriate for the time we live in right now. Can you share a little bit about what inspired you to create this work?    Norma Wong: [00:34:39] Well, I will, I will say frankly that the book would have not been written if not for Taj James and some of your listeners may know who this is. He is a movement leader and activist, who resides in Northern California, but really does a lot of work everywhere. And Taj, actually convinced me over a two year time period, to write this particular book. And I finally did so, because of a question that he asked. The question that he asked is, with respect to the kinds of knowledge that spiritual ways practice and pass on person to person, can that happen quickly enough only with the people who are directly in front of you? Will that happen quickly enough for the times that we're in? And I had to reflect upon that and say, no, because we were in a time of collapse. And so I had to take the chance of writing something that would find its way into the hands of people who were not directly in front of me. And that is, not the ways of the long line of teachers that I have had.   Miko Lee: [00:35:58] Can you talk a little bit about some of the teachers that you've had and how you carry on the legacy of those teachers that you have had, the impact they've made on you.    Norma Wong: [00:36:09] I've been blessed with many teachers, some of whom are in my young time days. I particularly remember a teacher from my elementary school days, Mrs. Trudy Akau. She was, Native Hawaiian and Portuguese and a woman of big voice and grand stature. And Mrs. Akau really wanted every single one of her students to Be able to find voice in whatever ways, that they might, whether it be writing or through reading or speaking, telling stories. So I certainly remember. This is a call. I remember Tanoi Roshi, uh, my Zen teacher. He was born Stanley Tanoi, second generation Japanese American grew up in Hawaii and who became a teacher. in his own right, not only with respect to Zen, but the martial arts and Stanley Tanoy, who we all know is Tanoy Roshi, is certainly considered to be my primary spiritual teacher, for whom it is now my responsibility to follow his line. I would say that there are people that I have worked with. who are my teachers, you know, so John Waiheee, who was the first native Hawaiian governor of Waii, I certainly consider him to be a significant teacher of mine, as do some young people, some people who are younger than I am. I consider them to be my teachers as well.   Miko Lee: [00:37:41] You mentioned your Zen teacher, Tanoue Tenshin Roshi and you quote in the book him saying, the truth is the intersection of everyone's perspective, if we could only know that. Can you speak more about this?    Norma Wong: [00:37:55] We are, as humans, we're, we're very certain that our perspective is the truth, that whatever it is that we see. But even from a biological perspective, science shows that what it is that registers in our mind is only a small portion of what it is that even our biology is absorbing. And so. We have this tendency to have a lens with respect to how we see the world that lens is colored by many things. And so what is actually so is difficult to ascertain. And this is just in terms of what may be right in front of us, let alone that which may come to us on a secondhand basis, and even more complicated by the way people get most of their information these days. Which is not through direct experience, but through information that has been provided by other channels, the vast aspects of social media, for example, the echo chambers of the conversation, in which we take as facts, things that are talked about that have been observed by other people who are analyzing that which someone else may or may not have actually seen by their own eyes. So we're many times removed from the actual experience of things. And so to know the truth, is a complex thing.    Miko Lee: [00:39:28] As you sort of mentioned this, but it feels like we are living, in this time where there's multiple truths, and especially with the propaganda that we're seeing from right wing mindsets that are really resistant to, influence especially around harm, unless they directly experienced that harm. In cases where it feels like this progress is really stalled until those people experience that kind of harm personally, what is the best way for us to intervene constructively?    Norma Wong: [00:39:56] Well, I think the first thing that we have to do is to make sure that we are also not doing the same thing in reverse. You know, which is to say that the aspect of harm, The many impacts that people may feel will be felt differently. So that which I believe has harmed me would seem to you as not being harmful at all. We tend to see harm, not from a meta perspective, but from an individualized perspective. And so to actually come out of the weeds of that and place ourselves In an observer's stance of community more generally, of humans more generally, not within the analysis of that, not within the frameworks of that, but to observe actual experiences is something that needs to happen on the left and the right and the center. the American. Value system doesn't help, which is to say that we live in a very individualized society. Our country was formed on the basis of values that are individualized. Even something that we'd say may be universal, such as human rights, we tend to think of it through an individualized lens. And to come more into the whole of it, to not. view our existence as being either dependent or independent of others, but more from the perspective of being interdependent. And you know, by interdependence, I'm, I mean that the success that we may have is born not only of my efforts, but the efforts of others. And if it is at the expense of someone else's welfare, then it is not interdependent. So that type of existence, you know, which I would describe as a more indigenous way of being, is what our times call for.    Miko Lee: [00:41:55] I'm wondering, you have such an interesting background as working in the legislature here in Hawaii and then fighting for homeland rights, supporting people in Lahaina. I'm wondering how you have combined both your indigenous background and your own. Zen belief system, how that has influenced you politically.   Norma Wong: [00:42:16] Well, if I were to reflect on that question, I would say that I was extraordinarily fortunate to begin my spirit practice at almost the same instant that I was coming up in the political world. And so I. did not see one as separate from the other. In fact, I would say that the fortune of that is that there are many aspects about the introspective nature of spirit work that, you have to interrupt your ego at every instant. And as you might imagine, there are many ways in, in the political world. Where the ego takes on an outsized importance to what it is that you're doing. And so it's an important centering value that you would get from the Zen practice. But to me, A thing that attracted me to Zen is that it is almost inherently indigenous and, by that I mean that the Zen values are based on interdependence of the whole and the whole does not only include humans, it includes other beings in the universe itself. And so, to center your political actions and the ways in which you might grapple with an issue is not to separate the issue from the people and the place, and to take into consideration not only the history of that, but what your actions would mean for the descendants that have not yet been born. And in that respect, there's should be no separation. In fact, there should be a profound way, in which that can hold your political decision making. your political conversation, your political actions within the concepts and the values of people in place.    Miko Lee: [00:44:08] So centering on people and place and our interconnectedness with each other. That's really powerful and so important and I'm going back to your saying we have to interrupt the ego and I'm wondering in times when we're about to see 45 enter into his, second administration and the impact of somebody who is ego full or narcissistic and this divide that we're seeing, how do we hold faith in ourselves to help to interrupt that ego when it's happening on such a national scale?    Norma Wong: [00:44:41] Well, there's a thing about ego, which is to say that My ego can only be interrupted by me. Your ego can only be interrupted by you. Now, strategy is a different thing, but that's not the subject of this interview. But with respect to ego, it's going to be part of the environment. it's going to be part of what exists and it'll be a powerful way in which you would see many egos, playing with each other. That's going to be a dynamic that will occur. So I would say there's a lot of work to do. Especially if we know that the construct of government, irrespective of whether this person or another person is holding this job. is in a place of peril and the institutions generally are having difficulty in this moment. Some people, because of who it is that they are and the ego that they have, will supercharge the collapse. In other words, they will increase the momentum of that collapse. And so, in that increase of the momentum of the collapse, there's a lot going on. To be done to ensure that peoples and communities and places are able to do what may be necessary to effectively sustain themselves and each other in relationship to each other, all of the things that they may have otherwise been dependent on the artificial structure called government. And with respect to ego, for us to understand that we have to have enough healthy ego to believe in our own capacity, to be able to work with each other, to take on this huge task, not only through these next four years, but in a period of time beyond that.   Miko Lee: [00:46:29] And what are some of the practices or frameworks that can help sustain us during this time to come?    Norma Wong: [00:46:35] Certainly the practice of, not running dry, you know, that within every 24 hour cycle, if we are to be at the top of our game, then we have to pay attention to make sure that we have enough rest, that we have the sustenance we need, Remain hydrated. I mean, very simple things to not waste away our time in the internal dialogue that keeps spinning to separate ourselves from the habits that keep us from making decisions that taking on too many things means that no thing that you do will be given the kind of attention that it needs, the kind of focus that it needs. the kind of depth that it requires. And so this is a time of choices, in order to achieve that place of abundance. You cannot have many things on the plate at the same time. So simple choices, with respect to the practices that you have, And once that require the dreaded D word, which is discipline.    Miko Lee: [00:47:43] Mm. One of the things that has arisen a lot within the network that I work in, AACRE, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, is a lot of folks, especially young folks, are finding themselves in able to have conversation with family members or elders that, have different political viewpoints what is a good way to go about navigating this tension with people who hold really different political and therefore, in their minds, worldviews than you, but you are connected to?    Norma Wong: [00:48:12] Well, it may not be possible to have a political conversation the question is, are you still in relationship? I think that is the primary question. are you able to meet someone's eyes? Or do you just look away? can you feed each other? I mean, literally, do you know the foods that other people desire or need? Can you make them? Not just buy it and assemble it from the nearest store. Are we tending to each other's needs? Emotional welfare, are we observant of the ways in which we may be getting into a place of need that we're not asking support for. It's like politics should not be. the first conversation you have with someone, it's like that, the first conversations that you would have with people should be one of relationship and of community, and that if you're going to slip into that part where you're going to say, well, because of your politics, I'm going to put you in this room or that room, then the, possibility of us being able to proceed as people is just not going to be possible. The civil rights, as a political movement, succeeded. I believe that as a social change movement, there is still a lot of work to be done. And that we put a little bit too much of a dependence on the wins that we had politically. And then We believed that, because those wins were, that the world would change as a result of that. Hearts and minds were not necessarily changed. And the heart and mind work is the work of community, the work of storytelling, the work of arts, generally. The work of building relationships with people, so that irrespective of the label that they thought that you carry, that you can have a greater understanding of desires and motivations, needs, and ways in which you might be able to be mutually with each other. So we have to start by actually being in relationship with people versus relationship with our ideas. A relationship with points of view and that is something that we may have given short shrift to. And I would say that that's like a Western kind of thing, like, you know, okay, we're going to have a meeting and, let's sit down for a meeting. By the way, we're not going to spend any time getting to know each other. We want to get directly to. Whatever the point of the meeting happens to be, or in the case of family. You know, it's like, families are complicated. One of the reasons why families are complicated is because we are in blood relationship to each other and therefore forever bound. But that does not mean that we have actually done the work to get to know each other. It does not mean that at all.   Miko Lee: [00:51:09] Thank you. I'm wondering if you can, talk about how do we hold on to our work as activists, and kind of the ultimate urgency of what's happening in the world, like I'm thinking specifically, there's a lot of conversations about the new laws that might happen right after the inauguration . And so there's a sense of urgency there. How do we hold on to ourselves but balance that with that sense of urgency.    Norma Wong: [00:51:34] Well, I like to put urgency in a slightly different perspective. Which is to say that the urgency that I see is what is the work that needs to be done to ensure that descendants that are not yet born will be able to live the kind of life that I would hope them to have in a world that would be able to sustain that. And if I put that out, as. What is urgent, then that forces me, in a way that I choose into, to pay attention to. Larger stories, larger work, more extensive aspects of work that also require many more people to be engaged in. And, to begin right now, because it's urgent, you know, for example, if there's a possibility, That the aquifer will become contaminated, and we do not yet know whether or not that will be the case. Then it's urgent that we work to make sure that whatever contaminant is in the ground will not get to the aquifer and therefore, we have to work on that right now. And so that which we may advocate for with urgency will be about the things that are going to be required. For the long haul and not just a defensive reactive, type of action, just to attempt to defend the things that are collapsing around us at the moment caught. In a tighter and tighter action reaction, a kind of way in which we make choices and make decisions, which will mean that the urgent work to ensure that the descendants will be able to have a better life in a sustainable place. will not be done and will not done in time for that to occur.    Miko Lee: [00:53:26] Thank you so much, for pulling that sense of urgency out to a broader perspective. It reminds me of that Grace Lee Boggs quote, what time is it on the clock of the world that we're really thinking about multiple generations and the ancestors to come and not just what the deadline is immediately. Can you talk with us a little bit about the hu, Hu, that you describe in your book?    Norma Wong: [00:53:50] So I think of Hu as, you know, capital H and, small U as like the missing element on the periodic table. Okay. So, you know, the periodic table it contains all of the elements that are supposed to exist in the universe, and I believe that there's an element called the human quotient. The human quotient is the stuff that humans need to have in order for us to actually evolve as the peoples that we're intended to be. And that the earth requires so, you know, among the human quotient elements would be courage, for example, courage being that which we do, even in the face of fear. So there'll be characteristics like that, but even more fundamental than the characteristics, there is whether or not we will access.and hold d center to everything, the collective humanity of who we are and who we need to become. Whether we take that at the center or will we, will we just see people as a series of identities, a series of allegiances to particular flags as keepers and adherence to ideologies. as, generations or genders, will we just see people as categories? And so, this aspect of coming into our humanity, is what I'm referring to as the human quotient. One of the chapters in the book.    Miko Lee: [00:55:27] Thank you so much. Can you tell us what you would love people to understand after reading your book, When No Thing Works?   Norma Wong: [00:55:37] I would want them to understand that the work is a distillation. So it's very concentrated. It's like Malolo syrup, a favored concentrated syrup that is essentially the fruit punch of the islands. You have to add water to it in order for you to get it to a place where it can actually bear fruit and it can be delicious for you. And that water is yourself, your own experience, your own practice, your own hopes, your own purposes. And if you add that to the book, then the book will be your Malolo syrup.    Miko Lee: [00:56:17] Oh, that is such a great analogy. I love that you're talking to it. It's a syrup. And actually there is a tudy guide or it's called navigate, but the resource to help people go through the book and have conversations with family and friends, which I think is so lovely. It's such a great way for people to read the book in community.    Norma Wong: [00:56:37] Yes. The book site is, Normawong.com and, I believe that the Navigate Guide will be available on that site.    Miko Lee: [00:56:46] And I will host a link to all those things on the show notes for Apex Express. Norma Wong, thank you so much for spending time sharing with us about your work. Um, I really appreciate you and the wisdom that you're sharing for multiple generations. Thank you so much.   Norma Wong: [00:57:04] Thank you, Miko. Thank you so much. Please enjoy your day.    Miko Lee: [00:57:09] You too. And I also want to give a shout out to my amazing friend that introduced me to you, Mariah Rankin Landers, whose book, Do Your Lessons Love Your Students? Creative Education for Social Change really influenced me. And she helped provide some of the context for this conversation. So I thank you to Mariah and thank you for spending time with me, Norma. Please check out our website, kpfa.org. To find out more about our show tonight. We think all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. APEX Express is created by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Swati Rayasam, Aisa Villarosa, Estella Owoimaha-Church, Gabriel Tangloao, Cheryl Truong and Ayame Keane-Lee.     The post APEX Express – 1.16.25 – Pathways To Humanity appeared first on KPFA.

“Curate your environment. Put things around you that make you happy. You have a responsibility to awe and beauty. Make sure that you experience those things in your life.”Let's face it: life's chaos doesn't come with a manual, but meditation might be the closest thing we have. In this episode, Bob Martin—former attorney, mob lawyer (yes, really), and now meditation advocate—shares his fascinating journey from the cocaine cowboy days of Miami to finding his zen as a meditation teacher. Bob reveals how Daoist principles not only transformed his personal life but also inspired a new approach to business and entrepreneurship. Whether you're running a company or just trying to run your own mind, this episode delivers insights, humor, and practical advice for balancing it all. Spoiler: meditation is like hitting the reset button on your brain.Bob Martin is a former prosecutor, defense attorney, and meditation teacher who went from handling high-stakes legal cases to mastering the art of mindfulness. After studying under a 72nd-generation Daoist master, Bob turned his focus to helping others navigate life and business with clarity and calm. His work bridges the worlds of self-discovery and entrepreneurship, offering tools to thrive both personally and professionally.Learn more and connect: A Wise and Happy Life (Bob's website): https://www.awiseandhappylife.comVisit https://www.ecircleacademy.comBlvd area and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. 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

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/architecture

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing's magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming (U Washington Press, 2020) is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor. Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle's palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle's sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time. Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts. Noelle Giuffrida is a professor and curator of Asian art at the School of Art and the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University. Email: ngiuffrida@bsu.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art

Today I sit down with Jack Schaefer and Josh Paynter, co-abbots of the Parting Clouds Temple, to discuss their practice of Daoist exorcism. We talk about the differences between spirits, ghosts, demons, and other entities; as well as a range of practices including talismans, body replacement, curse breaking, and spiritual battle. Along the way, we make eye contact wth snake and fox spirits, contribute to the elimination of suffering for all beings, and learn why dogs never stick around during an exorcism. If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about healing, transformation, and alternate realities, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also look us up by name on Substack.com to check out our members-only benefits. Enjoy the show!Resources mentioned in this episode: Paynter & Schaefer, Daoist Morning and Evening Altar Recitation (2019)Paynter & Schaefer, Daoist Noon Altar Recitations (2020)Paynter & Schaefer, The Northern Dipper Scripture (2021)Paynter & Schaefer, The Perfected Scripture of the Life Receiving Golden Seals of the Five Dippers as Spoken by Taishang (2024)Josh's lecture for Brown UniversityResources provided for members on blackberyl.substack.com:PDF of Jack's article, “Daoist Celestial Medicine: Community, Cultivation, and Compassion” from Journal of Daoist Studies (2024).You are not mistaken: this is in fact the podcast formerly known as The Blue Beryl. We have changed our name for season 3, as we are embracing the darkness! You'll notice a new logo and a new URL, but if you're a subscriber, there's nothing you need to do. Everything will automatically be updated.

Episode #187 of World Awakenings engages in a refreshing conversation with psychic medium & Akashic Records reader, Aaron French. Aaron has been a spiritual practitioner for over 30 years and has a deep nondual foundation rooted in the Daoist teachings. He creates a grounded and heart centered container within which the Akashic Records and messages from our Guides and Angels are revealed. During a deep period of awakening in 2019, Aaron started receiving increasingly frequent messages from his own Ancestors, as well as a constellation of Spirit Guides and higher Angels - all of whom communicate through him with the sole purpose of encouraging our Collective Awakening. They have shared the deep truth of our Unity with the Universe, and that Right Now is a period of powerful transformation within the Earth's energy field.Make sure to download your free copy of Karl Gruber's short ebook, "The 3 Pillars: A Simple 3 Step Process to Manifest Positive & Permanent Change in Your Life". Just click this link and get your free copy today!To find out more about Aaron French and to connect with him, just go to his website https://naturalheartalchemy.com/

"What are we doing wrong that requires us all to be so resilient so often?” That's the basic question that frames a new book by Elliot Cohen. The Psychology of Slow Living investigates ways to avoid being frazzled by a culture of urgency fuelled by quests for instant gratification via digital technology and overconsumption.Drawing on ideas from Buddhist, Hindu, Daoist and Jewish traditions – as well as social psychology – the book explores how to slow down from a range of perspectives. It warns against seeking quick fixes, but highlights the value of meditative practice, communion with nature and social rituals, from tea ceremonies to the Sabbath.We also talk about the mental effects of surroundings – from the impact of urban environments to natural examples of living with balance. In the process, Elliot cites teachings on the “usefulness of uselessness”, promoting some renouncing without dropping out. You can find out more about his research here.

Ever wonder about the unseen forces that shape health and illness? Sometimes it's the things we can't measure that hold the most sway. Healing isn't always about what we see, but what we're willing to explore.In this episode, we sit down with Lindsey Wei, a practitioner deeply rooted in the world of Daoist medicine. She has spent years blending the physical practices of qigong and martial arts with the mystical art of talismans, incantations, and ritual healing. She brings a unique perspective on what it means to heal both the body and spirit.Listen into this discussion as we explore the workings behind Daoist talismans, how the celestial realm might influence your well-being, and how movement and ritual intertwine in martial arts. There's more here than meets the eye, as we explore the boundaries between science and spirit, logic and mystery—and how these might be a little more porous than you realize.

Science fiction and fantasy are full of wondrous libraries containing everything from powerful artifacts to some dang good reads. How does the idealized view of libraries in speculative fiction compare with the real-life libraries, which are under attack by would-be censors and culture warriors? Also, we talk to award-winning author Ken Liu about his brand new translation of the classic Daoist text, the Dao De Jing. Shownotes and more info at https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes