The Spirit Underground with Spring Washam and Lama Rod Owens

Exploring politics and spirituality, Lama Rod Owens and Spring Washam discuss rooting liberation in love instead of anger.
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
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.
Spring currently teaches meditation retreats and leads workshops, and classes worldwide: springwasham.com
“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
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Dipping into the juicy topic of psychedelics and liberation, Lama Rod Owens and Spring Washam discuss the importance of set and setting.
This week, Spring and Lama Rod explore:
The importance of set and setting
Optimal conditions for liberation
Recognizing the wisdom and validity of indigenous wisdom
Psychedelics as medicine and a means to work through trauma
The impact of psychedelic pioneer and healer María Sabina
How set and setting facilitates deeper psychedelic experiences
Spring's experiences with the Shipibo community in the amazon
Music as a powerful component of set and setting
The trouble with inauthentic healers and commercialization
Revering the ancient practice of liberation within plant medicine
Knowing that we will not get more than we can bare
“This isn’t me just having a trip, this is a way, a means for me to do real liberatory work around trauma, love, hate, all of that. It was giving me a way to do this trauma release work which is what I have always been longing to do in a deep way.” – Lama Rod Owens

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Discussing the systemic breakdowns in America, Lama Rod Owens and Spring Washam urge renewal through solidarity with marginalized cultures.
This time on Spirit Underground, Spring and Lama Rod chat about:
The systemic breakdowns happening in our country
Balancing on a thread in this current election cycle
Death / Renewal in nature as an example of what may need to occur in America
Having deep solidarity with the cultures who have been dominated and occupied
Letting go of expecting the world to be different than it is
The human urge to be comfortable even at the cost of discomfort for other groups
Colonization as an intense dissociation and disconnection from our hearts
Becoming embodied and adjusting to our own cultural narratives
Trauma, loss of memory, and control
How the patriarchy has systemically limited the ability for deep emotional labor
Fear of death as the root of all fear
How crisis can give rise to collaboration and grace
Considering the gifts we can offer to the world
"Everyone needs to be free. Everyone needs to have access to the resources they need to be well, safe, and happy. You don’t have to earn a right to be fed and housed and cared for and clothed. This isn’t about the nature of your character, this is about the fact that you are human living in culture and society, and as a society we should care for one another.” – Lama Rod Owens

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Navigating the complexities of justice and freedom, Spring and Lama Rod discuss choosing the hard work of liberation over comfort.
In this episode, Spring and Lama Rod have a conversation about:
Choosing liberation versus comfort and stability
Getting to the root of suffering and the root of who we are
Moving deeper into our current predicaments instead of bypassing
The intense labor of liberation and choosing freedom in an unfree world
Transforming suffering into wisdom and clarity
Pain as our guide and teacher
Building communities that can hold the nuances of justice and freedom
Finding a teacher with experience in all paths
The tension between enlightenment and humanity
Bridging conventional reality with the ultimate
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.
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.
“I’m not interested in your comfort, I’m interested in your freedom. Because if you’re always trying to prioritize comfort in this work then you’re going to be really disappointed. You won’t grow.” – Lama Rod Owens

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Radically telling his personal truths, Lama Rod Owens talks with Spring Washam about his upcoming book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors.
Click HERE to preorder your copy of Lama Rod Owens’ book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors
This week on the Spirit Underground, Spring and Lama Rod dive into:
Heartbreak, fear, and the freedom of honesty
Lama Rod’s method of opening up in his upcoming book
Inspiration from James Baldwin
Embodying the path of liberation and trusting the process
A contemporary understanding of sainthood
Rethinking the Bodhisattva tradition
How the idea of being good may mean suppression
Tuning into our own needs
The modern love of radical truth
The tough work of spiritual awakening and processing our traumas
Recognizing when someone is bypassing their pain
Lama Rod Owens’ dedication to the Black, Queer, and Trans communities
Impacting the world through personal transformation
“When you choose to do the work, you will experience liberation. You will experience the space, the fluidity. You’ll come to understand yourself in a really different way, in such a way that’s full of potential and expansive and generative.” – Lama Rod Owens

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