![]() ![]() “Touching the earth is about coming back to the body, to the ground of our experience,” Lama Rod says. Separating Vajrayana from its Tibetan cultural trappings, Lama Rod and Justin, as they’re known, are evolving a dharma more accessible to Westerners and more responsive to the growing pool of practitioners underserved in today’s multicultural, gender-fluid, #MeToo world.īhumisparsha-Sanskrit for “touching the earth”-refers to the mudra, or gesture, made by the Buddha on the night of his enlightenment when he asked the earth to support his awakening. Eschewing the top-down organization of most Buddhist sanghas, Bhumisparsha bills itself as an egalitarian “safe space” for those who have felt marginalized or unwelcome in traditional dharma settings. Two American teachers in the Kagyu tradition- Lama Rod Owens and Repa Dorje Odzer (aka Justin von Bujdoss)-have launched a virtual practice community, Bhumisparsha, that is turning Vajrayana on its head. ![]() ![]() Women, as teachers and practitioners, are more visible and influential these days, but the hierarchy in many Buddhist sanghas remains white, heterosexual, male-and, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, bound by centuries-old lineages and monastic forms. People of color still often find themselves the lone representative in a meditation hall or segregated in “people of color” retreats. For all the talk of an emerging American Buddhism that embraces diversity and inclusion, the reality falls short of the ideal. ![]()
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