Buddhist Strategies for Suffering Less and Improving Your Meditation | Lama Rod Owens
Lama Rod Owens, a Black Buddhist Southern Queen and authorized lama, discusses his book "The New Saints," advocating for a contemporary, self-interested sainthood. He emphasizes letting go of perfection, reducing harm, and connecting with the unseen world for collective liberation.
Deep Dive Analysis
18 Topic Outline
Reclaiming the Word 'Saint' and the 'New Saint' Concept
The Selfish Case for Sainthood and Ancient Principles
Disappointment with Performative Goodness Post-George Floyd
Why Lama Rod is 'No Longer Interested in Being a Good Person'
The Violence of Perfectionism and Embracing Imperfection
Lama Rod's Personal Journey and Connection to the Unseen World
How to Connect with Unseen Beings and Decolonize Belief Systems
The 10 Characteristics of a New Saint
Understanding Radical Dharma and Spiritual Warfare
The New Saint as Prophet and the 'Pyramid Scheme' of Inspiration
Fearlessness vs. Responding to Fear
Awakened Care: Compassion, Love, Joy, and Emptiness
Responsiveness: Moving from Reactivity to Agency
Cultivating Joy and Gratitude Amidst Global Challenges
Reconnecting with the Natural World as an Antidote
SNOWEL: A Step-by-Step Approach to Working with Sensations
Optimism for Humanity and the Power of Collective Liberation
The Responsibility of Wholeness and Consent to Sacred Work
7 Key Concepts
New Saint
A contemporary understanding of sainthood, inspired by the Buddhist Bodhisattva ideal, focused on individuals upgrading their being to meet the challenges of an unsure future. It involves connecting to something higher and divine, not just for selflessness but for tuning into being of help and benefit, including one's own needs.
Goodness (as a process)
Goodness is not a fixed state or a performance for validation, but an ongoing process of earning from second to second. It's defined by making choices to reduce suffering, harm, and violence for oneself and others, acknowledging that one won't always make the 'right' choice but striving to do so most of the time.
Perfectionism (as violence)
The pursuit of perfection is considered a source of suffering and a form of violence, as it's an impossible ideal weaponized against individuals. It prevents people from acknowledging their humanness and imperfections, leading to disappointment and the crumbling of venerated figures when they inevitably fall short.
Spiritual Warfare
This concept acknowledges that beneath political and social conflicts, there is an underlying spiritual warfare, an expression of the unseen world. Taking this seriously means engaging with unseen forces that perpetuate systems of violence and striving for a balanced relationship with them.
Prophecy (as truth-telling)
In the context of a New Saint, prophecy is not about foretelling the future but about revealing the truth of what is happening in the present moment. This often makes prophets unpopular because they mirror back the suffering people try to avoid, and dealing with this truth comes at a cost.
Awakened Care
A retranslation of 'bodhicitta' (awakened mind), it's the practice of wanting to get free only because one wants others to be free, embodying a decentralized view of relating to others. It comprises compassion (attunement to suffering), love (deep wish for freedom from suffering and holding space), and joy (gratitude and recognizing innate spaciousness), all arising within emptiness.
Responsiveness
This is the practice of developing agency with whatever arises in one's mind, body, or the world, moving beyond habitual reactivity. It involves noticing and naming what's happening, then consciously choosing how to respond, which is an act of 'tending' to what's arising with awakened care.
7 Questions Answered
A 'New Saint' is a contemporary adaptation of the ancient Bodhisattva ideal, focused on individuals upgrading themselves to meet the challenges of an uncertain future by connecting to something divine or sacred, aiming to be of help and benefit to all, including themselves.
He is no longer interested in 'being a good person' because goodness, for many, is a performative act for validation or to get needs met. Instead, he views goodness as an active, moment-to-moment process of choosing to reduce harm and violence for oneself and others, which may sometimes lead to disappointing people.
Perfectionism is harmful because it's an impossible ideal that is weaponized against us, causing suffering and preventing us from embracing our inherent humanness. It sets an unattainable standard that even great spiritual leaders could not consistently meet, leading to disappointment and internal/interpersonal violence.
One can begin by reading about others' experiences with the unseen, developing relationships with mediums, psychics, and intuitives, and then testing that information for oneself. It often starts with openly and honestly communicating, like having a conversation, and slowly building trust and understanding of how these beings communicate.
The two core 'magics' are awakened care, which is a retranslation of bodhicitta encompassing compassion, love, joy, and emptiness, and responsiveness, which is the ability to move from reactivity to a conscious, agentic response to whatever arises.
We can cultivate joy and gratitude by intentionally focusing on what we are grateful for, connecting with beauty in nature, art, or relationships, and reflecting on the resilience of ancestors and historical figures who overcame impossible situations, drawing inspiration from their ability to 'make a way out of no way'.
SNOWEL is a step-by-step method: See (notice what's arising), Name (give it a label), Own (take responsibility for it being present), Experience (get curious about its sensations), Let it go (release fixation), and Let it float (hold space for it without reacting, like clouds in the sky).
20 Actionable Insights
1. Abandon Perfectionism
Release the pursuit of perfection, recognizing it as a source of suffering and an impossible ideal. Embrace your humanness and imperfections to foster a more spacious and fluid relationship with what arises.
2. Choose Active Goodness
Actively choose to reduce suffering, harm, and violence for yourself and others in each moment, rather than resting on the identity of being a ‘good person.’ This allows for continuous self-assessment and improvement.
3. Prioritize Needs, Set Boundaries
Be attentive to your own needs and set boundaries to create space for self-care. This prevents depletion and resentment, allowing you to genuinely help others without causing further suffering or tension in relationships.
4. Practice Mindful Response
Engage in mindfulness by acknowledging, naming, and allowing thoughts and emotions to arise without immediate reaction. This practice helps decondition habitual responses, allowing you to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.
5. Embrace Full Identity Truthfully
Acknowledge and express the full spectrum of your identity and desires truthfully, without censorship. This self-honesty is crucial for liberation and for transforming your relationship with your inner experiences.
6. Cultivate Unseen World Curiosity
Approach skepticism about the unseen world with curiosity, seeking information and experiences to explore its potential reality. Developing a relationship with unseen forces can provide support and reduce feelings of victimization.
7. Connect with Unseen Beings
Begin to develop a relationship with the unseen world, including ancestors and deities, by openly communicating and asking for what you need, often through prayer. This practice can foster a sense of being held and supported.
8. Ground in Radical Dharma
Integrate social liberation efforts with ultimate spiritual practice, grounding yourself in awareness of societal harms while connecting to the emptiness and fluidity of the phenomenal world. This bridges worldly engagement with spiritual freedom.
9. Engage in Spiritual Warfare
Acknowledge that beneath political and social conflicts lies spiritual warfare, perpetuated by unseen forces. Engage with the unseen world to create a more balanced and grounded experience in the relative world.
10. Practice Prophetic Truth-Telling
Be a ‘prophet’ by courageously speaking the truth about present suffering, even when it’s uncomfortable for others. This act of mirroring can inspire people to confront and address their avoidance.
11. Inspire, Don’t Save All
Focus on inspiring a few people to make positive changes, understanding that this ripple effect can lead to collective liberation. Release the burden of saving everyone and instead empower others to do their own work.
12. Embrace Fear, Act Anyway
Acknowledge and allow fear to be present without letting it dictate your actions. Choose to act in alignment with what you know is right, trusting your practice to navigate the consequences.
13. Cultivate Awakened Care
Cultivate ‘awakened care’ by integrating compassion (attunement to suffering), love (wish for freedom), and joy (gratitude and spaciousness), all within the understanding of emptiness. This holistic approach supports effective and sustainable engagement in helping others.
14. Shift to Responsiveness
Develop agency by noticing and naming what arises in your mind, body, and the world, then consciously choosing how to respond rather than reacting impulsively. This ’tending’ is an expression of awakened care, aimed at reducing suffering.
15. Cultivate Joy & Gratitude
Actively practice joy and gratitude by focusing on what you have and connecting with sources of beauty, relationships, and the resilience of ancestors. This helps manage the intensity of suffering and sustains you through difficult work.
16. Embrace Coexisting Realities
Acknowledge that multiple realities, including suffering and joy, can coexist simultaneously. Actively tune into positive aspects of life to build resilience and capacity to engage with difficult truths, rather than choosing one over the other.
17. Reconnect with Nature
Reestablish a harmonious relationship with the natural world by actively tuning into elements like earth, wind, water, and fire. This reconnection fosters sensitivity and provides support, serving as an antidote to environmental disconnection.
18. Utilize S.N.O.E.L.L. Method
Process internal experiences using S.N.O.E.L.L.: See (notice), Name (label), Own (accept responsibility), Experience (feel sensations), Let it Go (release fixation/reaction), and Let it Float (hold space without engagement). This cultivates clarity and allows for a chosen response.
19. Engage in Collective Liberation
Actively participate in collective survival, struggle, and care, working together with others to inspire a more liberated future. Recognize that individual efforts are part of a larger, interconnected movement.
20. Consent to Present Moment
Consistently choose to be present, holding space for the full spectrum of experiences including joy, rage, brokenness, and hope. This active consent to the present moment is the only path to liberation and allows you to take responsibility for your healing and helping others.
6 Key Quotes
I'm really interested in you understanding that it's our humanness, right? Our emotions, our sensations, everything that comes up for us. We're trying to develop a really spacious, fluid relationship to everything that arises for us. I'm not trying to control the thing. I'm trying to offer space to the thing so I can transform my relationship to it.
Lama Rod Owens
These days, although I fantasize about going out to the clubs or having random hookups and engaging in wild, uninhibited group sex, there is nothing more exciting than a nice, quiet dinner, a glass of sweet red wine, a few episodes of The Golden Girls, and a late-night pipe of tobacco. Sometimes I think I'm a modern-day hobbit.
Lama Rod Owens
I don't really care what you believe in. I'm much more interested in if your beliefs are reducing harm and violence for yourself and for others, and if these beliefs are actually getting you free from whatever you think you need to be free from. That's my only concern as a teacher.
Lama Rod Owens
The New Saint isn't fearless. In fact, the New Saint is full of fear. But we know how to respond to fear that doesn't limit how we show up in the world.
Lama Rod Owens
Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? Just so is you're sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed because wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you're well.
Minnie Ransom (quoted by Lama Rod Owens from 'The Salt Eaters')
I consent to the brokenness, the rage, and the hopelessness, as well as the joy, the gratitude, and the care. I consent to the weight of being healed and the responsibility I choose to get others well and free.
Lama Rod Owens
1 Protocols
SNOWEL Method for Working with Sensations
Lama Rod Owens- See: Notice what is arising in your mind or body.
- Name: Give a label to what you are seeing (e.g., 'anger', 'fear', 'thought').
- Own: Take responsibility for what you are naming and seeing, accepting that it is present.
- Experience: Get curious about the sensations of what is arising; allow yourself to feel it.
- Let it go: Develop agency to release fixation on the sensation or thought.
- Let it float: Continue to hold space for the material, allowing it to exist without reacting to it, like clouds passing through the sky.