Touching Enlightenment

by Ray, Reginald A.

• ISBN13: 9781591796183
• ISBN10: 1591796180
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Sounds True

Summary

How is it that a person can meditate for five, ten, twenty years or more - and hardly change? Because they've reduced it to "a mental gymnastic," explains Reggie Ray. In Touching Enlightenment, the esteemed author of five books on Buddhist history and practice guides readers back to the original approach of the Buddha: a systematic process that results in a profound awareness "in our bodies rather than in our heads." Combining the scholarship he's renowned for with original insights from nearly four decades practicing and teaching meditation, Reggie Ray invites readers to explore: The body as the ideal place for spiritual pilgrimage; How to cultivate imagination, deal with pain, breathe more naturally, and other essential skills; and Why "rejected" experience becomes imprinted in the body - and the steps to release it.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Introduction
Touching Enlightenment with the Body	p. 3
What Has Become of the Buddha's Dharma?	p. 6
The Call of the Forest	p. 10
The Ultimate Challenge of Buddhism	p. 13
Our Somatic Disembodiment
Modern Buddhism and Global Crisis	p. 21
Our Physical Divestment	p. 28
Our Emotional Disconnection	p. 31
Some Historical Roots of Our Modern Disembodiment	p. 35
Meditating without the Body	p. 44
The Somatic Challenge of Tibetan Yoga	p. 50
Engaging the Process: Meditating with the Body
The Call to Return	p. 57
How Do We Proceed?	p. 61
Entering the Gate	p. 66
Discomfort in the Somatic Practice	p. 73
The Background and Process of Discomfort	p. 79
The Process of Letting Go	p. 84
The Unfolding Journey	p. 88
The Body's Own Agenda	p. 91
Understanding the Process of Meditating with the Body
The Importance of Non-conceptual Understanding in the Body Work and Where Concepts Are Needed	p. 99
What the Body Knows	p. 105
What Happens to What Is Rejected?	p. 109
An Example	p. 116
Karma of Cause, Karma of Result	p. 121
Our Unlived Life	p. 126
The Body and Its Dimensions: The Full Extent of the Karma of Result	p. 129
The Moment of Greatest Alienation	p. 133
Beyond the Reactivity of Ego	p. 140
Empowerment	p. 145
Impersonal and Individual	p. 151
The "Good News" of Chaos	p. 157
The Body of the Buddha	p. 166
Dynamics of the Path Principles, Practices, and Experiences
Developing Peace: Somatic Shamatha	p. 177
Are We Willing to See? Somatic Vipashyana	p. 182
Falling Apart	p. 186
Tracking Our Emotions	p. 191
Trusting Our Emotions	p. 195
Imagination in the Body Work	p. 200
A Tibetan Yoga Approach to Physical Pain	p. 209
Some Fundamental Shifts	p. 215
The Body and Becoming a Person
The Body Is the Buddha Nature	p. 223
The Journey Is Our Unfolding Relation with the Buddha Nature	p. 227
Ego, the Body, and the Journey	p. 233
The First Stages of the Journey	p. 239
Aspects of the Unfolding Process	p. 247
A Tibetan View of the Major Stages of Unfolding	p. 254
The Body as Guide on the Journey	p. 261
Encountering the Shadow	p. 264
The Personal Body	p. 270
The Next Layer: The Interpersonal Body	p. 278
Layers of the Interpersonal Body	p. 285
How Other People Help Us Meet Our Shadow	p. 289
Integrating Further Depths of the Shadow	p. 297
The Cosmic Body I: Transcending the Scientific Worldview	p. 301
The Cosmic Body II: The Earth as Our Body	p. 306
The Cosmic Body III: The Initiatory Process	p. 310
The Cosmic Body IV: Until the Very End of Being	p. 317
Who Am I?	p. 324
Conclusion
Becoming Who We Are	p. 333
A Glimpse of the Body Work	p. 341
Index	p. 383
About the Author	p. 395
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