Dharma Ocean

Meditating with the Body is a course of practice and study that helps modern people reconnect with the reality, goodness, and health of our basic human situation, grounded in our bodies. In today’s episode, we’ll listen to excerpts from four talks on the view of Meditating with the Body. These excerpts are taken from talks given at Winter Dathun and Meditating with the Body retreats held in Crestone, CO. To find out more about the next Meditating with the Body retreat that begins in September please visit our retreat calendar at www.dharmaocean.org

In this episode, we listen to a talk Reggie offered on the Ground Yana – the beginning stage of the meditative journey. He emphasizes the need to give up what we think about our life, and discusses the profound transformations that occur when we discover our inborn nature through embodied meditation. This talk was given at the 2005 Meditating with the Body retreat held in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org

In today's episode, Reggie discusses how the spiritual journey unfolds in relation to our experience of the awakened state. He says, "We begin the whole Five Yana journey with what is called sudden enlightenment – the experience of abrupt vastness. But then you get triggered and you're back in your ordinary neurosis. Or, you get distracted and you're back in your small mind. The journey of Mahamudra is to bring that vastness into every moment of our life." This talk was given at the 2014 Mahamudra for the Modern World retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org

In this episode, we listen to the second part of a talk Reggie gave on the different stages of embodied meditation. He says that through Mahayana practices of the heart, we develop tremendous tenderness and love. Next, Vajrayana practice meets our inspiration to become “a spontaneous expression of nature.” And finally, in the Fifth Yana, we let go of the spiritual path altogether. This talk was given at the 2013 Winter Dathun retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org.

Today’s podcast features the first part of a talk Reggie gave on the different stages of embodied meditation. He says, “Enlightenment is dropping conventional notions of the body. It’s not that you separate from the body, but you drop the limitations that you impose conceptually on your experience of the body – you discover your own body as the body of the Buddha.” What follows is a description of the first two stages of this journey. This talk was given at the 2013 Winter Dathun retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org

In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the different stages of the mahamudra journey. He says that stages do not mean accomplishment. Rather, they simply reflect how our experience of the totality deepens as the journey of meditation unfolds. This talk was given at the 2014 Mahamudra for the Modern World retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org

In this talk, Reggie explains how, in more conservative Buddhist cultures, individuality is often viewed as threatening to established rules and conventions. However, for modern practitioners these attitudes feel stifling. He says that sharing personal experience actually helps us unlock the spiritual journey. This talk was given at the 2006 Meditating with the Body retreat held in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org

In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the loss of control we feel when facing the uncertainty of life through the practice of meditation. Chaos, he says, is a sign that reality is trying to get through to us. When we heed the call and surrender our grasp, our lives flow open and free, and experience becomes our most trusted guide on the journey. This talk was given at the 2005 Winter Dathun, a month long retreat held in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org

In today’s talk, Reggie encourages us to trust the unique unfolding of our personal journey on the path of meditation. He says that the greatest gift we can offer ourselves, and others, is confidence in the sacredness of our specific life. This talk was given in 2009 at a retreat held in Portland, Oregon. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org

Spiritual materialism is an approach to meditation in which we fixate on goals of perfection and try to secure a sense of accomplishment. In this talk, Reggie explains how the dance of reality always undermines such reference points and cuts through the momentum of our spiritual ambition. This talk was given in 2009 at a retreat held in Portland, Oregon. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org.

Today, we conclude our month long exploration of the mahamudra tradition. In the following talk, Reggie discusses how mahamudra is being translated from Tibetan Buddhism to the modern world. He says that the appeal of this tradition is that it invites us to discover the depth of our spiritual life through direct experience. This talk is from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive training course produced by Sounds True. Reggie will teach a residential retreat based on these teachings March 22nd to the 30th in Crestone, CO. To learn more about this opportunity to study directly with Reggie, please visit dharmaocean.org

In today’s episode, Reggie talks about an aspect of experience that brings many people to the practice of meditation: unceasing thoughts. He says that the mahamudra tradition does not see thoughts as problematic. Rather, they are understood as primal expressions of energy. This talk is from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive training course produced by Sounds True. Reggie will teach a residential retreat based on these teachings March 22nd to the 30th in Crestone, CO. To learn more about this opportunity to study directly with Reggie please visit www.dharmaocean.org

Today, we continue our exploration of the mahamudra tradition of meditation. In this talk, Reggie shows how the vast space of being that he discussed in last week’s podcast expresses itself as love, and how this love manifests as our unique life. This talk is from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive training course produced by Sounds True. Reggie will teach a residential retreat based on these teachings March 22nd to the 30th in Crestone, CO. To learn more about this opportunity to study directly with Reggie, please visit dharmaocean.org

In this episode, Reggie talks about the open, empty, clear awareness that is our fundamental nature. This great space of being, he says, is endless, unborn, and does not die. When we discover that this vast expanse of awareness is the source of our life, we feel free to express our unique creativity. This talk is from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive training course produced by Sounds True. Reggie will teach a residential retreat based on these teachings March 22nd to the 30th in Crestone, CO. To learn more about this opportunity to study directly with Reggie, please visit dharmaocean.org

Today, we begin a four-week exploration of the mahamudra tradition of meditation – an ancient approach known for its remarkable simplicity and profundity. In this talk, Reggie discusses how mahamudra can meet our longing to connect with the vast space of reality. This talk was given at last year’s Mahamudra for the Modern World retreat, held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, CO. This year’s mahamudra retreat with Reggie is scheduled for March 22nd to the 30th. For more information about this meditation intensive, please visit dharmaocean.org.