| Dr. Reginald "Reggie" Ray is the Founder and Spiritual Director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation. He met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970, a few weeks after his arrival in the US, and became one of his first American students. After spending time in India he moved to Colorado where he became the first full-time faculty member and chair of the Buddhist Studies. From the beginning of his study with Trungpa Rinpoche, Reggie held many roles in Rinpoche's lineage - student, scholar, meditation instructor, and teacher. Reggie has always combined his study and teaching with a strong meditation practice, including daily practice and annual solitary retreats of 1-3 months each year. He has accumulated some 6-7 years in solitary retreat, in which he has explored all of Trungpa Rinpoche's practice teachings. He has also explored somatic teachings east and west, traditional and modern, such as Yoga and Qi Gung (which he practices today) and traditions such as the work of Gerda Alexander, Rolfing, and Hakomi therapy and therapeutic techniques. He now incorporates much of the wisdom of these earth-based lineages and traditions into his teaching, because, as he says, Vajrayana is essentially an earth-based tradition already. Reggie has written extensively and is the author of several books including "Indestructible Truth", "Secret of the Vajra World" and "Touching Enlightenment - Finding Realization in the Body." "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." |
