Basic Goodness with Cop, Nomad, and Mystic Scott Odom

This podcast episode is a fascinating conversation with Scott Odom, about what happens when we start to see the world through a lens of “basic goodness.” Scott is a retired police officer, dedicated Buddhist practitioner, and former nomad who spent four years traveling the country in an airstream. We talk about practice, the process of transformation, and integrating the many roles we play in life. In this conversation, you’ll hear about Scott’s experiences working as a police officer, and what he learned from that work – both the positives and negatives. He describes how police work was empowering, but also draining, and that it eventually led him to seek a spiritual path in order to cope with the trauma he was immersed in every day.  In Buddhism, the concept of basic goodness is the idea that all beings have an essential nature that is benevolent, open, and clear. Thus, all beings are worthy of compassion and have the potential of waking up to this true nature. Once he began his practice, Scott had the experience of going back on patrol with this radically new perspective and the ability to be fully present with people in all sorts of intense situations. This helped him move away from survival mode thinking, where he tended to view people as either a threat to deal with, or neutral and irrelevant. We also talked about his relationship with the devotional aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, including chanting, bowing, and deity visualizations. And, we discussed the embodied movement aspects of the Ngondro practice, and what he gained from completing thousands of prostrations (somewhat similar to a Sun Salutation) in the early years of his journey. And, of course I asked Scott about his 4+ years leading a nomadic life in an airstream, after he retired from police work. He shares what it was like to be on a sort of traveling Dharma retreat in the “airstream of consciousness.”  I hope you’ll enjoy listening to this wide-ranging conversation and come away inspired to follow your own path of wisdom, heart, and insight – however that might look! -- Guest Bio: Scott Odom is a Dharma practitioner in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a retired police officer and lives in the desert on the outskirts of Palm Springs, California, with his wife and two dogs. His spiritual path has included working with Ayahuasca in the Santo Daime church and exploring the Santeria/Espiritismo tradition. He currently leads an informal Dharma group that meets weekly for practice, readings, and Dharma talks. You can follow him on Instagram @the_awakened_heart.  For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast. And, you can sign up for your "Library Card" to access this month's FREE practices in the Moved To Meditate Class Library! Feel free to reach out through my website with your thoughts on this episode. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects and my adorable kitty, Mustache).