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 book
• Salguero, 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 page
• Hickey, 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

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana, chief abbot at the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center and a scholar of modern Buddhism in Sri Lanka. We talk about his role in adapting Buddhist practices to address social and mental health needs during the Covid-19 pandemic. We also compare Buddhist responses to Covid in Pittsburgh and Sri Lanka. Along the way, we talk about how he became a monk, the health benefits of drinking boiled coriander water, and the dire situation in his home country.

Enjoy the conversation! And, if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhist medicine and related topics, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes here.

Resources:

• Pittsburgh Buddhist Center
• Donate to PBC's efforts to Help Sri Lanka
• PBC Recordings of Chanting
• PBC Livestream
• Other Resources on Buddhist Responses to Covid-19

Dr. Pierce Salguero chats with Nephyr Jacobsen, a traditional Thai medicine practitioner based in Portland Oregon. Nephyr is the founder and director of the Naga Center, and a long time student and teacher of traditional Thai medicine. We talk about Nephyr's experience training in Thailand and some of her writing projects. We focus on the broad diversity of practices and the role of Buddhism in Thai medicine. We also get into social issues, such as ethically engaging with cultural practices in a non-extractive way and her experiences as a practitioner of traditional medicine during Covid.

Enjoy the conversation! And, if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhist medicine and related topics, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes here.

Resources:

• The Naga Center
• Jacobsen & Salguero, Thai Herbal Medicine: Traditional Recipes for Health and Harmony, 2nd edition (2014)
• Jacobsen, Seven Peppercorns: Traditional Thai Medical Theory For Bodyworkers (2015)
• Salguero & Roylance, Encyclopedia of Thai Massage: A Complete Guide to Traditional Thai Massage Therapy and Acupressure, 2nd edition (2011)
• Ajahn Pichet's website
• Nephyr's Cultural Awareness Course
• Salguero, Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Yoga, Ayurveda, 2nd edition (2016)
• Veterans study (with 50K, not 500K subjects)

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Paula Arai, a scholar of Japanese Zen, gender, and healing ritual. Paula is an inspiration in the way she blends critical analysis and compassion in her work. In this episode, we talk about how her journey into Zen began with her relationship with her Japanese mother, as well as her work on everyday Japanese healing rituals. Our discussion focuses on the ethics of empathetic scholarship and how Paula’s care for relationships has shaped her five books. Along the way, we touch on the centrality of women in Buddhism and the challenges of facing misogyny and sexism in academia.

Enjoy the conversation! And, if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhist medicine and related topics, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes here.

Resources:

• Article about Paula by Karma Lekse Tsomo in Challenging Bias Against Women Academics in Religion (2021)
• Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns (1999)
• Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Rituals (2011)
• Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra (2019)
• The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice (2022)
• The Little Book of Zen Healing: Japanese Rituals for Beauty, Harmony, and Love (2023)

We'll periodically be sharing a bonus episode outside of our usual monthly schedule. This time, we're rebroadcasting an interview with me that aired on the Imperfect Buddha Podcast in late 2022. Host Matthew O'Connell asks me about my two recent publications, Buddhish and A Global History of Buddhist Medicine. In the first half of our conversation, we talk about why I'm not a Buddhist despite all of the value I've gotten out of the tradition, as well as Buddhism's fundamental commitment to a progressive path-based model. In the second half, we get into how Buddhism has advocated a multi-perspectival approach to health and wellbeing that combines diverse paradigms of healing, even when they seem to contract one another. Along the way, you'll hear about why I think the concept of non-self isn't a good fit for college students and how to balance critique with engagement in the classroom.

Enjoy, and please subscribe so that you do not miss any episodes in the future!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Pierce Salguero, Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical (2022)
• Pierce Salguero, A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine (2022)
• Pierce's blog on pedagogy
• The Imperfect Buddha Podcast by Matthew O'Connell.

And now for something completely different! Today I sit down with Zachary Lui who is a practitioner of Chinese medicine, magic, and shamanism in the Toronto area. We start by talking about his early work with Chinese martial arts, traditional medicine, and qigong. We then get into Zac’s practice of chaos magic, diverse ritual practices, reiki, and esoteric Buddhist healing. Finally, we discuss his communication with different deities and spirits, as well as the potential dangers of working with them in his healing practice.

Enjoy! And, if you want to hear from more experts on Buddhist medicine and related topics, subscribe to Blue Beryl for monthly episodes here.


Resources

• Wuji Xuan Life Wellness
• Queen City Curio
• Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole Podcast
• Andrieh Vitimus, Hands-On Chaos Magic (2009)