In classic Buddhism, there is often a meaningful emphasis on going very deep into the spiritual life, often through leaving the world behind for long periods of time and even becoming a lifelong yogi or monk. Is this the only way to move toward full awakening? There is often a lesser emphasis on a different path to awakening, the so-called "householder"— the student of mindfulness and awakening who doesn't want to—or simply can't— leave this world behind, but wants to turn their practice directly toward all aspects of their life in a contemporary setting.

Ethan welcomes back Lou Sharma, a meditation teacher (and partner in the new A Mindful World community) for a open discussion of whether or not the path of the householder can also lead to awakening. This is a conversation for anyone who wants to engage with relationships, career, creative life, and social justice pursuits with more mindfulness, compassion and wisdom amidst all the hustle, bustle and chaos of life in the thick of the modern world.

Lou Sharma is a mindfulness meditation teacher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She has practiced meditation for over 15 years, as part of her ongoing studies of Buddhism within Tibetan Buddhist traditions, including the Magyu lineage of Lama Tsultrim Allione.

Last year, with your subscriptions, we were able to release more episodes than any previous year. This was only possible with your subscriptions. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber here.

Paid subscribers to The Road Home will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more! The Thursday Meditation Group happens each week at 8am ET on Thursdays, and guided audio meditations are released monthly. Another bonus podcast for paid subscribers discussed a mindful take on intuition, and Ethan also offered instruction in the RAIN method for working with emotions with self-compassion. These are all available to paid subscribers. You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

You can now order personally signed copies of Ethan's books at his website.

You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

Check out our sponsor platform, A Mindful World! A new free video course on a classic Buddhist contemplation called The Five Remembrances is available at this link. Check out the free roundtable discussion on Mindfulness and Organizational Leadership at this link. Sign up for the May 2nd Windhorse Meditation workshop at this link.

What's wrong with democracy these days? Can it be rescued? Can it be made more mindful? Can we work together to build something better? What's the role of compassion in building community? What's the role of conflict in building community? Why do yoga and mindfulness communities often seem so averse to taking a stand and diving into different political or communal issues head on? Why does our world treat politics as some sort of childish, dirty game, like reality tv, instead of sacred duty? For the 250th anniversary of 1776, can somebody write a formal Declaration of INTERdependence? Professor, teacher and author Jeremy David Engels—author of the brand new book A Mindful Democracy—just wrote one, and Ethan welcomed him to The Road Home podcast to discuss it, and more.

Jeremy David Engels, Ph.D., is the author of six books, including the new On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World (Parallax, 2026), and the creator of the Zen and the Art of Democracy Substack. He is the Liberal Arts Endowed Professor of Communication and Ethics at Penn State University, co-founder of Yoga Lab, and a longtime mindfulness and yoga teacher. His work reimagines democracy as a communal practice rooted in care, deliberation, and shared responsibility, emphasizing mindfulness as a core civic skill. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Yoga Journal, Yoga Magazine, and The Conversation.

Last year, with your subscriptions, we were able to release more episodes than any previous year. This was only possible with your subscriptions. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber here.

Paid subscribers to The Road Home will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more! The Thursday Meditation Group happens each week at 8am ET on Thursdays, and guided audio meditations are released monthly. Another bonus podcast for paid subscribers discussed a mindful take on intuition, and Ethan also offered instruction in the RAIN method for working with emotions with self-compassion. These are all available to paid subscribers. You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

You can now order personally signed copies of Ethan's books at his website.

You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

Check out our sponsor platform, A Mindful World! A new free video course on a classic Buddhist contemplation called The Five Remembrances is available at this link.

Note: the name of the book mentioned by Ethan authored by Thich Nhat Hanh where Thay explored the morality of the bombing of Hiroshima using specific Buddhist questions is Good Citizens.

Ethan tackles an age-old dharma question: how do we generate compassion for those who do harmful things? Should we even try, or does that make things worse? In the age of ICE lawlessness, totalitarian governments, and coming to terms with toxic relationships of all kinds, this question intensifies. This conversation often feels misunderstood. Whether the perpetrator is a dictator, a difficult ex, or a manipulative boss—or whether the harm is something we ourselves have caused—the question of building compassion and opening the bodhisattva's heart often delivers more confusion than clarity. Using a memory of hearing a college lecture by the long-imprisoned Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso, Ethan offers a simple (but never easy) three-step model of how to go about the difficult process of acknowledging and transforming the negative karma related to harmful actions.

In 2025, with your subscriptions, we were able to release more episodes than any previous year. This was only possible with your subscriptions. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber here.

Paid subscribers to The Road Home will receive occasional extras like guided meditations, extra podcast episodes and more! The Thursday Meditation Group happens each week at 8am ET on Thursdays, and guided audio meditations are released monthly. Another bonus podcast for paid subscribers discussed a mindful take on intuition, and Ethan also offered instruction in the RAIN method for working with emotions with self-compassion. These are all available to paid subscribers. You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

You can now order personally signed copies of Ethan's books at his website.

You can also subscribe to The Road Home podcast wherever you get your pods (Apple, Ethan's Website, etc).

Check out our sponsor platform, A Mindful World! A new free video course on a classic Buddhist contemplation called The Five Remembrances is available at this link.