The Awakening Body:: Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life

by Reginald A. Ray

Many of us experience life through so many conceptual filters that we never recognize the freedom and joy that are inherent in us—and are in fact the essence of who we are. We can grow old not realizing that one of the most powerful tools to escape the painful knots we tie ourselves in is, literally, at our fingertips: our body.Here, Reggie Ray cracks open the shell of the mind-body dichotomy and presents six fundamental body-based practices that connect us back to who we really are. These practices cut through the mental fabrications through which we experience our world and lead us directly to the richness of living a fully present, embodied human life.Includes a link to free downloads of recorded guided practices.

Genres: Meditation, Buddhism, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Bodies

181 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 20, 2016

Reviews

[Heidi Wiechert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up The Awakening Body because of a conversation I had with a friend last week. He said that when he sits down to meditate, that his mind won't shut off, and it ruins the experience for him. I gave him a technique about focusing on the space between thoughts, but decided that I needed something more concrete to give him. This book is perfect for anyone who feels like they can't escape from his or her own mind.

The Awakening Body is a series of progressive meditations that take the practitioner out of "thinking" and into "experiencing". It's as easy as focusing on your own toes: "In contrast to contrived conventional approaches that emphasize entry into the meditative state through the intentional thinking of the conscious mind... Somatic Meditation develops a meditative consciousness that is accessed through the spontaneous feelings, sensations, visceral intuitions, and felt senses of the body itself. ... Put in the language of Buddhism, the human body, as such, is already and always abiding in the meditative state, the domain of awakening- and we are just trying to gain entry into that." loc 110, ebook.

The teachings themselves are Buddhist in origin but you don't have to be a practicing Buddhist to receive benefit from them. If you have a body, you can successfully do these meditations. And the benefits from them could be enormous: "It is as if we are waking up, within our Soma (body consciousness), and we suddenly find ourselves in a new world. ... We begin to see that what we formerly took to be our body was just a made-up version with little correspondence to anything real. We find in our body previously unimaginable vistas of spaciousness, experience arising that is ever surprising and fresh, an endless world of possibilities for ourselves and our lives." loc 329, ebook.

This book includes a link to access the guided meditations online so that you can completely focus on the practice as it unfolds. I am just beginning to work with these, but I am encouraged by my progress so far. When I started, I couldn't sense my big toes at all, which kind of freaked me out. Logically, I knew they was there, but I couldn't feel them. Ray says that this isn't uncommon: "When we arrive at the first instruction, "pay attention to your big toe on each foot," at first, practitioners may not be able to do this because, they often report, they have no feeling not only of their toes, but often of their feet, their legs, or even the lower half of their body. ... "Keep trying," I tell them. For even directing our attention to the vicinity of where we think the toes should or might be is already transforming our neurological wiring." loc 1215, ebook. That was a big wake up call for me. I'm so glad I picked this book up.

The last part of the book was the most challenging for me to understand because Ray begins to speak directly to those who have had experience with Somatic meditation. I read the words, but I can't say that I grasped their meaning... yet. With time, perhaps I will. I recommend The Awakening Body to anyone who is looking for a slightly different technique to begin or improve his or her meditation practice. Beginners to advanced practitioners will find this book useful.

Some further books to explore if you are interested in using/sensing the body in meditation: Ecstatic Body Postures: An Alternate Reality Workbook or Meditations for Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

Thank you to NetGalley and Shambhala Publications for a free digital copy of this book!

[Bhupinder Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have tried meditation before and have not got substantial results, it's not because you were not committed or you were lazy. It's because the modern approach to meditation is very much intellectual, it's like extinguishing fire with fire. Pretty much impossible. But somatic meditation will give you experience of what is it like to be thoughtless and completely in the moment. Transformation of consciousness which then takes place is indescribable. Highly recommend it if you want to know who you are deep deep down of your being.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depth and breadth of terrain covered in this short book is a testimony to the work and devotion the author has applied during his many decades of study and practice of somatic meditation. In these pages, a great deal of wisdom and lived experience has been distilled and offered in a highly accessible and personal manner. I read this book in preparation for presenting a workshop on embodiment for medical doctors. As an unexpected consequence, I felt myself pulled back into this work, as Reginald Ray awakened a fresh curiosity and desire to re-visit the practices and re-enter my own depths. The Awakening Body takes us to both the most intimate experiences of our own Soma and to a sense of our connection to the furthest reaches of the cosmos; the paradoxes of this work are revealed with simplicity and clarity. The six guided meditations, available for download, after purchase of the book, are all awesome. I highly recommend the book, for both the beginning and experienced meditator. If personal growth or managing stress is a current life priority, this book is also for you. For those considering somatic psychology work or training, such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy or Somatic Experiencing, these practices will be an excellent adjunct to the experience.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly accessible and mostly secular presentation of body-based meditation practices rooted in Vajrayana Buddhism. The writing was not super exciting for me...maybe it was too securalized? Much of the book is the text that guides the meditations, which can be listened to online instead for ease of practicing without having to keep looking at the book (there is a link in the book). Reggie Ray has a very calming voice and maybe a bit too monotone for me because i fell asleep during the 10 points practice. Earth Descent is amazing and exciting enough to keep me awake and i also liked the others. I guess the whole point of the book are the practices and i didn't gain that much from the introductory text. so maybe just find some guided meditations online at Dharma Ocean or Shambhala if that is your interest.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive how-to book on very advanced and ancient body-based practices, that if practiced regularly, and in a supportive environment, can experientially turn you inside out (in a good way). The included guided meditations are an essential practice tool. At least half of the book details each of the 6 practices offered as a textual guided meditation. The remainder of the book delves deeper into some of the finer qualities to pay attention to as your practice unfolds. Ray's personal experience, insights and knowledge are a preview of the kind of wisdom one may experience in time. It's difficult to rate this as a'book' or piece of literature because it is not just a book to be read, but a book to be enacted or to be 'done' - and fully embodied through experience and experimentation.

[Rogue Blackwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book and very informative. Almost too informative. I would have liked to see less talk on the science, not none but less. It got dry pretty fast.

The exercises are sound and lovely. The book in all is very approachable. I loved that you can access the recorded versions for free on the site.

Overall, I think I wanted more mindful conversational tone than deeply scientific left brained research.

Still recommend to those new to Somatic!

[Philip Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and listened to Reggie Ray ever since I watched his interview on Conscious TV. Here is a person who is rooted in decades of study, and more importantly, reflection. In this context I have begun working with these meditations, and feel that they are opening 'me' up. I highly reccomend this book and audio samples.

[Edy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have a mind that has constant chatter going on in it when you’re nervous or anxious, like I sometimes do- this book is terrific at breaking down easy mediations to slow down your thinking. When we slow down our thinking, we are better able to focus on the deeper issues that underly the REASON why we are nervous about a situation. You have to name it to tame it.

[Jill]

I would like to try the practices in this book

[Ala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to give more attention to one's body and the sensations that are often ignored every day. Great for learning body scanning during meditation and every day living.

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book and great practical lessons (a bit hard and disturbing at first, but then you get into it)

[Bo]

DNF - just couldn't get into this one right now.

[jac · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think everyone should read this book !!!!! cant wait to try all the practices

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that has practical examples of somatic meditation techniques that can be used in yoga class

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently purchased several books on the subject of meditation. This books has impacted me the most, so far. Reginald Ray introduces concepts about energy and the universe in relation to our planet and the boundaries of our body. I find it fascinating and accessible, and I love the accompanying audio tracks that are the guided meditations. I've been using them quite a bit and I do feel they've affected me very positively in a difficult time.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on meditation. Very detailed and easy to read.

[Charlie Upham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somatic meditation is a potential breakthrough technique for both veteran and novice meditators. I highly recommend experiencing it.

[David Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I began meditating, I’ve found it natural to focus on the body. When my first teacher Larry Rosenberg gave his initial instructions, he said we could notice our breathing at the nostrils, in the chest, or in the belly, and I immediately focused on the belly, which I felt to be the center of my being long before I read any theories about it.[1] By the time I began practicing Soto Zen with Josho Pat Phelan, I had been focused on that part of myself for a couple of years, and there was no transition to the new practice at all. Whatever problem came up in our sitting, even things that—like anxiety—seemed to be “mental,” her first question was, How is that in your body? Where do you feel it in your body? That process—of differentiating between the thoughts that were endlessly proliferating in the mind and the actual present experience of the body—was most fruitful.

In many ways my whole life had been leading me in that direction. My fourth novel, published just before I discovered meditation, was The Autobiography of My Body, and in the therapy I had done in the years preceding that novel, I’d worked with a therapist who was very much body based, and who had trained with Alexander Lowen, the founder of Bioenergetics. As part of my therapy, I’d been doing the Bioenergetics exercises for years, and some of them resembled yoga asanas, and were a means of opening up the body.

I’ve wondered sometimes if there are body types and mind types in meditation, people who perceive things one way or the other. Larry Rosenberg, who was a very physical man in person, and who had had a yoga practice for years, nevertheless spoke most often of mind, of the vastness of mind. I stayed in touch with him for years after I’d started practicing Zen, and was telling him once of my experience of going into the body, that my experience was that the body seemed vast, in fact infinite.

“That’s the mind,” Larry said.

I didn’t disagree. But I honestly experienced it as body.

I never thought someone needed to write about body practice, or talk about it too much. Bring your attention into the body: that seemed instruction enough. It seemed strange, for instance, that Chan Master Sheng Yen had written a whole book entitled, The Method of No Method. Why weren’t the pages blank? And though at our zendo we sometimes included other body practices, like Qigong, or Sensory Awareness, we always depended on a skillful teacher, which we fortunately always found. Body practice seemed to be something that had to be transmitted body to body. It wasn’t easy to talk about.

For that reason I resisted Reginald Ray’s Touching Enlightenment for months. I saw it in bookstores, read an excerpt in a magazine, leafed through it. I didn’t see why someone needed to write a book on the subject. But a friend in the Shambhala lineage—which has been a major influence on me—told me it was definitely worth reading, so I finally broke down and bought it, and at this point have read it three or four times, given it as a gift, discussed it at length with my wife. It’s one of the most important books on spiritual practice I’ve come across.

I therefore purchased The Awakening Body as soon as it came out. I couldn’t imagine what Ray had to add to the earlier volume, though I was eager to know. “Maybe he’ll expand on what he said in the appendices,” my wife said, and in a way that is what he did. But I would say this later, more slender volume, is a natural deepening of his teachings. He’s been leading what he now calls somatic meditation retreats for years, and has more to say.

A few things about the man himself. Ray was a student of Chogyam Trungpa from very early on; he had also studied religion as an academic subject, and worked with the famous religious scholar Mircea Eliade. When he first met Trungpa his instinct was to give himself up to practice and drop the academic work altogether, but Trungpa saw his academic work as important and insisted he continue. His early books—which I have not read, though they’re on my list—seem to be scholarly works. I think of Touching Enlightenment as the first book where Ray spoke as a teacher rather than a scholar. I don’t think he necessarily quarreled with the Shambhala organization, but respectfully separated from them once Trungpa died and started his own organization, Dharma Ocean, which I believe he would call the true lineage of Trungpa. He writes superbly. And he’s done some fascinating interviews as well. My favorite—a must read—is one he did a few years ago about the chakras.

The Awakening Body expands on Touching Enlightenment in that it describes some alternative practices that Ray uses in addition to sitting meditation, though he sees them all as forms of meditation, despite the fact that most begin in a supine position. Most will not sound unfamiliar to someone who has done Soto Zen; he speaks of Yin Breathing, which is really just breathing into the Hara; he describes breathing into the Central Channel, which is something I’ve naturally felt; the Whole Body Breathing and Rooting is a lot like what Master Sheng Yen wrote about, though Ray goes into more detail, and what he calls Earth Descent seems something that naturally happens in a sitting practice. Of particular interest is Twelve-Fold Lower Belly breathing, which involves conscious long exhalations that resemble the way we breathe at our zendo as we chant. It also resembles the method of breathing that Katsuki Selkida talks about in Zen Training. It’s definitely calming to begin a sitting by exhaling deeply into the belly.

But Ray is most inspiring when he waxes eloquent about what this body practice really is, and does. Here, for instance, he talks about the tension that we naturally feel when we begin to focus on our bodies.

“Your tension is not something fundamentally impure or evil. It is not like pollution. Tension is basic energy; it is the life force; that life force originally came from the earth via the lower belly, the source, and gave birth to everything we are; and it continues to flow into us moment by moment to nourish and give us life. But in tension, we are misusing the life force that always ultimately belongs to the earth; we are, in a way, damming it up, possessing it for our own, and trying to have it serve our need to fuel the apparent existence of an isolated ego. When we release tension, we are simply returning the dammed-up energy of life to its original status as the primordial life force.”

Though he is not a practitioner of Zen, he gives one of the best explanations I’ve ever heard for Dogen’s famous phrase “drop body and mind.”

“By ‘body’ he means here the tensed-up, conceptualized body we have been speaking of, the body we assume ourselves to have; by mind, he means the tensed-up, reactive emotional/mental process of separating and retreating into mental disconnection. You let both fall away and what remains is the naked Soma, present to itself, aware of itself. This is the moment of realization for Dogen and all of us.”

He also speaks of the limitless feeling to the body that I spoke of to Larry Rosenberg.

“When we hear about this vastness of our body—that it has no boundaries and that our Soma in fact includes the cosmic Totality of what is—we might suspect dissociation. But this is not a dissociated state; in fact, it is the opposite. The ego is the dissociated state. To awaken to the cosmic dimension of our own body is to be, finally, fully 100 percent present and embodied, because this is the actual situation of our incarnation. The more we attend to our Soma and the more fully we come into it, without judgment or conceptualization, the more we see what our body actually is: it is limitless. We feel grounded, rooted, and physically completely present; we feel fully embodied and absorbed in concrete, present reality in this way; and, when we arrive there, we find our Soma is this limitless, this infinitely inclusive, domain.”

Inspiring words. If there’s a problem, it’s that they’re almost too inspiring; we find ourselves trying to connect with the whole cosmos, when the key is to connect to just this, whatever small thing is happening. That’s where the vastness can be found.

I can’t recommend these books too highly. They continue to deepen my practice.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Hara-Center-Ka...

davidguy.org

[Anne Coyle]

I love Reginald Ray's approach to body centered meditation. He offers audio guidance which is down-loadable. Very good!