As we move through this period of intense systemic collapse, confronting one crisis after another, we are experiencing a loss that seems to transcend language. This loss brings forth grief that is both personal and collective, as much as it is nonlinear, ambiguous, potent, and overwhelming.Â
The next few years of our collective experience will be heavy with grief as we tend to the dying of our old world to open to the birth of a world anew. Grief work will be the next stage of healing activism.
Our grief is reminding us that it is generative and necessary. Grief is a partner helping us to practice care as it encourages us to change and embody more liberatory ways of being.Â
In the tradition of spiritual abolition, grief is understood to be a teacher and partner, helping us to recognize two things. First, that grief is the tension we feel as something changes, forcing us to figure out who we are in this shifting. And second, that grief is the uncomfortable experience of not getting what we want. Mourning is how we tend to grief – through expressing the experience of discomfort, ambiguity, somatic embodiment, and ritual.Â
The world is an experience where we are being asked to awaken deep clarity and remember our most ultimate nature as Buddhas, expressions of God and the Divine. Join Lama Rod and team for this spiritual abolitionist journey where we will rely on the wisdom of Tantric Buddhism, African spirituality, the Black Prophetic tradition, American Indigenous traditions, and sacred herbalism to understand and experience why our full embodiment of freedom must center tending to our broken hearts while invoking real joy to hold the labor of liberation.
This Journey Through Grief Yearlong Program is for you if…
The Journey Includes:
You will deepen your capacity to be with grief through topics & themes such as:
Enter the Yearlong Journey Through Grief...
Your registration includes a stone to work with during the journey, which we will be shipping to you in partnership with a local crystal shop. Shipping is to U.S. only (shipping cost not included in registration) and while supplies last.
Testimonials of the Transformative Power of Grief Tending
What Participants Have Said About Practice with Lama Rod:
“It has given me another way to celebrate a death and a loss of a special person to me.”
“It helped me unveil the many facets of grief, old and new, personal and collective, residing in the body. The power of Practice. The power of Community. Loving grief.”
“It's been very helpful to deal with grief which I'm experiencing a lot of and struggle to do. I avoid and distract less which gives me more energy to put towards grieving and other things. It's been helpful to do it with others and not just alone, to have the structure and support of the course and grieve collectively.”
“This helped me so much. I need support, structure, instruction, and encouragement to keep being with my grief, which underlies so much of my suffering (which spills out onto others when I don't have time/space/skill to care for it). This slowly helped me make peace with my elderly parents, and begin to contemplate their mortality and connect with them despite difficult histories. It helps me be more present with my children when they are lashing out. It helps me be more present and tender with myself, and reduces my experiences of depression.”
"It's affirmed much of my intuition and given me more grounding and faith to battle the moments when I wrestle with doubt and shame. It's encouraged me to act more boldly in making connections with ancestors, asking for help, making offerings, and simply believing in the path I know has been set for me."
“This has been a place to, and a way for me to understand the nature of my grief and how to take care of it and myself better. The material grounds me deeper and deeper into the Mother – silence and Earth and sky – as I'm getting better at SNOELL [a Love & Rage practice] and caring for my nervous system and for others.”
Registration Options
(select the offering below that best matches your ability to pay)
For this yearlong journey, the registration exchange is a sliding scale that honors one’s resources in the presence of their griefs. This is also an invitation to the practice of sovereignty by choosing to articulate your capacity to give and receive. Choose the registration level that you feel most aligns to the energetic, spiritual, and financial resources you have available to you at the present moment. Each option is named in a way that represents potential experiences of and relationships to grieving and grief practice.Â
Fierce Members of Lama Rod's Learning & Practice Community receive a 9% discount for the Attuning and Negotiating or Present and Practicing options. Join here to access the discount code.
FAQs:
Is this practice series open to all?
Yes, this practice series is open to all levels of experience. Please note that there will be an expectation of preparatory practices that we will share with you before the series begins.
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When are the live sessions?
9 Live Sessions with Lama Rod:
Mar 29, 11-3pm ET
April 19, 11-2pm ET
May 31, 11-2pm ETÂ
June 28, 11-2pm ET
July 12, 11-2pm ET
Aug 22, 11-2pm ET
Sept 13, 11-2pm ET
Oct 11, 11-2pm ET
Nov 22, 11-2pm ET
Your registration also includes the following live gatherings:
- Drop-in peer-led study & practice sessions: TBA
- Solstice Ceremony in December 2026
- Closing Ceremony & Gathering in early 2027
What if I can't attend the live session?Â
The live sessions will be recorded and posted on the course platform for you to watch later.Â
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How long will the course materials be available once I register?Â
All recorded live sessions and course module content will be available indefinitely on the course platform, except for the Grief Portal.
The grief portal access is a yearlong subscription that will end on March 20th, 2027.Â
You will have the option to extend your Grief Portal subscription on a monthly or yearly basis at the end of the yearlong program. Choosing to extend your grief portal subscription will offer you the time you needto continue working with the practices and have access these continuously growing resources for grief tending.Â
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Is there a refund policy?Â
Refunds are available prior to May 30th, 2026, less a 20% admin fee. After May 30th, we are not able to issue refunds. Anyone who requests a refund forfeits access to all course materials, including the Grief Portal.
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Is there financial assistance available?Â
In alignment with Indigenous wisdoms around sacred reciprocity, the additional resources offered by those who register at the Present and Practicing level allow for a limited amount of financial assistance. We recognize that reciprocity can be indirect, nonlinear, and expansive meaning that all resources offered are shared and spread throughout the community of practitioners who choose to engage in this Journey. Sacred reciprocity also holds faith that those who receive in one way (e.g. through financial assistance) may give in other ways to the community.Â
Email [email protected] if you are in need of financial assistance.Â
If you are able to contribute to our ability to offer financial assistance, please express your generosity by (a) choosing the Present and Practicing registration option, or (b) purchasing an additional registration at any level to gift to someone you know (or email [email protected] to designate it as a contribution to anyone who has requested financial assistance).
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What does the registration fee support?
Registration fees support Lama Rod and his team for the extensive labor, seen and unseen, and spiritual devotion that allows his work to remain accessible and sustainable. These resources help cover ongoing operational costs, such as the online platforms and services that are used to offer digital programs, team compensation, and the legal and accounting requirements of the United States, as well as physical spaces, materials, and nourishment for events when applicable.
As Lama Rod writes in The New Saints, he seeks to make the tradition of the Buddha relevant to our experiences in the present moment. This means inviting offerings and exchanges that honor the material needs of his energetic presence and livelihood — not in a conditional nor transactional way, but reflecting a tradition of reciprocity and universal balance similar to how you might leave food upon an altar for an ancestor. Giving and receiving are practices that embody the ethic of care that grounds Lama Rod’s work.
Therefore, your registration fees are one of the ways that Lama Rod is sustained so that he can continue his free and by-donation offerings such as Free Radicals, Sunday Service, and Blessed Slay. These offerings reflect our team’s commitment that no one be excluded from the teachings based upon their financial means. Those who register at the Pay-It-Forward price further increase accessibility by making financial assistance possible for those who need financial assistance. Barter offerings and work exchanges are also welcome in some instances. Lama Rod believes that we can be well resourced while practicing an anti-capitalist ethic and is deeply grateful to be in a reciprocal relationship with you.
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Other Questions?
For any other questions about this series, please contact [email protected].
Registration Options
(select the offering below that best matches your ability to pay)
For this yearlong journey, the registration exchange is a sliding scale that honors one’s resources in the presence of their griefs. This is also an invitation to the practice of sovereignty by choosing to articulate your capacity to give and receive. Choose the registration level that you feel most aligns to the energetic, spiritual, and financial resources you have available to you at the present moment. Each option is named in a way that represents potential experiences of and relationships to grieving and grief practice.Â
Fierce Members of Lama Rod's Learning & Practice Community receive a 9% discount for the Attuning and Negotiating or Present and Practicing options. Join here to access the discount code.
About the Teacher
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. Author of The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and 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.
A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers, Lama Rod activates the intersections of his identity to create a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive. Applauded for his mastery in balancing weighty topics with a sense of lightness, the Queen has been featured by various national and international news outlets.Â
Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself.
