Exploring politics and spirituality, Lama Rod Owens and Spring Washam discuss rooting liberation in love instead of anger.
“It’s how we’re doing our activism and how we’re doing our work now. Things have changed, it’s another level. You can’t beat someone into liberation, they have to choose it.” – Spring Washam
This time on the Spirit Underground, Spring and Lama Rod discuss:
- How a love ethic can be at the roots of our relation to each other
- A dedication to collective liberation
- The complexity of liberation struggle
- Considering if activism and dharma are separate
- The importance of anger / anger as informative
- Love as the driving force of real liberation
- Training ourselves to healthily hold anger
- The role of spiritual leaders
- Learning how to do spiritual labor
- How bypassing suffering makes our experience more limited and rigid
- Conducting real work and making hard choices
- The Bhagavad Gita, doing our dharma, and standing in the front lines
- Leading by example and enduring the struggle
“I began to see anger is absolutely important but actually love is what drives us, what guides us to real liberation and healing. Anger is informing that struggle, that work.” – Lama Rod Owens
About Lama Rod Owens:
Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. Author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, his teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself. A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers with over 11 years of experience, Lama Rod is highly respected among his peers and the communities that he serves. From these intersections, he creates a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive.
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About Spring Washam:
Spring Washam is a well-known teacher, author, and visionary leader based in Oakland, California. She is the author of A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage and Wisdom in Any Moment and her newest book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices to diverse communities. She is one of the founding teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She has practiced and studied Buddhist philosophy in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism since 1999. She is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California where she was trained for over a decade.
In addition to being a teacher, she is also a shamanic practitioner and has studied indigenous healing practices since 2008. She is the founder of Lotus Vine Journeys, a one-of-a-kind organization that blends indigenous healing practices with Buddhist wisdom in South America. Her writings and dharma teachings have appeared in many online journals and publications. She currently teaches meditation retreats and leads workshops, and classes worldwide.