Lama Rod Owens strikes again

on mondays Lama Rod Owens hosts calls to practice invoking the medicine buddha.1 sometimes i go. this past week, he was talking about witnessing and holding space for our own heartbreak in these times. he then said, i have to take care of my heartbreak over the fact that there will never be another season of Golden Girls. i have to mourn that. there were equally funny moments through out.

people were cracking up, appreciating the humor in the zoom chat.

the mysteriously hilarious travel from the somber to the seemingly trivial or vice versa. those pivots that actually keep us alive. catching people off guard as a generous act.

later, as he was guiding the meditation he said:

“far be it from me to point out anti-Blackness…sometimes you forget that I come from Black prophetic liberation tradition and that joy and laughter are our tools that have helped Black people survive systematic annihilation. so i was taught to laugh, i was taught to choose joy when everything seems impossible, to cut through. so you have to remember that. this is the way my people have survived and this is what i embody in my teaching which is why so many of you are here. So my humor isn’t disrepsect my humor is about survival in a world that’s always trying to get rid of me.

to cut through. i’m reminded that laughter is breath, exhale that may as well be care. laughter in the midst of impossible conditions.

he went on:

which is why so. many. of. you. are. here. if you’re telling the truth and you know it.

his conviction and clarity gathered us. sometimes when someone says the truth all elegantly and precisely like that the only suitable response is to be quiet (i.e. shut up).

and. laughing. we’re shaken out of ourselves, returned to who we are, who we suspect we could be.

here together in the space. there’s enough room for you, i swear.