Meditation is learning to tap into the wisdom, inspiration and unconditional love of the body. All we need to do is let go and let the body show us our true life.
About Dharma Ocean
Dharma Ocean is a community of meditators in North America and around the world following the path of embodied spirituality. We practice in the lineage of Chogyam Trungpa, one of the most gifted and impactful Tibetan teachers of the 20th century. We are primarily a non-monastic lineage rooted in the everyday world of 9-5 jobs, parenting, and lives that can often seem overrun with busyness. In the midst of this most challenging modern situation, we prioritize the sitting practice of meditation, one that is grounded in the immediate reality of who we most fundamentally are and what our day to day world is actually like.
According to our lineage, which stands in the Vajrayana tradition, the purpose of meditation is 1) to uncover the full depths of who we are as people, 2) to tap into the intuitive, awakened wisdom that is present at our very core, in the depths of our body, and 3) to find liberation in the experience of being an ordinary human being, living an ordinary life, in this ever so unpredictable world. The fruition of our lineage is to deeply rejoice in the warmth and tenderness toward all beings that spontaneously arises from our own deepening, and to bring what we have learned outward into the suffering world for its benefit.
Those of us following this path currently represent over 100 countries throughout the world and include people of an astonishing diversity of nationalities, language groups, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, health conditions, and religious, philosophical, and political orientations. The Buddha said, ‘what I teach is not a religion, but rather simply about what it means to be human; and it is thus for all people, whoever and wherever they may be, whatever their condition; it is for the multitude of all us who are human (bahujana).’
We have found that those drawn to practice with us are those who are looking for a complete practice path, one that can provide the structure, the connection, and the map to bring meditative wisdom into all corners of their lives and profit from everything we go through as steps toward our own deepest fulfillment. While the path of meditation in this lineage can be challenging, at the same time many have found it deeply rewarding, something that can provide training and support necessary to genuinely transform their lives.
Essence of the Lineage
All those transmitting this lineage aim to express the following:
- The fundamental goodness of the human person — our own and others’ inborn enlightenment, beauty, and inherent perfection;
- The importance of deeply respecting the life, individuality, and journey of those whom we meet and work with;
- The sacredness of all of life and experience — that everything that arises is an expression of ultimate wisdom and a potential gate to immediate awakening;
- The everyday practice to “never turn away” — to develop an attitude of complete acceptance and openness toward all experience;
- Relying on the somatic practice of meditation to meet our own experience, open to it without fear or hesitation, and experience the transformation that that makes possible.
The Training and the Path
Trungpa Rinpoche’s Vajrayana lineage, carried on by Dharma Ocean, offers a course of training that takes us from a disembodied, disconnected state, through a series of meditative practices and levels of maturation, to a point of embodied, spiritual fulfillment. The Dharma Ocean training unfolds according to six progressive stages each of which is accomplished through a distinct body of practices. Each of these is referred to as a “yana” or “vehicle”, a Buddhist term meaning a developmental stage.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
CAROLINE PFOHL
Spiritual Director
JAKE LA BOTZ
Board President
GEORGE HARRIS
Secretary
