Kang Lecture Series: Chinese Medicine Buddhist Medicine

Join Professor Pierce Salguero and Dr. Sarah Rivkin to discuss practical and philosophical aspects of medicine as practiced in traditional Buddhist communities and contemporary Brooklyn.

Pierce Salguero: “Buddhist Medicine in China”

With the flourishing of the Silk Roads in the first centuries C.E., the two relatively independent worlds of Indo-European and East Asian medicine came into sustained conversation for the first time. This moment in history represents one of the most significant and best documented instances of cross cultural medical exchange in the pre-modern world, and Buddhism played a surprisingly central role in facilitating this exchange. A survey of Chinese Buddhist texts from approximately 150-1000 C.E. finds that medicine and religion were intimately intertwined in medieval Asia, and presents intriguing resonances with the globalization of mindfulness today. Topics of particular interest for this talk include the trade of herbal medicines, healing rites to counter illness-causing demons, and the benefits (but also dangers!) of meditation.

Sarah Rivkin: “Macrocosm in the Microcosm: Exploring Qi, Yin-Yang, and the Five Phases through the Clinical Practice of East Asian Medicine”

Qi, Yin-Yang, and the Five Phases are foundational concepts in Chinese thought, essential ways of seeing the universe and all it comprises. They take on additional form and meaning when applied to the nature and structure of the human body. Our understanding of these ideas is deepened by exploring their application, showing they are not just abstractions but organizing principles we can observe with our senses. In this lecture, Dr. Rivkin discusses how they play out in the clinical practice of acupuncture, herbology, and other modalities of East Asian medicine.

Presenter Bios:

Pierce Salguero

I am a transdisciplinary scholar of health humanities who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. I have a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teach Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. I also have been the editor in chief of the journal Asian Medicine: Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine since 2016. The major theme in my scholarship is discovering the role of Buddhism in the global transmission and local reception of knowledge about health, disease, and the body. I approach this topic using methodologies from history, religious studies, translation studies, literary studies, and ethnography. More recently, I have gotten into documentary filmmaking and podcasting as well.

Dr. Sarah E. Rivkin, DAHM, LAc, Dipl. OM (she/her) 任昕蕾

In addition to eighteen years of clinical experience as an acupuncturist and East Asian medical practitioner with a focus on reproductive/hormonal health and pediatrics, Dr. Rivkin is an experienced writer, teacher, and editor. Her writing has been published in Chinese Medicine and Culture, The Lantern, Medical Acupuncture, Convergent Points, and the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine (NAJOM). Dr. Rivkin is currently on the doctoral faculty at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine (SIEAM). She previously designed curriculum and taught in the post-graduate Chinese Herbology Certificate Program at Tri-State College of Acupuncture. She

has also taught master’s degree students at Pacific College of Health and Science, and at the Won Institute of Graduate Studies. She has a Doctorate in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine from the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine (SIEAM), a Master of Science in Traditional East Asian Medicine from Touro College, and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Northwestern University in Comparative Literary Studies.