[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”5028e5aa-e792-45bb-a7aa-cb9b3bdf5c09″ background_image=”https:\/\/cdn.dharmaocean.org\/online-resources\/better-somatic-descent-scaled.jpg” custom_margin=”80px||||false|false” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_4,1_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”f9fa1d6f-b0ac-404f-a8f6-dc1bb24fed98″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”1292e8e5-c814-47ce-b304-3ce248da4bcc” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
When we experience the body from the inside, we find a field of unconditional awareness. In Buddhism it is said that the body is the key to the awakened state.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”6ce32f36-8ef3-4979-8eab-6c63deed399e” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”c5c81506-98ab-40d9-abbf-69070b07ad16″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/119964364″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”97f23598-bc85-4bf0-a9af-547b9cd5c3fd” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_video][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Header” _builder_version=”4.11.2″ background_enable_image=”off” background_size=”initial” background_repeat=”repeat” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” min_height=”148px” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”6187f1e6-2cc5-4841-8059-20c96879dbd2″ header_3_font=”Raleway|||on|||||” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.11.2″ _module_preset=”6187f1e6-2cc5-4841-8059-20c96879dbd2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Through the Somatic Descent practice, we train ourselves to read our experience and learn to understand the language of the Soma. Soma<\/em> means not only our\u00a0physical body, but also the entire neurological network within which it is\u00a0embedded, including the right brain,\u00a0the intelligence centers of the\u00a0limbic system, the brain stem, the heart, the gut, and the\u00a0neural pathways that exist throughout the entire body. In this practice, we learn the language of our direct experience, without the mediation of the left-brain, top-down processing of the conceptual mind. We learn the Soma\u2019s own way of being and knowing and, in particular, the ways in which it communicates itself to us on the most fundamental level. This practice shows us how to remain rooted in our body throughout life, on the cushion and off. It gives us a solid and reliable somatic foundation for the meditation\u00a0practices of any stage of the path, and is a profound resource for our lives.<\/p>\n The original inspiration for the Somatic Descent comes from the yogic practices of Vajrayana Buddhism, and its way of understanding and being present within the body, but it is not a specifically Vajrayana practice. It is known in various forms in the other practicing lineages of Buddhism and Taoism, and it also draws on the well-known Western somatic discipline of Focusing, first developed by Eugene Gendlin in the 1960\u2019s.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SOMATIC DESCENT When we experience the body from the inside, we find a field of unconditional awareness. In Buddhism it is said that the body is the key to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":247802,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" The Spirituality of the Body<\/a>\r\nSomatic Meditation<\/a>\r\nTraining Mandalas<\/a>\r\nWays to Enter Further Into the Somatic Lineage<\/a>\r\nHow to Become a Member of the Dharma Ocean Community<\/a>\r\nMeditation Instructors<\/a>\r\nBecoming a Dharma Ocean Teacher and Lineage Holder<\/a>\r\nCommitments<\/a>\r\nBackground<\/a><\/p>\r\n The Spirituality of the Body <\/b><\/p>\r\n Dharma Ocean is a community of meditators, in Colorado, North America, and around the world, following the path of embodied spirituality. Dharma Ocean is a non-monastic, householder based lineage, a community of householder yogins and yoginis, who prioritize the practice of Somatic Meditation in their lives. In the approach of this lineage, the unfolding of the human person through the many stages of life, and his or her spiritual development, are not two separate things; they are one and the same. In other words, to become fully and completely human and to attain spiritual realization are the very same thing.<\/p>\r\n This means that the arenas of spiritual practice and everyday life are also not separate. In contrast to many conventional approaches, for us the spiritual journey does not involve distancing oneself from \u201csamsara,\u201d from all that is physical, worldly, impure, and problematic; quite to the contrary, it is a process of deeper and deeper entry into those very domains of our existence. We discover that it is precisely within the interior \u201cspace\u201d of those aspects of our fully embodied, ordinary, human lives that the most important discoveries occur and our true spiritual journey can unfold.<\/p>\r\n In this lineage, we emphasize the body as the ground of the spiritual journey because it is only in the body that we are able to find the full measure of our deepest person, our true humanity, and our ultimate spiritual fulfillment. Uniquely, in the body we are able to meet our own experience in a pure and naked way. And, as we know from the somatic psychologies of our time, it is only that kind of direct, unmediated experience that is able to bring about deep and lasting transformation.<\/p>\r\n Somatic Meditation <\/b><\/p>\r\n Though the path of Somatic Meditation that we follow is secular in nature, it has deep and ancient roots in the Vajrayana Buddhism of India, Tibet, and elsewhere in Asia. Put simply, the tantric approach of Somatic Meditation takes our Soma\u2014our body\u2014as the fundamental arena of meditation practice. Rather than trying to develop meditation through our thinking mind in a \u201ctop-down\u201d 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 which emphasize entry through the application of deliberate, imposed techniques, Somatic Meditation develops a meditative consciousness that is accessed through the feelings, sensations, somatic intuition, and felt sense of the body itself. We are simply trying to tune into the basic, primordial awareness of the body. Put in Buddhist terms, the human body, as such, is already and always abiding in the meditative state\u2014the domain of awakening\u2014and we are just trying to gain entry into that.<\/p>\r\n Unless we are able to make room for the direct, unmediated experience of our body as it is, without manipulation or distortion, then deep, lasting, ultimate transformation is unable to occur. This helps us understand the curious fact that many people, after sometimes decades of practicing top-down meditation methods, will just give up meditating because they find that the ultimate transformation they were looking for has not happened.<\/p>\r\n For all the benefits of top-down meditation, there is always an element of a conscious agenda, a subtle if largely unconscious culling of what comes up, and a prioritizing of some kinds of experience over others. Hence, the ego stays in control. This freezes our development; it lands us in what John Welwood calls \u201cspiritual bypassing.\u201d We are unable to grow. We are bypassing our actual life and therefore the opportunity for endless spiritual maturation that is in us. When we let what we think <\/i>should happen override our body\u2019s imperative of what actually needs to happen, we are turning away from the opportunity to become fully and completely human in this life; we are turning away from the highest spiritual realization.<\/p>\r\n Training Mandalas <\/b><\/p>\r\n The Vajrayana ancestry of Somatic Meditation is marked by many different somatic methods and practices, and several distinct territories of somatic spiritual development. Dharma Ocean draws on this rich heritage and offers training in several areas, the \u201ctraining mandalas\u201d described below. Each of the training mandalas is also referred to as a \u201cyana\u201d or \u201cvehicle,\u201d a Buddhist term denoting a body of distinct inspirations and practices, aiming to develop particular spiritual\/neurological capacities that we are trying to achieve over the course of our journey through practicing in that mandala. Each of the training mandalas leads us deeper and deeper into our spiritual embodiment. At a certain point, we see that the entire somatic journey to full realization involves nothing other than becoming more and more fully embodied, somatically present, and identified with our corporeal human incarnation and its experience.<\/p>\r\n 1. The Ground Yana: <\/b>Here, we are learning how to enter into the interior experience of the body, explore what is going on there, and surrender into the \u201cgroundless ground\u201d of the Soma that is the foundation of our human life. Training in the Ground Yana involves learning and practicing the some two dozen somatic protocols that form the basis of all the other training mandalas and the entire Dharma Ocean path.<\/p>\r\n 2. The Meditation Yana: <\/b>Once we gain entry into the inner space of the Soma, we see the limitless possibilities of openness, awareness, and experience that reside there. But typically we have a very hard time \u201cstaying with it\u201d; without meaning to, we tend to jump right back into our thinking mind, back into our disembodiment. In the Meditation Yana, through the practice of sitting meditation, we train our minds to be less impulsive in response to thoughts and we cultivate and deepen the experience of pure awareness within our state of being. The particular form of meditation we teach, drawing on the great awareness traditions of India, Tibet, and East Asia, is what we call \u201cthe Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness.\u201d It is similar to \u201csilent illumination\u201d in Ch\u2019an, Shikantaza or \u201cjust sitting\u201d in Zen, and \u201cabiding in the natural state\u201d in Mahamudra and Dzogchen, except that it is more explicitly and consistently somatic in nature.<\/p>\r\n 3. The Yana of Somatic Descent: <\/b>Even in Ch\u2019an, Zen, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, there may still be a tendency toward disembodiment. Without quite realizing it, we might visualize and aim for a meditative state that is empty of content, devoid of the experiences of birth and death that run through our lives. In the third yana, we bring our meditative awareness fully into the density, the energy, and the eventfulness of our body. In this tantric approach to meditation, we begin to see that everything that bursts forth from the empty space of our basic Soma, \u201cthe natural state,\u201d is the energy of awareness, its radiance, and its expressions. This not only returns us to \u201csamsara\u201d with new eyes, but it helps us realize there never was any samsara to begin with, just the enlightened manifestations of our own awakened state.<\/p>\r\n 4. Mahayana: <\/b>In the fourth yana, we refine our embodiment and our somatic awareness further; we begin to tap into the subtle warmth, tenderness, and wisdom of the heart. Through embodied bodhicitta (or awakening heart<\/i>) practices, we discover that the heart, as the organ of wisdom and compassion within our Soma, beholds all people and all of life as they are, in and of themselves and from their own side. This is simply the heart\u2019s natural way of regarding everything, once the ego-based veils of conceptual thinking are relinquished. And we come to realize that to behold things within the heart\u2019s territory is to love them selflessly and unconditionally.<\/p>\r\n 5. The Vajrayana: <\/b>In our journey to the complete embodiment of spiritual realization, there are obviously going to be many impediments and blockages getting in the way. The most difficult of these \u201cobscurations\u201d and \u201cobstacles\u201d are what we term today \u201ctraumas.\u201d These are unconscious emotional assumptions and beliefs about the nature of ourselves, other people, and the world. These unconscious attitudes and beliefs, responses to overwhelmingly painful experiences, were laid down through our entire life, beginning at least from birth, and they skew our perception of everything. Because they are unconscious, generally it is very difficult to see them and address them. We are talking here not only about the major incapacitating traumas that may be active in us, but also about the hundreds and perhaps thousands of insults to our person that were so painful that we could not fully process the experiences when they occurred. In the Vajrayana, we turn directly to work with these obstructing, traumatic patterns, bringing them to consciousness through the practice and learning to fully inhabit the painful experiences, thus resolving them. This Vajrayana trauma work releases a huge amount of energy; our awareness opens up further and further, and over time we develop the capacity to open and make room for the vastness of life that is our human birthright.<\/p>\r\n In order to take up Vajrayana training, practitioners need a strong grounding in each of the first four yanas or training mandalas. That grounding provides the prerequisite for being accepted as a Vajrayana student.<\/p>\r\n There are several reasons for this. For one thing, the Vajrayana practices are \u201cadvanced\u201d in the sense that it is assumed that practitioners are well-practiced in being in the body (1st Yana), the practice of Pure Awareness (2nd Yana), meditating in a way that is somatically present to our relative experience (3rd Yana) and practicing with tremendous tenderness and sensitivity to others and a commitment to their welfare (4th Yana). The Vajrayana practices are going to build on that foundation of the first four yanas. In addition, the Vajrayana does stir up a great deal of our subterranean garbage for recycling. Only a good grounding in the first four yanas gives us the stability and the confidence to handle what comes up in an open and creative way.<\/p>\r\n 6. The Yana of Life Itself: <\/b>In the final yana, we engage in what is called \u201cthe return.\u201d This sixth yana is not really a separate training mandala, because it is the fruition of all the training we have been carrying out through the whole previous journey we have been making. Having developed an initial acceptance and openness toward all situations and emotions, and to all the people we meet in life, we now need to take that unconditional openness further. In this yana, we need to let go of all our reference points\u2014especially those of our understanding, our practices, and our experiences of the past five yanas\u2014and enter the practice of surrendering into everyday life without reservation and without hesitation. We use the challenges of being alive, moment by moment, as occasions to let go further and further into the \u201cwhat is\u201d of ordinary reality. Here, finally, we have reached the full measure of our embodiment; this is spiritual realization in the tantric journey of Somatic Meditation.<\/p>\r\n W<\/b><\/span>AYS TO <\/b>E<\/b><\/span>NTER <\/b>F<\/b><\/span>URTHER <\/b>I<\/b><\/span>NTO THE <\/b>S<\/b><\/span>OMATIC <\/b>L<\/b><\/span>INEAGE <\/b><\/p>\r\n There are many ways that practitioners make their initial connection with the somatic teachings of this lineage. For example, you might see a Dharma Ocean ad in a magazine and feel a sense of immediate recognition and connection and go from there. You might search \u201cmeditating with the body\u201d or \u201csomatic meditation\u201d and, finding the Dharma Ocean website, begin to listen to some of the free talks and guided practices found there. Or, perhaps you hear a podcast or interview, read an article or book, or discover one of the Sounds True audio programs. Or perhaps a friend tells you about Dharma Ocean. But then what? How do you enter further in?<\/p>\r\n At that point, there are many gates into the deeper world of the somatic training we offer. Perhaps you participate in a Dharma Ocean online course, or you begin to practice with one of the audio programs at home, setting aside time everyday for your somatic practice and entering into the training in that way. Or maybe you take an audio program into solitary retreat and spend a week or two with the practices. Some people can go very far and very deep in just that way, long before they are able to meet a Dharma Ocean teacher or are able to avail themselves of in-person training opportunities.<\/p>\r\n You might also connect with a Dharma Ocean sangha or practice group in your area and begin to explore these teachings with others. Or you might attend a talk, weekend, or retreat where you live. Or, again, you might decide to come to Crestone for one of our week-long up to month-long programs there.<\/p>\r\n H<\/b><\/span>OW TO <\/b>B<\/b><\/span>ECOME A <\/b>M<\/b><\/span>EMBER OF THE <\/b>D<\/b><\/span>HARMA <\/b>O<\/b><\/span>CEAN <\/b>C<\/b><\/span>OMMUNITY <\/b><\/p>\r\n Although we are an inspired and vibrant community, and although there is a deep caring for one another, Dharma Ocean is not an organized religion. We are a large and diffuse community without any definite boundaries, but one linked by a common inspiration toward the body, the practice of somatic meditation, and a common love of life. There is no \u201csigning on the dotted line\u201d or any series of requirements for you to be part of our community of somatic practitioners. Simply by connecting with the somatic teachings, you are already a member of this lineage and the flame of this lineage is already beginning to burn within you. How you want to position yourself in relation to your other fellow practitioners is entirely up to you.<\/p>\r\n You may want to hang out on the periphery for a long time, making the somatic journey alone, perhaps attending programs occasionally. This is the retreat style of Milarepa and the other great meditators of our lineage: solitary, self-contained, and noble. Or you may wish to be part of the day-to-day community wherever you live, connecting with your sangha sisters and brothers in person and also through the online courses and trainings that we offer. Because we are a lineage of householder practitioners, most of us are deeply involved in our daily lives, our relationships, families, and work. Dharma Ocean\u2019s online offerings honor the spiritual way of the householder and offer a profound way to connect. Finally, you may wish to come into the center of the mandala of our community, working with our leadership and senior teachers and lineage holders to create programs, nourish our community life, and spread the somatic lineage to those thirsty for it.<\/p>\r\n In fact, most sangha members, including our most senior teachers and meditation instructors, cycle through these different ways of being in sangha at different times, according to their individual inspirations and needs. We often compare our community members to comets. Sometimes we circle very close to the Sun, the \u201ccenter of the mandala\u201d as we say, pulled very close by our longing and devotion, and energized by intense training with our mentors and sangha peers; then swooping by, we catapult out into space, the teachings within us, and we explore on our own. Perhaps we disappear from sight for a long time\u2014 maybe even years\u2014and then when we feel it is right, we circle around and come in close once more. In Dharma Ocean there is no one way to do anything; one size does not and cannot fit all or even two individual practitioners. The only rule is that of our own human heart. As a member of our community, you are called only to trust your heart on your journey and to help others do the same.<\/p>\r\n Meditation Instructors <\/b><\/p>\r\n If after attending the Winter Meditation Intensive (Meditation Yana), you want to continue on the path, it is especially important to have support on your journey. A group of senior practitioners within our lineage has offered themselves as meditation instructors (MI), or mentors. The primary role of the MI is to open themselves to your state of being and to see and receive you as you are. They are there to listen and respond in ways that will be helpful to you at that moment.<\/p>\r\n An MI can meet with you in person or via phone or online video chat in some mutually agreed upon way, regularly or on an as-needed basis. He or she can assist you to figure out how to continue to engage with the teachings and practices, and help you through the rough spots. Any time you come to a program, you will have an MI available to you automatically, but it is nice to have somebody there in an ongoing way to connect with as the need arises.<\/p>\r\n The meditation instructors have undergone and continue to undergo specific, intensive training to help them be there for you in a selfless, open, and objective way. All of us need someone like this in our journey to be \u201cfor us.\u201d After a certain point, many of us have an MI who plays this role for them.<\/p>\r\n Importantly, though, your sangha sisters and brothers will also play the role of mentor for you, and you will do the same for them. We are an eye-level community; this means that each of us has critical insights to offer the others, as well as the acceptance, openness, and encouragement they so much need; and we ourselves need the very same things from them. The \u201ceye-level relationship\u201d is sangha-wide and includes everybody, from the most beginning person up to the senior-most lineage holders. We are all here to help each other on the journey and to receive that very same help in return. While we do have an organizational and teaching structure, at the same time, it is just a convenience; fundamentally, we are all making the very same journey. We are all sisters and brothers to each other, and we are all the same: in essence, nobody is \u201cabove.\u201d<\/p>\r\n B<\/b><\/span>ECOMING A <\/b>D<\/b><\/span>HARMA <\/b>O<\/b><\/span>CEAN <\/b>T<\/b><\/span>EACHER AND <\/b>L<\/b><\/span>INEAGE <\/b>H<\/b><\/span>OLDER <\/b><\/p>\r\n When you enter into this lineage, even on your very first day, the way is open for you to become a Dharma Ocean teacher and, if you want, a lineage holder in this tradition. The only requirement is that you are willing to undergo the full training we have to offer and open yourself to the connection, communication and love of this community and your teachers. The journey to becoming a lineage holder requires a very great deal from each of us, particularly in terms of letting go of our self-centered approach. The Dharma Ocean community really does aspire to lead the world out from chaos and, to do this, we need to become extraordinarily open, selfless, and committed to relieving suffering wherever we find it.<\/p>\r\n C<\/b><\/span>OMMITMENTS <\/b><\/p>\r\n When you commit yourself to the Dharma Ocean lineage, as mentioned, you are not joining up with an organized religion. Instead, you are connecting yourself with the mindstream of this lineage, which is nothing other than the energy of Life itself. You are joining a community of like-minded souls who are committed to the somatic path and who gather, practice together, and interact in a myriad of ways. When you commit yourself to the energy of this lineage, you set in motion an unceasing unfolding of your own life\u2014your own process of becoming fully human. You are entering into the great project of becoming a complete, whole human being. You are fulfilling the inborn destiny for which you were born, here on this earth at this time. And that, and nothing else, is the spiritual journey that each of us is called to make. To arrive at the full measure of our human existence, to become fully and completely human, is the most noble and also most challenging thing we could ever do; that journey is <\/i>the spiritual journey and attaining, to say again, that goal is the highest form of spiritual realization available to human beings.<\/p>\r\n B<\/b><\/span>ACKGROUND <\/b><\/p>\r\n I began studying with Ch\u00f6gyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970. Beginning then, and until his death in 1987 and then afterwards, to the best of my ability I have been trying to gradually absorb and transmit the lineage that I received from him. Lineage is defined in many ways in Tibetan Buddhism, but in Rinpoche\u2019s ultimate presentation, its definition is actually quite simple and straightforward. Once we remove the politics and cultural trappings from it, a lineage is simply a way, based on tradition, of understanding and practicing the spiritual life. In my experience, the lineage that Trungpa Rinpoche taught and embodied was amazingly profound, insightful, and transformative; and it was also quite unique. It is my aspiration that, through Dharma Ocean, the essentials of that lineage will be passed on to others.<\/p>\r\n The spiritual journey outlined by Trungpa Rinpoche included the same six stages of development described above, although he talked about them mostly in different terms. For him, the first stage\u2014our Ground Yana\u2014 in fact precedes the official entry onto the Buddhist path; in Rinpoche\u2019s presentation, it involved discovering and connecting with our basic human situation and becoming healthy, grounded, and decent people. He called this stage introducing the world to the basic Shambhala principles<\/i>, and he believed that it can be presented to anyone, regardless of whether or not they ever become a Buddhist. The next four stages are traditionally divided among the so-called three yanas: the Hinayana, focusing on the development of a sustained meditation practice (our 2nd <\/span>and 3rd <\/span>Yanas); the Mahayana, focusing on awakening the compassion of the heart (our 4th <\/span>Yana); and the Vajrayana, through uniquely powerful practices and methods, focusing on fully transforming the two veils of emotional upheavals and deeper unconscious obscurations that get between us and our true self (our 5th <\/span>Yana). The sixth stage taught by Rinpoche, roughly corresponding to the fruition stage of Dzogchen, revisited the Shambhala teachings, but at a deep post-Vajrayana and post-Buddhist level (our 6th <\/span>Yana). In this stage, the basic Shambhala principles\u2014the fundamental openness of reality, the perfection of the unfolding of the universe, and the utter sacredness of our incarnation\u2014become matters of direct and personal experience and an actual way of being in the world, rather than being mainly an intellectual understanding.<\/p>\r\n Although our six yanas correspond to the main areas of Rinpoche\u2019s teaching, the way we practice them in Dharma Ocean represents a further evolution in one important respect. We understand and practice them in a less theoretical and hence much more grounded and embodied way than was often the case in Rinpoche\u2019s day. Hence, there is much more emphasis on the actual direct, non-conceptual experience of each yana, and on the concrete and practical transformation that that pure experience actually brings about.<\/p>\r\n In what follows below, the practices of each yana and unfolding journey are described in terms of view. In the accompanying document, the Dharma Ocean Practice Path, you will find up-to-date information on the practices, study, commitments and community aspects of each yana. Neither document is intended to be a complete guide, but to provide an overview of the Dharma Ocean path. Fully engaging with this path necessitates engagement with the Dharma Ocean community, but much of it, such as working with a meditation instructor, can be done from anywhere in the world. As mentioned above, there are many ways to become involved with this lineage. It is important to realize that the training mandalas represent, more than anything, a great invitation to explore your life in whatever way you are called to; they are not boxes to be checked off, but territories we might explore together in this training.<\/p>\r\n In the following description, I describe the yanas in a progressive manner, each providing the foundation for and naturally leading to the next yana. At the same time, each yana\u2014each training mandala\u2014can be practiced on its own. Beginning with the Ground Yana, each of the yanas contains the lineage in a full and complete way. Theoretically, you could attain complete realization practicing the Ground Yana alone and the same is true of the other yanas. However, for most practitioners, training in the yanas in sequence seems to yield the most satisfying and comprehensive results. Even if you are not currently aspiring to be a Dharma Ocean teacher, consider following the unfolding journey described below, as it provides a very detailed and thorough training in the process of spiritual embodiment.<\/p>\r\nThe Spiritual Path and Somatic Entry Into the Natural State<\/h3>\n
About Somatic Descent<\/h3>\n
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nExcerpt from The Training and the Path<\/em> \u2013 by Reggie Ray<\/h3>\r\n