Dharma instructor Lama Rod Owens joins Francesca Maximé for a conversation around the importance of showing up to difficult experiences and holding our love and trauma in balance.
Considered one of the leaders 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 upcoming teaching events at lamarod.com.
The Dharma of Homecoming
Lama Rod shares the work he has been doing sharing contemplative practices of healing that focus on the wounds caused by racism, marginalization, and patriarchy. He offers insight around how the act of creating a home can be a radically healing act.
“I think it is a radical act – a revolutionary act – to make a home in the world; particularly if you have felt that the world has not ever been home for you. I love offering these teachings for people of color and for people who experience marginalization.” – Lama Rod Owens
Find freedom at the edge of where fear and courage meet on Ep. 229 of the Mindrolling Podcast
Love, Trauma & The Art of Showing Up (12:25)
How can we balance the complex entanglement of love and woundedness in our hearts? Lama Rod and Francesca speak about finding that balance by facing our pain, hardship, and fear. They look at the unique traumas that emerge among different communities; exploring how we can find love for the pain of both the colonized and the colonizer – regardless of which side of the wounding we find ourselves on.
“For me, it is about being OK. When I am OK, I am in balance. Balance doesn’t necessarily mean that I am comfortable or that I am loving the world or even enjoying anything. It means that I am in a position where I am able to hold the space for myself. All of course coming from a place of mindfulness where we are just trying to show up for what we are experiencing – we don’t have to like what we are showing up to but we have to have at least an aspiration to show up to it.” – Lama Rod Owens
Love & Rage (30:35)
Lama Rod talks about his upcoming book – Love and Rage – an exploration of how anger can be redirected as a constructive tool on the path to inner liberation.
Lama Rod with his root teacher, the Venerable Lama Norlha Rinpoche
