These online courses are designed to support practitioners in the midst of daily life, so practice and experience can impact how we interact with others, our world, and ourselves. This “in the world” focus encourages the integration of the teachings into all the places we touch our world.
The Foundation Series with Reggie Ray and Caroline Pfohl are go-at-your-own-pace courses designed to introduce students to the main practices offered inside of the Dharma Ocean lineage.
The Sutrayana Series are more scholarly and intensive 12-week courses, in two parts. This series is one of several prerequisites for any student who wishes to apply for the Entering the Vajra World course.
Online Course Library: You can access your Dharma Ocean Online Course Library here. Accounts are created when people register for their first course.
The Foundation Series
The four courses in the Foundation Series are designed to introduce participants to the foundational somatic meditation practices of the Dharma Ocean lineage. The courses are sequential, with each course building upon the material of the preceding one. Therefore participants must take each course sequentially, beginning with Awakening the Body and ending with The Vajrayana.
Awakening the Body: The Way of Somatic Meditation
Dates: September 14 – November 22, 2021
Registration opens: July 21
This course leads us in exploring the view and practice of somatic meditation and how it reveals the joy, altruism, and creativity that resides at the core of our being. Designed for beginning and advanced students alike, the training focuses on a series of powerful somatic meditation practices drawn from Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism and spiritual Taoism.
Prerequisites: is course is open to all and is required in order to take any additional Foundation Courses.
The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness: The Tantric Style of Embodied Meditation
Dates: January 17 – March 28, 2022
Registration opens: November 23
This course teaches the simplest and also the most advanced teaching—the essence—of the Tibetan tantric tradition. Pure Awareness is our most fundamental nature, a part of ourselves that is neither born nor dies and underlies all of the experiences of our human life.
Prerequisites: Completion of one of these trainings: Awakening the Body online course, Your Breathing Body Volume I audio program, Meditating with the Body training intensive, The Awakening Body book and audio training, or a Dharma Ocean residential retreat.
Boundless Heart I – The Somatic Practice of Bodhicitta: Loving the Self
Dates: September 7 – November 15, 2021
Registration opens: July 21
This first bodhicitta course explores ultimate bodhicitta as well as maitri, loving-kindness, toward oneself. A somatic understanding of the ultimate or dharmakaya, and an ability to appreciate the sacredness of our own being, are essential in order to love others and to be of benefit to the world.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.
Boundless Heart II – The Somatic Practice of Bodhicitta: Connection, Communication, and Love
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
This second part of this course allows us to refine our somatic awareness by further tapping into the subtle warmth and wisdom of our heart. Through embodied bodhicitta (or awakening heart) practices, we discover the heart as the source of wisdom within our body. This course explores relative bodhicitta.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Boundless Heart I.
The Vajrayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
The final course of the foundation series is an introduction to the integration of the somatic approach into the totality of our lives, offered by the radical ajrayana path of practice. This course will be developed soon. The first offering of the Vajrayana will require prior participation in all four Foundation Series programs listed above.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Boundless Heart II.
Sutrayana Online Series
Sutrayana is the Tibetan classification of “yanas”, or Buddhist mode of practice that leads to the realization of one’s true nature.
The Sutrayana series, a two-part series, is a study and practice intensive that has a study and discussion requirement. It focuses more on the philosophical underpinnings of our lineage.
Each part consists of a 12-week course of study and practice that is engaged at home, deep within our daily lives. Readings, study questions, talks, and group teaching calls will be held with a Dharma Ocean senior teacher. Participants examine the foundational perspectives of this lineage. Guided meditations, ongoing contemplations, active discussion groups, and a continuing relationship with a personal meditation instructor help bring these perspectives to life.
There are no prerequisites for Sutrayana Part One, and Sutrayana Part Two requires the successful completion of part one. Both are necessary for those would like to attend the in-depth residential retreat Vajra Assembly.
Sutrayana: Introduction to the Three Turnings
Dates: Currently in Session (May 22 – July 17, 2021)
Tibetan Buddhism affirms that without a good intellectual and conceptual understanding of Buddhist philosophy, what we call “the view,” we default to ego’s opinions and to spiritual materialism. Moreover, the understanding of the Hinayana philosophical ground and the extensive teachings of Mahayana, especially on emptiness, are an absolutely necessary foundation for meditation practice and especially the Vajrayana. This upcoming Sutrayana course is an opportunity to address gaps in our conceptual understanding, which will then benefit our ongoing practice and our confidence in fully living the journey.
Sutrayana - Part One: The Hinayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
Part One of the Sutrayana Series is an online offering where practitioners can deepen their understanding of the view of the first turning teachings of the Buddha.
Sutrayana - Part Two: The Mahayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
Part Two of the Sutrayana provides an introduction to the view of the second and third turnings of the wheel of Dharma.
Additional Courses
Somatic Descent: Communicating with the Soma
Dates: Currently in Session (May 18 – July 20, 2021)
Somatic Descent builds on what you have learned and practiced in the Pure Awareness course. Through weekly study, practice, and discussion, you will learn how to stay rooted in the Soma’s way of knowing whether on or off the cushion. And you will deepen your capacity to apply the Soma’s wisdom to any aspect of your life that you choose to explore – or that the Soma brings to your attention.
Prerequisites for this course: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.
Our Continuing Journey
Dates: Currently in Session (April 17 – September 4, 2021)
Registration is open here.
The inspiration for the course is to review and deepen in the practices learned in the Awakening the Body and Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness online programs. The curriculum includes live gatherings every other week with meditation instructors, readings Reggie's book from Shambhala Publications The Practice of Pure Awareness, revisiting each of the practices that were offered in the Pure Awareness course, and study questions for contemplation.
Prerequisites for this course: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.
Awakening the Body: The Way of Somatic Meditation
Dates: September 14 – November 22, 2021
Registration opens: July 21
This course leads us in exploring the view and practice of somatic meditation and how it reveals the joy, altruism, and creativity that resides at the core of our being. Designed for beginning and advanced students alike, the training focuses on a series of powerful somatic meditation practices drawn from Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism and spiritual Taoism.
Prerequisites: is course is open to all and is required in order to take any additional Foundation Courses.
The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness: The Tantric Style of Embodied Meditation
Dates: January 17 – March 28, 2022
Registration opens: November 23
This course teaches the simplest and also the most advanced teaching—the essence—of the Tibetan tantric tradition. Pure Awareness is our most fundamental nature, a part of ourselves that is neither born nor dies and underlies all of the experiences of our human life.
Prerequisites: Completion of one of these trainings: Awakening the Body online course, Your Breathing Body Volume I audio program, Meditating with the Body training intensive, The Awakening Body book and audio training, or a Dharma Ocean residential retreat.
Boundless Heart I – The Somatic Practice of Bodhicitta: Loving the Self
Dates: September 7 – November 15, 2021
Registration opens: July 21
This first bodhicitta course explores ultimate bodhicitta as well as maitri, loving-kindness, toward oneself. A somatic understanding of the ultimate or dharmakaya, and an ability to appreciate the sacredness of our own being, are essential in order to love others and to be of benefit to the world.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.
Boundless Heart II – The Somatic Practice of Bodhicitta: Connection, Communication, and Love
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
This second part of this course allows us to refine our somatic awareness by further tapping into the subtle warmth and wisdom of our heart. Through embodied bodhicitta (or awakening heart) practices, we discover the heart as the source of wisdom within our body. This course explores relative bodhicitta.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Boundless Heart I.
The Vajrayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
The final course of the foundation series is an introduction to the integration of the somatic approach into the totality of our lives, offered by the radical ajrayana path of practice. This course will be developed soon. The first offering of the Vajrayana will require prior participation in all four Foundation Series programs listed above.
Prerequisites: Completion of The Boundless Heart II.
Sutrayana: Introduction to the Three Turnings
Dates: Currently in Session (May 22 – July 17, 2021)
Tibetan Buddhism affirms that without a good intellectual and conceptual understanding of Buddhist philosophy, what we call “the view,” we default to ego’s opinions and to spiritual materialism. Moreover, the understanding of the Hinayana philosophical ground and the extensive teachings of Mahayana, especially on emptiness, are an absolutely necessary foundation for meditation practice and especially the Vajrayana. This upcoming Sutrayana course is an opportunity to address gaps in our conceptual understanding, which will then benefit our ongoing practice and our confidence in fully living the journey.
Sutrayana - Part One: The Hinayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
Part One of the Sutrayana Series is an online offering where practitioners can deepen their understanding of the view of the first turning teachings of the Buddha.
Sutrayana - Part Two: The Mahayana
Dates: TBA
Registration opens: TBA
Part Two of the Sutrayana provides an introduction to the view of the second and third turnings of the wheel of Dharma.
Somatic Descent: Communicating with the Soma
Dates: Currently in Session (May 18 – July 20, 2021)
Somatic Descent builds on what you have learned and practiced in the Pure Awareness course. Through weekly study, practice, and discussion, you will learn how to stay rooted in the Soma’s way of knowing whether on or off the cushion. And you will deepen your capacity to apply the Soma’s wisdom to any aspect of your life that you choose to explore – or that the Soma brings to your attention.
Prerequisites for this course: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.
Our Continuing Journey
Dates: Currently in Session (April 17 – September 4, 2021)
Registration is open here.
The inspiration for the course is to review and deepen in the practices learned in the Awakening the Body and Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness online programs. The curriculum includes live gatherings every other week with meditation instructors, readings Reggie's book from Shambhala Publications The Practice of Pure Awareness, revisiting each of the practices that were offered in the Pure Awareness course, and study questions for contemplation.
Prerequisites for this course: Completion of The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course.