Experience the Fulfillment and Joy That Are Your Birthright
Chögyam Trungpa was a person of outrageous energy, wisdom, and creativity. He is considered by many to be the single most influential force in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Dr. Reginald Ray, one of his first American students, remarked that, “Watching Rinpoche was like watching a star explode, rather than watching the life of a person; it seemed far more cosmic than human.”
Trungpa Rinpoche was a pioneer in bringing the dharma (the Buddha’s teachings) into many areas of modern life including the arts, education, psychology, healing, and business. At the core of all of these teachings lay Trungpa Rinpoche’s tremendous confidence in the spiritual capacities of modern people. He believed that each of us could attain full spiritual realization, experiencing all the fulfillment and joy that is our birthright as human beings.
An In-Depth Online Course with Dr. Reginald Ray
Perhaps his boldest statement of confidence in “the practicing lineage’s” future was Trungpa’s willingness to train Western students—like Dr. Ray—to become Vajrayana or tantric masters in their own right. Dr. Ray studied closely with Trungpa Rinpoche from 1970 until Trungpa’s death in 1987. Ray’s life is devoted to carrying forward Trungpa’s living lineage and transmitting it to others, which led him to cofound Dharma Ocean Foundation in 2004. Ray’s exploration of Tibetan Buddhism has spanned a 50-year period, including 40 years teaching meditation, 35 years teaching Buddhism at the university level, and accumulating over 10 years time in solitary and group retreats. During this time he also designed the transformative Meditating with the Body® curriculum and published numerous audio programs and books.
“Don’t Venerate Me, Become Me …”
As Trungpa Rinpoche always said, “Don’t venerate me, become me—I challenge you to enter the tantric existence yourselves.” While 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of Trungpa Rinpoche’s death, in When Lightning Strikes Dr. Ray shows us that Trungpa’s dharma is as alive and accessible as ever. He notes, “Trungpa himself had been struck by the lightning bolt of the awakened state—the space around him was electric, and he taught us many ways to experience the awakened state within our everyday lives, bringing that fresh explosion of life force right into each precious moment.”
Through anecdotes, stories, dharma teachings, and guided meditations, Dr. Ray invites us to see and experience the world as his great tantric master did. Over the course of six video presentations we explore:
Session 1—On the Dot: The Awakened State Is Our Basic Nature
How Trungpa Rinpoche taught and demonstrated the awakened state.
Highlights
- Views and practices for understanding and experiencing our basic nature as the awakened state
- The early years—Trungpa Rinpoche’s presentation of the dharma in the 1970s
Session 2—The Path Is the Goal: The Spiritual Journey of Our Human Life
Trungpa teaches us that to be human is to be spiritual. vHighlights
- The four yanas (or vehicles of awakening)—Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Shambhalayana
- Protecting and nurturing the tender, loving, and sensitive aspects of our deeper nature so that they can develop and flourish
- Working with apparent obstacles on the path—the habitual patterns of neurotic, compulsive responses to life
Session 3—The Lion’s Roar: Every Mind State Is Workable (If You Meditate)
Meditation shows us that there is nothing to fear; anything we experience can be liberated into wisdom and joy.
Highlights
- What is meditation and why do it?
- Working with the chaos and overwhelm of our busy, modern lives
- Somatic practices for welcoming in the ultimate and relative realities of our lives
Session 4—For a Crazy One, No Obstacles: Uniting Meditation and Everyday Life
How the challenges, pain, and confusion of ordinary life can be transmuted into spiritual fulfillment.
Highlights
- Shining the warm light of meditation on our shadow selves
- Burning down the false culture; individuating from the societal norm
- Transmuting obstacles on the path; the wisdom of everyday experiences
Session 5—Redemption of the Body: The Tantric Path with Trungpa Rinpoche
Recovering the sacredness of being in the body, the earth, and the cosmos.
Highlights
- The path of desire—living an inspired life
- Following our hearts; the organ that sees in the dark
- Relationships and the path
- Earth breathing and other practices for connecting with the elements
Session 6—Flying in the Immeasurable Expanse: Beyond Every Boundary
Becoming a spiritual warrior in all areas of our life—Trungpa’s teachings on Shambhala, or secular enlightenment.
Highlights
- Basic goodness—realization transcending religion
- The modern bodhisattva—engaging the world as a spiritual warrior
- Bringing confidence, precision, sanity, and gentleness to every aspect of our life
