Ethan Nichtern – The Road Home – Ep. 41 – Love and Rage w/ Lama Rod Owens

Ethan Nichtern - The Road Home - Ep. 41 - Love and Rage w/ Lama Rod Owens

How can we find the path of liberation through our anger? Lama Rod Owens speaks with Ethan about ways we can work with anger as a healing energy in our practice.

Considered a leader of the next generation of Dharma teachers, Lama Rod Owens has a blend of formal Buddhist training in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and life experience that gives him a unique ability to understand, relate and engage in a way that’s spacious and sincere. He invites you into the cross-sections of his life as a Black, queer male, born and raised in the South and heavily influenced by the church and its community. Learn more about Lama Rod’s offerings and future teaching events at lamarod.com.

Stepping Into Service

Lama Rod shares the influences that led him to a life focused on service, activism, and the Dharma.

The Path of Liberation through Anger (11:10)

How can we work with anger in our practice? Ethan speaks with Lama Rod about his most recent book, Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger. Lama Rod explores key concepts found in Love and Rage, such as Buddhist teachings around the importance of anger as an energy and how that relates to social change and disrupting systems of violence.

“After the 2016 elections, the only questions people were giving me were about anger. ‘What do I do with this anger?’ I could not bypass it, I couldn’t escape it. I felt called to do this work, so I engaged in the struggle.” – Lama Rod Owens   

The Power of Joy (26:35)

What roles do love and humor play in how we work with anger? Lama Rod shares experiences that have taught him the importance of keeping a light heart when working with rage and the traps of the ego.

“Love is what holds space for the anger. I am not trying to get rid of anger, I am trying to hold it and make space for it so I can make better decisions in how to be in relationship to it.” – Lama Rod Owens

Inviting Everything In (39:00)

Ethan and Lama Rod talk about the different modalities of practice, like Tantra and ancestor practice, that we can use to work with our emotions.

Lama Rod reflects on showing up to difficult experiences and holding our love and trauma in balance on Ep. 23 of the ReRooted Podcast with Francesca Maxime
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Ethan Nichtern - The Road Home - Ep. 41 - Love and Rage w/ Lama Rod Owens

      

Images via Lama Rod Owens