The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness
A 10-Week Online Course with Dr. Reggie Ray
Our body is the most direct and perfect path to profound spiritual transformation. Through somatic meditation, we connect with the inherent wakefulness already present within our body.
January 17 through March 28, 2022
The Tantric Style of Embodied Meditation
This online program offers in-depth training in the somatic practice of pure awareness. This is the simplest and also the most advanced teaching—the essence—of the Tibetan tantric tradition. Pure Awareness, also called the awakened state or the Buddha mind, 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.
In this online course, Reggie leads us through the training stages of the somatic practice of pure awareness. We are invited into embodied awakening as we journey into the limitless openness, wisdom, and joy that are within each of us, waiting just beneath the surface of our everyday experience.
Course Features
Weekly Video Teachings
10 weekly units of hour-long video teachings by Reggie, specifically created for this online course.
Progressive Curriculum
A developmental sequence of practice instruction fosters a deepening experience of embodiment.
Live Video Calls
Join weekly live video calls for teachings and Q&A with Dr. Reggie Ray and Caroline Pfohl.
Downloadable Content
Download the audio of all teachings and guided mediations for later access and use.
Guided Audio Meditations
10 unique, body-based guided meditations that correlate with each unit’s teaching.
Study Supports
Study questions and recommended readings from The Practice of Pure Awareness by Reggie Ray.

About the Teacher
Dr. Reginald “Reggie” Ray draws on four decades of study and intensive meditation practice within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to address the unique problems, inspirations, and spiritual imperatives of modern people. He is the founder and Spiritual Director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the practice, study, and preservation of the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the practice lineage he embodied.
Video Excerpt: The Importance of Relaxation in Meditation
Discussion Group with a Senior Teacher
— Dr. Reggie Ray
Course Curriculum
Each week, a new talk and guided meditation is released.
Unit 1
Talk
Why Meditate?
Guided Practice
10 Points Practice
Unit 3
Talk
The Four Noble Truths
Guided Practice
Yin Breathing
Unit 5
Talk
Discovering Sanity
Guided Practice
Opening the Central Channel
Unit 7
Talk
Recovering Our Human Life
Guided Practice
Sitting with the Heart
Unit 9
Talk
The Path of Refuge
Guided Practice
Boycott Impulse
Unit 2
Talk
The Four Reminders
Guided Practice
Earth Descent
Unit 4
Talk
It’s Not What We Think
Guided Practice
Straight Back
Unit 6
Talk
Why We Suffer
Guided Practice
Relaxing with the Posture
Unit 8
Talk
The Somatic Experience of the Third Noble Truth
Guided Practice
Space of the Central Channel
Unit 10
Talk
From Practice, A New World
Guided Practice
Journey with the Posture
— Reggie Ray
Registration Information
- Course Price: $399
- Registration closes January 16th
- Scholarships and hardship pricing is available
- If you have previously participated in The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness course, you are warmly invited to attend this year’s course at a discount. For details, please email: info@dharmaocean.org
Prerequisites
This is the second in a series of five online courses that offer experiential training in the core somatic teachings and practices of the Dharma Ocean lineage.
- by having taken the first course in the series, Awakening the Body;
- having attended the Meditating with the Body five month program; or
- having attended an in person program such as the Winter Meditation Intensive where those practices are taught.
- Read Reggie’s book The Awakening Body, which introduces the six core practices and provides a free download of the guided practices. The book is available here through Shambhala Publications. You should do each of the core practices enough so that you feel thoroughly familiar with them.
- Engage the practices as taught in Reggie’s audio program Your Breathing Body Volume I, which is available here at Sounds True. Again, do each guided practice enough times so you feel thoroughly familiar with it.