Meditation Sickness and the (Dys)regulation of Qi

Today I sit down with Leo Lok, a retired practitioner of Chinese medicine who now teaches and consults with practitioners treating difficult cases of meditation sickness. Together, we discuss how to think about the challenging side-effects of meditation through the lens of the ancestral Chinese arts of qi regulation. Along the way, we discuss the surprising power of ocular alignment, how to gradually condition oneself for spiritual heavy lifting, and medieval Chinese emergency treatments for meditation practice gone wrong.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members-only benefits on Substack.com to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Leo's chapter on Chinese physicians will appear in Pierce's forthcoming book, Meditation Sickness: An Anthology on the Dangers of Meditation Practice. (Get notified when this is published.)
• Zhiyi's (538–597) magnum opus on meditation in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, translated by Paul Swanson
• Pierce discusses medieval Chinese approaches to meditation sickness, including Zhiyi's advice for meditators, in an open access article in Journal of Buddhist Ethics.
• See Leo's recommended YouTube instructional video on the six healing breaths.
• Leo's new website is under construction

Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including downloading:

• Pierce's 2017 translation of the complete "Chapter on Illness" from Zhiyi's Shorter Treatise on Śamatha and Vipaśyanā.