This episode features host Lola Wright in conversation with Bodhi Center’s Creative Producer Tyler Greene.
Listeners to And This Is Bodhi with Lola Wright know Lola as a master public speaker, a bold and unapologetic presence on the planet. But, as she shares, “being a loud, bold, big woman was not always easy.”
After her parents divorced, Lola left the wealthy Northern Chicago suburbs and found a greater sense of belonging among counter-cultural scenes in the city: going to punk parties with Hare Krishnas, hanging out in clubs, and hanging out in the Chicago hip-hop scene. Eventually Lola entered into an intimate relationship and had her first child at the age of 18.
Lola’s young adult life was a search for a greater understanding of the world and how to find meaning. She read everything she could get her hands on about the Black American experience: books like Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver and writings by Assata Shakur. She discovered the spiritual teacher Michael Beckwith and eventually Bodhi. She describes the process of learning to move beyond deeply painful experiences and the limiting self-definitions that accompanied them and to embrace forgiveness and growth. Finally, Lola shares a practice with listeners to inspire their own growth beyond limiting self-definitions and thought patterns.
Lola also did a TED talk, and appeared as a guest on The Rebel Mindset podcast.