So imagine growing up in a community with a generations long history of trauma and knowing that for you to just kind of move through each day, you had to hide a big part of who you were and how you felt you needed to be in the world.
Well, that was the experience of today's guest, Lamorad Owens.
Lammerad is a buddhist minister, author, activist, yoga instructor, and authorized Lama or buddhist teacher in the Kagu school of Tibetan Buddhist.
And he's considered really one of the leaders of his generation of buddhist teachers.
He holds a Master of Divinity degree in buddhist studies from Harvard Divinity School and is a co author of Radical Dharma talking Race, Love and Liberation, along with an old friend and past good life project guest, Rev.
Angel Kyoto Williams.
Lamorad is the co founder of Bhumisvarsha, a buddhist tantric practice and study community.
He's been published in Buddha, Dharma, Lions Roar, Tricycle, the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and he offers talks and retreats and workshops.
He's also someone who has spent a lifetime exploring and working with the often blurred lines between love and rage, which also happens to be the title of his latest book, love and the path to liberation through anger.
I know that seems like an odd combination, and we dive into that.
We really deconstruct it and understand its logic and its power.
In this conversation, the book's prophetic truth, really timing and honesty and wisdom in dealing with the multiplicity of challenges this generation is waking up to is both an invitation to a deeper set of truths and a set of practices to help navigate the experience of life in this moment in time.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I want to take a little bit of a step back in time with you.
You grew up in Rome, Georgia, which has, you know, a very sort of a complicated history, you know, in, in multiple layers, you know, going back to, in no small part, being a part of the trail of tears.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, it was, it was very complex, you know, even though, yes, that was one of kind of like the last seeded lands in Georgia for the Cherokee nation.
There were actually cherokee members of the Cherokee tribe who actually owned slaves as well in my hometown.