About Sabine Wilms, PhD
I am the author and translator of more than a dozen books on Chinese medicine. In addition to writing, translating, and publishing my work through my company Happy Goat Productions, I lecture around the world and mentor students through my two membership programs “Imperial Tutor” and “Reading the Chinese Medicine Classics.”
I also run the world’s only rigorous intensive training program on classical Chinese for practitioners of Chinese medicine and recently started the “Pebble in the Cosmic Pond” podcast.
Some of my favorite topics are gynecology, pediatrics, medical ethics, and “nurturing life.” My publications include books on Sun Simiao’s 孫思邈 writings on pediatrics (Venerating the Root) and ethics (Healing Virtue-Power); on the “Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica” (Shennong Bencao Jing 《神農本草經》); on Wang Fengyi’s 王鳳儀 system of “Five Element Virtue Healing” (Let the Radiant Yang Shine Forth and Twelve Characters); on the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic 《黃帝內經》 chapter five (Humming with Elephants); on the Fuxingjue zangfu yongyao fayao 《輔行訣臟腑用藥法要》 aka Tangyejing 《湯液經》 (Celestial Secrets) and on Qi Zhongfu’s 齊仲甫 “Hundred Questions on Gynecology” 《女科百問》 (Channeling the Moon).
While I pride myself on my historically and culturally sensitive approach to traditional Chinese Medicine, I also see it as a living, effective, ever-changing, and much-needed response to the issues of our modern times. These days, I live happy as a clam with my goats, chickens, and other wild and domesticated animals on beautiful Whidbey Island near Seattle. If you need to know more about my professional credentials, here is my Curriculum Vitae.
My Mission and Vision
Happy Goat Productions is the public manifestation of my lifelong work studying, contemplating, practicing, discussing, and teaching the "Dao of Nurturing Life" (yangsheng zhi dao 養 生之道). On the basis of classical Chinese literature, I approach this work from several angles in my personal and professional life:
reading the classical Chinese medical and philosophical literature as authentically as possible;
taking inspiration from Sun Simiao 孫思邈, a key figure in Chinese medical history from the early Tang period.
practicing what I study and learn, at the macrocosmic and an infinite number of microcosmic levels, from biodynamic farming to lifestyle, self-cultivation, and parenting, and to balancing my excitement for my teaching and writing with a need for quiet listening and dreaming.
sharing my evolving understanding through the written and spoken word, in publications, lectures and seminars, online memberships and forums, and, most recently, my new podcast.
facilitating engagement with the treasures of classical Chinese wisdom found in the medical and philosophical literature.
empowering others to access the Chinese original texts directly, by teaching YOU how to read the classical Chinese source texts under the guidance of a mentor or teacher.
My primary audience are practitioners of Chinese medicine and any other healers and "nurturers of life" (yang sheng zhi jia 養生之家), in the largest sense of that concept. I greatly admire the work of my clinical colleagues and friends and want to support YOU in your noble journey to the best of my ability.
“Ultimately, I want to promote harmony among humans in the pivotal role between Heaven and Earth. Admittedly, this sounds lofty, but I mean it and may as well put it out there. Please hold me to this intention.”
Acknowledgments
Happy Goat Productions is my brainchild and life's work. As such, I am solely responsible for any content that is not expressly attributed to anybody else. That said, it takes a party to publish a book... or put on a successful seminar.
I would not be here without the constant professional and personal support of my trusted friends and colleagues in the field of Chinese medicine, from my many years of graduate school at the University of Arizona, to five years of teaching at the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR, to the yearly TCM Kongress in Germany and similar conferences, to connections made online with people I have never met in person. Everything I know about Chinese medicine comes from my teachers, my books, my doctors, my medical ancestors, and my practitioner friends and students.
I am so fortunate to be living this life of quiet writing on magical Whidbey Island, interspersed with regular conferences and seminars online or in person to keep my mind engaged and inspired and my heart full. I wouldn’t be here without your interest and support…
In addition, every book is a process of creation and involves a group of midwives to provide support, from conception, through pregnancy, labor, and delivery, to postpartum recuperation. The acknowledgments are always my favorite section of a book to write, and I hope you read those….
Lastly, to state the obvious, I wouldn’t be here doing what I do without my parents and other wise guides, living and deceased, in human, animal, plant, or other form. I have been blessed in infinite ways and only hope to pass those gifts on….
