“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.”
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
indispensible book for the serious practitioner.”
"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."
"This breathing practice also helps us uncover the energy that ultimately is the big toe... ...our seemingly solid physical sensations of the big toe are a substantialized and solidified experience of a more primary experience of the big toe: that it is actually a vibrating, scintillating field of energy... in a sense, we become the energy of the big toe, we are it."
"... by sensing it and
feeling it, not just as the body does, but as the body. We begin to
experience moments when we realize that, fundamentally, "we" are the
body. As we find ourselves in greater and greater somatic embodiment, we
discover deeper and deeper contact with this world. At this point, our
conclusions about it recede into relative unimportance. Life is then
less and less about thinking and more and more about simply being."
"When we bring our breath consciously into different parts of our body,
there is the physical part, in this case pulling the breath in through
the pores of the skin. But at a deeper level, there is the inner breath,
by which we are bringing the life energy into that particular part of
our body..."
"...Now you are breathing through the entire body,
through every pore of the entire body, into every portion of its
interior, all its bones, muscles, and organs, into all the cells of the
body. Just work on that for a few minutes. It isn't easy, but if you
stay with it, the energy, attention, and sense of intense vitality will
become greater and greater.
As you are breathing through the
entire body, notice if there are any places that perhaps seem a little
dead or a little resistant to the breath, and you can emphasize those
areas a bit. You are still breathing through the entire body, but you
are ending up in that particular spot, trying to bring more life to it,
more energy, more awareness, more feeling of being awake and sensitive
and sentient.
Continue this for another minute or two. Try to
make a lot of effort now, maximize your effort and exertion to the
utmost, breathing in through every pore of your body, into every single
cell of your body, surface and depth, simultaneously.
Then when
you think you can't possibly do any more, you can just let go of the
technique and lie quietly. Feel the energy circulating throughout your
body. This is the inner breath, the prana, which is your vitality,
flowing through your nadis, or energy pathways. Your body is now very,
very awake, and you can feel an electricity flowing everywhere. Stay
with this for several minutes, enjoying it and being completely in the
flow. Stay with it until you feel really satisfied. After resting for a
few more minutes, you can sit back up. As you do so, continue this sense
of the full body, cellular breathing but gently now with a very light
touch."
"We realize that our body feels, senses, knows its
interconnection with all things. In fact, we are, we exist, only in and
through interconnection; ultimately, we are nothing other than
"interbeing," in Thich Nhat Hanh's beautiful phrase. All of this becomes
increasingly clear the deeper we enter into our somatic existence...
...modern science is showing us that there is no solid, impermeable,
discrete envelope to our individual body and that we are in constant and
open-ended exchange with our larger bodies, just as our brain is with
our lungs, our bones with our circulatory system: the same principle,
just a larger scale."
"We have seen how the interior of our
physical body unfolds first as more open than we had suspected, then as
the space of our own awareness itself. In our further unfolding, again
we saw, we discover that this "interior space" is not limited to our
body at all, but is to be found "outside" of us, as a cosmic reality, in
the earth beneath us; in this unfolding of our cosmic body, we discover
an increasing boundlessness to our own awareness."
"...This
standpoint, so to speak, of an experience of the earth beyond subject
and object opens the way for the unfolding of a different way of being
in and with the rest of the cosmos. Initially, we may begin to feel
something very strong calling us - calling, calling continually: a
mountain we have seen, a glacier, a particular valley, an open vista, a
certain hillside or place in the forest, a tree, a river, a lake. We
start to sense - although we cannot quite believe it - that the
mountain, for example, is alive, and aware, and strongly inviting us,
pulling us in its direction. There is something about it that is drawing
us to it in the most compelling way. We may dream about it at night and
feel its call during the day. What we feel is entirely somatic: our
hearts are on fire and its call is resonating throughout our bodies.
Such is the depth of somatic life, of *feeling* life, that is now
becoming our way of being."
"Have you ever been present to a
raindrop falling on a window sill, watched its great globule tumbling
into sight, splashing on the sill, spreading out in slow motion, and
exploding into a thousand specs of light? Have you ever gazed into a
campfire, suddenly finding yourself within it, discovering your own
state of being as nothing other than the raging inferno, burning,
burning, burning, fueled by all it meets? Have you contemplated a lake
and suddenly found yourself lost in its endlessly wet and watery world?
Have you glanced up into a great tree only to meet an ancient presence
looking back at you with immense understanding and care? Have you ever,
one day, looked up at the sky and realized with a sudden, electric shock
that courses through your body, that you are meeting a vast shimmering
awareness, incredibly alive, that is watching you, utterly seeing you
through and through, holding you within its boundless love?"
"...The mountain is our heart, the running streams, our blood; our mind,
the limitless sky; our thoughts, the small passing clouds. Ultimately,
we are nothing other than these."