This four-week online course is an introduction to Dharma Ocean’s foundational Somatic Meditation practices and teachings known as Meditating with the Body®.

Somatic Meditation takes our body as the fundamental arena of meditation practice. Rather than trying to develop meditation through our our left-brain, thinking mind in a “top-down” process, as is the case with most contemporary approaches, Somatic Meditation involves a bottom-up process, wherein we connect with the inherent, self-existing wakefulness that is already present within the body itself. In contrast to conventional approaches that emphasize entry through the intentional thinking of the conscious mind and following conceptual instruction templates, Somatic Meditation develops a meditative consciousness that is accessed through the feelings, sensations, somatic intuition, and felt sense of the body itself.

Course highlights include:

• The opportunity to explore Reggie Ray’s Meditating with the Body® teachings and practices under the guidance of one of Dharma Ocean’s senior teachers
• Six audio guided meditation sessions
• Eight audio teachings recorded during recent retreats with Reggie Ray
• Excerpt readings from Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body, by Reggie Ray
• Online discussion forums moderated by a Dharma Ocean teacher and discussion group leaders.

The course begins October 21 and runs through November 18. The course will unfold over the course of four one-week units, with new material released at the beginning of each week. There are no live events, so participants can engage the course material on their own schedule.