Lama Rod Owens was officially recognized by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism after receiving his teaching authorization from his root teacher the Venerable Lama Norlha Rinpoche when he completed the tradition 3-year silent retreat program at Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery (KTC) outside of New York City.
After completing retreat, Lama Rod served as the resident lama and program director for Kagyu DC (Kagyu Drupgyu Chödzong/KDC) in Washington, DC where he focused on making traditional Buddhist end of life teachings more accessible to contemporary practitioners. Lama Rod left Kagyu DC to pursue his Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School where he focuses on the intersection of Buddhism, identity, and social change.
Lama Rod has a blend of formal Buddhist training and life experience that gives him a unique ability to understand, relate and engage with those around him in a way that’s spacious and sincere. His gentle, laid-back demeanor and willingness to bare his heart and soul makes others want to do the same. Even when seated in front of a room, he’s next to you, sharing his stories and struggles with an openness vulnerability and gentle humor that makes you genuinely feel good about who you are, with all your flaws and foibles, you’re lovable and deserving of happiness and joy. He invites you in to 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. Through his lens you catch glimpses of your own often conflicting identities. Through it all he weaves in time-tested, traditional Buddhist principles and practices that give listeners real tools for healing and evolution.
Lama Rod grounds his dharma teaching within the practice of Radical Presence. For Lama Rod “radical” is remembering and returning to a simple and basic way of being in the world, one that reduces the violence to oneself and others; it honors one’s own passions and aspirations and relates to the world from a place of equanimity. When we choose this way of being in the world, we feel at home in our own body, with no desire to leave it; because we feel at home in the body, we feel at home in the world. That is radical presence. And at its heart is an awareness of one’s own intersectionality or what Lama Rod calls a complex community of personal identities in constant interaction and expression.
Sitting with Lama Rod is to be guided into conversations and contemplations around things that affect us all but we’re scared to talk about like sex, race, identity, gender, class, power, depression etc.; rooted in Buddhist wisdom and personal experience because on the other side (of fear) is liberation.
Lama Rod is currently a core teacher with the Natural Dharma Fellowship and is a teacher with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit that offers mindfulness retreats for young people. Lama Rod offers Dharma teachings, retreats, and talks across traditions and lineages and has taught with many sanghas including Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC), New York Insight Meditation Center (NYIMC), Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC), the Yale University Sangha, Great Pond Sangha, Against the Stream Boston, Boston Men’s Sangha, Granite State Sangha, Tsurphu Goshir Dharma Center, Atlanta Shambhala Center, The Center for Transformative Change, The San Quentin State Prison Buddhadharma Sangha, and others. He has been an organizer for the Gen X Dharma Teachers Conference as well as the Harvard Buddhist Community‘s Buddhism and Race Conference.
Lama Rod has been published and featured in several publications including Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and Spirit Magazine where he often writes on issues of Buddhism, secular mindfulness, and social justice. He has just released a book with Rev. angel Kydo williams and Dr. Jasmine Syedullah entitled, Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love, and Liberation.
After completing retreat, Lama Rod served as the resident lama and program director for Kagyu DC (Kagyu Drupgyu Chödzong/KDC) in Washington, DC where he focused on making traditional Buddhist end of life teachings more accessible to contemporary practitioners. Lama Rod left Kagyu DC to pursue his Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School where he focuses on the intersection of Buddhism, identity, and social change.
Lama Rod has a blend of formal Buddhist training and life experience that gives him a unique ability to understand, relate and engage with those around him in a way that’s spacious and sincere. His gentle, laid-back demeanor and willingness to bare his heart and soul makes others want to do the same. Even when seated in front of a room, he’s next to you, sharing his stories and struggles with an openness vulnerability and gentle humor that makes you genuinely feel good about who you are, with all your flaws and foibles, you’re lovable and deserving of happiness and joy. He invites you in to 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. Through his lens you catch glimpses of your own often conflicting identities. Through it all he weaves in time-tested, traditional Buddhist principles and practices that give listeners real tools for healing and evolution.
Lama Rod grounds his dharma teaching within the practice of Radical Presence. For Lama Rod “radical” is remembering and returning to a simple and basic way of being in the world, one that reduces the violence to oneself and others; it honors one’s own passions and aspirations and relates to the world from a place of equanimity. When we choose this way of being in the world, we feel at home in our own body, with no desire to leave it; because we feel at home in the body, we feel at home in the world. That is radical presence. And at its heart is an awareness of one’s own intersectionality or what Lama Rod calls a complex community of personal identities in constant interaction and expression.
Sitting with Lama Rod is to be guided into conversations and contemplations around things that affect us all but we’re scared to talk about like sex, race, identity, gender, class, power, depression etc.; rooted in Buddhist wisdom and personal experience because on the other side (of fear) is liberation.
Lama Rod is currently a core teacher with the Natural Dharma Fellowship and is a teacher with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit that offers mindfulness retreats for young people. Lama Rod offers Dharma teachings, retreats, and talks across traditions and lineages and has taught with many sanghas including Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC), New York Insight Meditation Center (NYIMC), Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC), the Yale University Sangha, Great Pond Sangha, Against the Stream Boston, Boston Men’s Sangha, Granite State Sangha, Tsurphu Goshir Dharma Center, Atlanta Shambhala Center, The Center for Transformative Change, The San Quentin State Prison Buddhadharma Sangha, and others. He has been an organizer for the Gen X Dharma Teachers Conference as well as the Harvard Buddhist Community‘s Buddhism and Race Conference.
Lama Rod has been published and featured in several publications including Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and Spirit Magazine where he often writes on issues of Buddhism, secular mindfulness, and social justice. He has just released a book with Rev. angel Kydo williams and Dr. Jasmine Syedullah entitled, Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love, and Liberation.