Lama Rod describes herself as a black Buddhist southern queen. He wants to free you from suffering.

ROME, Ga (AP) — Instead of traditional maroon and gold Tibetan Buddhist robes, Lama Rod Owens wore a white animal-print vest over a bright yellow T-shirt with an image of singer Sade, an African medallion and mala beads — the most recognizable sign of his Buddhism.

“Being a Buddhist or a spiritual leader, I stopped trying to carry the role because it just wasn’t authentic to me,” says Owens, 44, who describes herself as a black Buddhist southern queen.

“For me, it’s not about looking like a Buddhist. It’s about being myself,” he said at his mother’s home in Rome, Georgia. “And I like color.”

The Harvard Divinity School-trained lama and yoga teacher combines his training at the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism with references to pop culture and experiences from his life as a black, queer man raised in the South by his mother, a pastor in a Christian Church .

Today he is an influential voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers, respected for his work focused on social change, identity and spiritual well-being.

On the popular mindfulness app Calm, his extensive courses include “Coming Out,” “Caring for your Grief,” and “Radical Self-Care” (sometimes he tells listeners to “shake it off,” like Mariah Carey). In his latest book, “The New Saints,” he highlights Christian saints and spiritual warriors, Buddhist bodhisattvas and Jewish tzaddikim among those who have tried to free people from suffering.

“Saints are ordinary and human and do things that any human being can learn,” Owen writes in his book, which combines personal stories, traditional teachings and instructions for meditation.

“Our age calls for saints who come from this time and place, speak the language of this moment, and integrate both social and spiritual liberation,” he writes. “I believe that we can all and should become new saints.”

But how? “It’s not about becoming a superhero,” he said, emphasizing the need to care for others.

And it is not reserved for the canonized. “Harriet Tubman is a saint to me,” he said of the 19th-century black abolitionist known for helping enslaved people escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. “She came into this world and said, ‘I want people to be free.’”

Owens grew up in a devout Baptist and Methodist family. His life revolved around his local church.

When he was 13, his mother, who wears a baseball cap that reads, “God’s Girl,” became a United Methodist minister. He calls her the biggest impact in his life.

“Like many Black women, she embodied wisdom, resilience and vision. She taught me how to work. And she taught me how to change, because I saw her change.”

He was inspired by her commitment to a spiritual path, especially when she went against the wishes of some in her family, who – as in many patriarchal religions – believed that a woman should not lead a congregation.

“I’m very proud of him,” said the Rev. Wendy Owens, who sat next to her son in her living room decorated with their photos and painted portraits.

“He has determined his path. He walked his path, or maybe even followed his path,” she said. “I don’t know how he got there, but he got there.”

A life dedicated to spirituality seemed unlikely for her son after he attended Berry College, a non-denominational Christian school. It has not deepened his relationship with Christianity. Instead, he stopped going to church. He wanted to “develop a healthy sense of self” about his queerness, and was dismayed by conservative religious views on gender and sexuality. He found the way God was presented to him too rigid and even vindictive. So, in his words, he “broke up with God.”

His new religion, he said, became service. He trained as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence and volunteered for projects involving HIV/AIDS awareness, homelessness, teen pregnancy, and substance abuse.

“Even though I no longer practiced this theology, what I certainly did was follow the path of Jesus: feeding people, sheltering people.”

After college, he moved to Boston and joined Haley House, a nonprofit inspired in part by the Catholic Worker Movement, which runs a soup kitchen and affordable housing programs.

There, he said, he met people from a range of religious traditions – “from Hinduism to Christian Science to all denominations of Christianity, Buddhists, Wiccans and Muslims.” Monasteries from different traditions, all.”

A Buddhist friend gave him a book that helped him find his spiritual path: “Cave in the Snow,” by Tibetan Buddhist nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

The British-born nun spent years isolated in a cave in the Himalayas following the rigorous path of the most dedicated yogis. She later founded a nunnery in India aimed at giving women in Tibetan Buddhism some of the opportunities reserved for monks.

“When I started exploring Buddhism, I never thought, ‘Oh, black people don’t do this, or maybe this goes against my Christian upbringing,’” Owens said. “What I thought was, ‘Here’s something that can help me suffer less. … I was only interested in how I could reduce the harm to myself and others.”

At Harvard Divinity School he was again immersed in religious diversity – there was even a Satanist present.

“What I love about Rod is that he is deeply himself, no matter who he is with,” says Cheryl Giles, a Harvard Divinity professor who mentored him and who now considers him one of her own teachers.

“When I think of him, I think of this concept of Boddhisatva in Buddhism, the deeply compassionate being who is on the path to awakening and sees the suffering of the world and commits to helping liberate others,” Giles said.

“And I love it,” she said, “that he’s black and Buddhist.”

Through Buddhism, mindfulness and long periods of silent retreats, Owens eventually reconciled with God.

“God is not an old man who sits on a throne in the clouds and is very temperamental,” he said. “God is space and emptiness and energy. God is always this experience and invites us through our most divine, holy souls. God is love.”

His schedule keeps him busy these days: he appears on podcasts and social media, speaks to students, and leads meditations, yoga, and spiritual retreats around the world.

There is so much that inspires him. He wrote his latest book while listening to Beyoncé and thinking about the work of choreographer Alvin Ailey. There’s Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. He likes Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.” And the pioneering fashion journalist Andre Leon Talley of Vogue magazine, who he says taught him to appreciate beauty.

“I want people to feel the same way when they experience something I talk or write about,” Owens said. “That’s part of the artist’s job: to help us feel and not be afraid to feel. To help us dream differently, inspire us and shake us out of our rigidity to become more fluid.”

Associated Press journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion reporting is supported by the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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