SOUNDS TRUE was founded in 1985 with a clear vision: to disseminate spiritual wisdom. Located in Boulder, Colorado, Sounds True publishes teaching programs that are designed to educate, uplift, and inspire. We work with many of the leading spiritual teachers, thinkers, healers, and visionary artists of our time.
To receive a free catalog of tools and teachings for personal and spiritual transformation, please visit www.soundstrue.com, call toll-free 800-333-9185, or write to us at the address below.
The Sounds True Catalog
PO Box 8010
Boulder, CO 80306
Front Cover Flap
The body is our forest, our jungle, the “outlandish" expanse where we might allow ourselves to be stripped down to our most irreducible person and see what, if anything, remains. In this, I am speaking not of the body we think we have. Rather, I am talking about the body that we meet when we are willing to descend into it, to surrender into its darkness and its mysteries, and to explore it with our awareness.
—from Touching Enlightenment
What does it mean to “meditate with the body”? Until you answer this question, explains Reggie Ray, meditation may be no more than “a mental gymnastic”—something you can practice for years without fruitful results. In Touching Enlightenment, the esteemed author of five books on Buddhist history and practice guides you back to the original practice of the Buddha: a systematic process that results in a profound awareness “in your body rather than in your head.”
Combining the scholarship that has earned him international renown with original insights from nearly four decades practicing and teaching meditation, Reggie Ray invites you to explore:
• How to enter fully into communion with your embodied nature
• The insights of Tibetan yoga, from guidance on breathing and working with discomfort to its challenge to modern practitioners on the path to realization
• Why “rejected” experience becomes imprinted in the body-and how to receive it anew to “reconstitute your human way of being”
• Karma of cause and karma of result-taking full responsibility for your life
• Your three bodies-the physical, the interpersonal, and the cosmic
Back Cover Flap
“To be awake, to be enlightened, is to be fully and completely embodied. To be fully embodied means to be at one with who we are, in every respect, including our physical being, our emotions, and the totality of our karmic situation,” writes Reggie Ray. In Touching Enlightenment, he offers you a map of unprecedented clarity and power for embarking on the journey toward ultimate realization in and through the body.
REGINALD A. RAY, PH.D., brings us close to forty years of study and intensive meditation practice within the Tibetan tradition as well as a special gift for applying it to the unique problems, inspirations, and spiritual imperatives of modern people. He teaches within the dharma and meditation lineages of the great siddha Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. On the faculty of Naropa University since its inception, he is the author of Indestructible Truth, Secret of the Vafa World, Buddhists Saints in India, In the Presence of Masters, other books, and two popular Sounds True audio programs, Buddhist Tantra and Meditating with the Body. For information on the “Meditating with the Body” retreat and Dr. Ray’s other meditation retreats, please visit www.dharmaocean.org.
SOUNDS TRUE
PO Box 8010
Boulder, Colorado 80306-8010
Phone 800-333-9185
www.soundstrue.com
Back Cover Material
Praise for Touching Enlightenment
“Through his own deep experience, Reggie Ray skillfully guides us into an awakened bodily life. He offers necessary, wise, and liberating practices of realization within our mysterious human form.”
—JACK KORNFIELD, PH.D., author of A Path with Heart
“Too often spiritual practitioners attempt to transcend the body and end up wondering why the spiritual understanding they seek remains so elusive. Reggie Ray explains why in this wonderful book that breathes literal life back into Buddhist practice and shows us, passionately and convincingly, how the rich, loamy, and constantly changing sensations, feelings, and impulses of the body—far from being an impediment to spiritual realization-are actually the doorway to enlightenment for anyone courageous enough to walk through its portals.”
—WILL JOHNSON, author of The Posture of Meditation and Yoga of the Mahamudra
“Touching Enlightenment is a provocative and far-reaching exploration of what it truly means to be embodied and of the potential that full embodiment holds for liberation.”
—SHARON SALZBERG, author of The Force of Kindness
“Reggie Ray speaks from the inner core of his being. His gentle guidance entreats seekers to become more engaged in consciousness, in the very act of living. He knows whereof he speaks, and we are blessed to have such a genuine teacher in our midst.”
—MALIDOMA PATRICE SOME, PH.D.,
author of The Healing Wisdom of Africa and Of Water and the Spirit
“Touching Enlightenment provides readers with a fresh look at the steps required to turn our understanding of enlightenment into full embodiment-a vital process that determines the way in which we actually conduct our lives. An indispensable book for the serious practitioner.”
—JOHN DAIDO LOORI, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and author of True Dharma Eye: Master Dogen’s Three Hundred Koans
“Reggie Ray’s approach to the dharma is wonderfully fresh while also radically rooted in the foundation of the Buddha’s meditation instruction-mindfulness of body. He has a richly textured understanding of the lived body as the vessel of wisdom mind as well as the carrier of all the karmic patterns that obscure this pristine awareness. Highly recommended.”
—JOHN WELWOOD, author of Toward a Psychology of Awakening
Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
A
Abhidharma
see also Buddhist psychology,
acceptance
see also openness,
aggression
see also dvesha, agriculture, disembodiment and, alaya, alienation, Allah, anger, angst, anguish, anxiety, aranya, Asanga, Asian Buddhism, atman, authority, Avatamsaka Sutra, avoidance,
see also knowing; somatic awareness practices; somatic understanding
breathing and, somatic, see also somatic awareness practices; somatic understanding of tension, awareness prof les of body parts
B
bardo
see also limbo state, Bataille, Georges, Batchelor, Stephen,
being
end of, fundamental shifts in,
bhavana
see also imagination; visualization, Bible, the, ‘birth of the ego’,
body, the.
see also body work, agenda of, awakening of, awareness of, being through, of the Buddha, as the buddha nature, cells of, cellular existence of, chaos of the, communication with, consciousness and, cosmic, creative chaos of, descent into, distrust of, dysfunction of, the ego and, emotions and, energy of the, falling into, ‘felt sense’ in, as ‘forest’, ‘gifts of’, as guide, information provided by, inner space of, interconnection and, interpersonal, invitation from, karma and, knowing through, layers of the, loss of connection with, meditation and, mind and, misuse of, modern lifestyle and, ownership of, parts of, parts of the, personal, personhood and, preexisting concepts of, presence with, return to, the shadow and, silence of, timing of, touching enlightenment with,
body work
see also somatic awareness practices, accessibility of, compared to other traditions or practices, cosmic body and, the ego and, emotions and, experience and, fundamental shifts in state of being, imagination and, as initiatory process, karma and, self-image and, visualization and, boundlessness, Brahma,
breath
see also breathing,
breath, the
see also prana,
breathing
see
also breath; prana awareness and, earth descent or breathing, energy and, Buber, Martin,
buddha nature, the
the body as, crisis as expression of, definition of, emptiness of, unfolding and,
Buddha, the
biography of, body of, Buddhacarita, dharma of, embodiment and, on the First Noble Truth, Shakyamuni Buddha, universalism of, Buddhacarita,
Buddhism
Asian, authority in, Avatamsaka Sutra, ‘birth of the ego’, on the breakdown of the ego, on the buddha nature, Ch’an, Chinese, crisis and, on discomfort, disembodiment and, Dzogchen tradition, embodiment in, on experience, first encounters with, history of, individuality and, institutionalized, on interconnection, Japanese, karma and, knowledge and, Madhyamaka, Mahayana tradition, meditative traditions, see also specific traditions, modern, modern culture and, optimism of, Pure Land, questioning and, on samsara, Seon, Southern, spirituality and, Theravadin tradition, Tibetan, tradition in, transitions within, the ultimate challenge of, Vajrayana tradition, Vipassana movement, see also Theravadin tradition, Western practitioners of, Yogacara, Zen, Buddhist psychology
C
cause and effect
see karma, cells, Ch’an Buddhism, chaos,
childhood
see also infancy; repression,
Chinese Buddhism
see Ch’an Buddhism, Christianity, claustrophobia,
clear seeing
see also vipashyana, ‘coming to fruition’, commitment to the path, compassion,
concepts
see also self-image,
conceptual understanding
as ‘dreams’, in Tibetan Buddhism, confidence, confusion,
consciousness
avoidance and, the body and, ‘daylight consciousness’, pain and, readjusting, the shadow and, consumerism, control, Conze, Edward, corporate culture,
cosmic body
body work and, earth as our body, end of being, initiatory process, scientifc worldview and,
cosmic ego
see also cosmic body,
crisis
of disembodiment, as expression of the buddha nature, interpreting
D
Dagara people, ‘daylight consciousness’, death, denial, depression, desire, dharma, the, dharmadhatu,
discomfort
see also emotions; pain, background and process of, engaging, explanation of, forms of, as a message, in somatic awareness practices,
discursive thinking
see also thinking mind,
disembodiment
boredom of, crisis of, falling apart and, feeling of, reversing the process of, dissociation, Dogen Zenji, dread, dreams,
dvesha
see also aggression, Dzogchen tradition
E
earth as our body, earth-based religions, earth, cultivating a relationship with the, Edinger, Edward,
ego, the
see also self, the; self-image, agenda of the, birth of the, the body and, body work and, breakdown of, cosmic ego, death of, disappearance of, dismantling of, ego mind, emotions and, experience and, Freud on the, in the Hinayana stage, interpersonal, mental construct of, narrative of, operation of, pain and, personal, reactivity of, the shadow and, shift away from, spirituality and, trauma and the, unfolding and, egolessness, Eliade, Mircea,
embodiment
individuality and, interconnection and, interpersonal dimension of, journey to full, pain and, recovery of, return to, self and,
emotions
see also specific,
emotions
body work and, Christianity and, collective effects of, corporate culture and, disconnection from, distrust of, the ego and, emotional disconnection, interconnection and, locating in the body, narrativizing of, of others, response to chaos, the self and, tracking, as transcendent, trusting, unawareness of, Western culture and, empathy, empowerment, emptiness, end of being,
energy
see also Tao, enlightenment, evolution,
existential crisis
see also crisis,
experience
as awareness, body work and, inevitability of, pushing back against, the self and, spirituality and, Tibetan yoga tradition on, uniqueness of
F
falling apart,
farmers
see agriculture, fear,
feeling
see also emotions; sensation, First Noble Truth, the, ‘forest,’ call of the, Freud, Sigmund, frozenness,
fruition, coming to
see ‘coming to fruition’, fulfillment
G
Gautama Buddha
see also Shakyamuni Buddha, Gendlin, Eugene, God, Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, groundlessness
H
hand, the, Harding, Esther, healers, Hinayana stage,
holding
karma and, hope, hopelessness, Hopkins, Gerard Manley, householder yogins, hunter-gatherers
I
identity, search for,
ignorance
see also moha, images,
imagination
see also bhavana; visualization, immobility, impersonality, impressionism, indigenous traditions, individualism, individuality, inevitability,
infancy
see also childhood; repression, initiatory process,
‘inner breath’
see also prana, insecurity, inspiration, interbeing, interconnection, interiority, interpersonal body, the,
interpersonal ego, the
see also interpersonal body, the, intimacy, intuition, invitation, the, irritation, Islam
J
Jackson, Roger, Jacobi, Jolande, Japanese Buddhism, Japanese Soto School of Zen, jealousy, Jesus, Johnson, Will, joy, Judaism, judgment,
Jung, Carl
see Jungian psychology, Jungian psychology
K
Kalama, Arada, Kalu, Rinpoche,
karma
the body and, body work and, of cause, ‘coming to fruition’ of, First Noble Truth of, in the Hinayana stage, holding and, individuality and, karmic invitations, learning and, mind-body process and, personal example of, reaction to, resolving, of result, sympathy and, tension and, trouble and, understanding of, unresolved, Kierkegaard, Soren,
knowing
see also awareness; ignorance; somatic awareness; unknowing, Buddhism and, conceptual, embodiment and, meditative traditions and, non-conceptual, somatic, in the Western world,
knowledge
see knowing,
Korean Buddhism
see Seon
L
Lakota Sioux,
letting go
see also release,
limbo state
see also bardo, locking, longing
M
Madhyamaka, Mahayana stage, Mahayana tradition, mandala of reality, materialism, meaning,
meditation
see also specific traditions, addressing repression through, the body and, call to return to embodiment and, control and, meditation techniques, meditative traditions, see also specific traditions, on pain, process of, somatic awareness practices and, tradition, memory,
mind
see also thinking mind, ego mind, thinking mind, see also discursive thinking, mind-body process, modern culture,
moha
see also ignorance, Monet, Claude
N
narcissism, neediness, neuroscience, neurosis, non-conceptual understanding, primacy of the, numbness
O
objectification, openness, otherness,
others
objectification of, self and, the shadow and
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