Blue Beryl Dr. Pierce Salguero & Dr. Lan Li

 In this debut episode of Blue Beryl's second season on embodied spirituality, I sit down with Paul C. Wang, a healer and teacher of Chinese medicine and Daoism, and host of the Daology Podcast. We talk about Paul’s practices of “memetic healing” and “clinical cosmology,” and how he works with Chinese medicine, martial arts, neigong, and spirit healing. Along the way, we discover how to communicate with deceased spirits, and how to embody the Dao through everyday practices. 
 
 Please enjoy! And if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhism, Asian medicine, and embodied spirituality, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Daology PodcastDaocenter.comDao Center’s Facebook page

I sit down with Dominic Steavu, a historian of Chinese religion and healing from UC Santa Barbara. We discuss the central role of the body in medieval Daoist practices, and talk about the Daoist use of psychedelics to facilitate mystical experiences. Along the way, we touch on talismanic tattoos, internal alchemy, and embodied nonduality. Plus, Dominic reveals what he thinks about aliens and the Wu-Tang Clan.  
Remember, to hear from more experts on Buddhism, Asian medicine, and embodied spirituality, subscribe to Blue Beryl. Please enjoy!

Resources related to this episode:
Christine Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face (2009)Pierce’s blog “In defense of a little romanticism… or, how Mr Miyagi inspired me to become a professor”Pierce Salguero, Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical (2022)Dominic Steavu, The Writ of the Three Sovereigns: From Local Lore to Institutional Daoism (2020)Dominic Steavu, Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions (2015)Dominic’s Academia.edu page

Today I sit down with Justin B. Stein, a specialist in modern Japanese religion and the preeminent historian of Reiki. We discuss Justin’s new book, Alternate Currents, about the transnational origins of Reiki, and also get into his perspective as a both a scholar and a Reiki practitioner. Along the way, we ask what Reiki has to do with Buddhism, what subtle energy feels like up close, and what kinds of extraordinary experiences might occur when you open up to energy of the universe. 
Remember, if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhism, Asian medicine, and embodied spirituality, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes. Please enjoy!

Resources mentioned in the episode:
C. Pierce Salguero, Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (2020). Justin’s translation is Chapter 5, “Psychosomatic Buddhist Medicine at the Dawn of Modern Japan”Justin B. Stein, Alternate Currents: Reiki’s Circulation in the Twentieth-Century North Pacific (2023).BBP interview with Nathan Michon

Meet your host Dr. Pierce Salguero and producer/editor Dr. Lan Li as we inaugurate the Blue Beryl podcast and kick off our first season dedicated to Buddhist medicine. We discuss Pierce's background as a practitioner of Theravada Buddhism and traditional Thai medicine, some interesting experiences he had at Thai temples and meditation centers, and his work as an academic researcher of Buddhist medicine globally. We also chat about tensions between scholarship and practice, our previous multimedia collaborations related to Buddhism and Asian medicine, as well as our goals for the first season of the podcast.

Resources mentioned in the pod:
Pierce's website (www.piercesalguero.com)Lan's website (www.lan-a-li.com)Salguero, Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical (2022)Pierce's blog about 1980s movies Pierce's centipede article in Tricycle, (2022)Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine (2002)Salguero, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China (2014)Salguero, A Global History of Buddhism & Medicine (2022)Salguero, Buddhism & Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources (2017)Salguero, Buddhism & Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (2020)Medicine | Race | Democracy Lab (www.mrdlab.org)Jivaka Project (www.jivaka.net) 

In this episode, I sit down with my friend Bill McGrath, a historian of Tibetan Buddhism and medicine. He's one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on this subject, and we get deep into the weeds in an academic conversation about traditional Tibetan medicine, the category of Buddhist medicine, and Bill's perspectives on magic, religion, and science. We also reminisce about the time that Bill once used a Tibetan mantra to save the day when we ran out of gas driving home from a conference!

Resources mentioned in the pod:
Bill's website (ww.wmcgrath.com)Yoeli-Tlalim, ReOrienting Histories of Medicine: Encounters along the Silk Road (2022)Gerke, Taming the Poisonous: Mercury, Toxicity, and Safety in Tibetan Medical Practic (2021)Janet Gyatso's review of Pierce's 2014 bookSalguero, A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine (2022)Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (2017)McGrath, Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine (2019)Saxer, Manufacturing Tibetan Medicine: The Creation of an Industry and the Moral Economy of Tibetanness (2013)Reassembling Tibetan Meicine (www.ratimed.net)Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)

In this episode, I sit down with my friend Wakoh Shannon Hickey, who is a Soto Zen priest, hospice chaplain, scholar, and activist. We talk about Wakoh’s early experiences with social violence in the 1980s, her work as a hospital chaplain, and her 2019 book Mind Cure, which is a groundbreaking social history of religion and mindfulness in the U.S. 

Resources:
Wakoh's Academia.edu pageHickey, Mind Cure: How Meditation Became Medicine (2019)Helderman, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (2019)Brown, Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? (2019)Purser, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (2019)Find all episodes of the Blue Beryl Podcast at www.piercesalguero.com