Customer Reviews

Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body

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Reginald Ray has written a beautiful book full of important thoughts on how our bodies are front and center to the spiritual path. I cannot recommend this book enough for the spiritual seeker. So much of our time is spent moving away from our bodies as a result of pain or some other trauma. But the running away is the last thing we need to do. Going deeper into the wisdom of our body is the call by Mr. Ray and one that I find important. Our bodies are the gate way to truth inside ourselves.
I think Ray's book is timely in that so many seekers are searching for a deepening into the presence they find in their meditation. Yet unfortunately the body is not involved for many teachers and practitioners. But that should be the beginning point not an add on.

In Ray's words:
"It is my belief that we modern people can arrive at the full embodiment that has always been a possibility for our species. The impact and the implications of such a recovery are nothing less than revolutionary. For to recover our original or primary body as our own involves experiencing the totality of oneself, without judgment; living with a directness that is not filtered or distorted by the thinking mind; rediscovering ourselves within the network of relations with others; coming to awareness again of the primordiality of the natural world as a subject; and, perhaps most surprising, beginning to sense and see what has been called the "unseen world," the "other world," the world of "others" who, while not flesh and blood, are nevertheless living presences around us and with us, to inspire, guide, and protect. Recovering our basic, inborn body has, then, profound implications for healing the self, mending our broken relationships, restoring a healthy relationship to our world, seen and unseen, and healing the planet. All that we need is a method to enable us to reclaim our original body, the body that is our most basic being at this moment, but that we cannot clearly feel or see. That method is offered to us in the body work introduced in this book, the somatic practices of Buddhist meditation."

It is time to use our bodies for more than survival but as the real entryway for our experience.

Reginald Ray's thoroughly researched book discusses the Buddha's teachings on attaining enlightenment through the body. This is an interesting angle and makes for a fascinating and useful book. The book has an academic tone, and feels very intellectual and analytical. The book resembles a dissertation that has been turned into a book (which isn't a bad thing, but does reflect on the overall tone of the book). Despite being a rigorous analysis of the body and enlightenment as it appears in Buddhist literature, the book contains many useful descriptions of hands on techniques. I suffer from chronic pain issues and found many of the techniques extremely helpful. I've often read about creating a shift in consciousness in relation to pain in the body - and I've never quite been able to grasp a "healthier" approach to physical pain. Touching Enlightenment is the first text to actually lead me to a different consciousness in regards to approaching physical pain. As a consequence, I feel a new level of relief and comfort in relation to my body and illness. Having these techniques, and the experience of practicing them, placed within the larger context of Buddhist theory was also helpful. Ray is strongest when discussing Buddhist literature, but is less successful when describing the emotional issues in his own life. That being said, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on Buddhist theory. People interested in yoga therapy and other healing modalities will also find Touching Enlightenment to be essential.

Ray is a very charismatic person, a quality that translates into his writing. however, the book suffers from three major issues.

1) lack of originality- if you know a little about somatic psychology or have spent time in buddhist or bodywork communities, you probably won't read anything in this book you haven't heard before. Ray's coverage of the importance of the body in spirituality and the need to focus on the somatic dimension of experience is well written and at times quite engaging, and he clearly spent a great deal of time trying to present the information in as clear and detailed away as possible. however, he ends up saying very little.

2) overly polemical - some of his language verges on the kind of dualistic anti-westernism and anti-modernism (i.e. everything in our contemporary culture is bad, we need to return to a more holistic way of life etc.) that finds its worst expression in books like Gary Trudeau's 'Natural Cures'. I think the harshness of Ray's condemnation of 'modern life' stems mostly from a desire to get his point across. Ray would probably would agree that we need to have a balanced approach to these practices, and seek to correct some of the problems of post-industrial life without trying reject it entirely. but I think it's a mistake to be too polemical on this point because enthusiasm is infectious and the negative attitudes this kind of thinking engenders in students ultimately undermines the community.

3) vague - Ray's treatment of the subject is superficial; in fact, I was surprised that he managed to make the book as long as it was considering the relatively small amount of information presented. if you enjoy emotionally stirring writing on the subject of reconnecting with the body then you will probably find it captivating, but if you want specifics about the kinds of practices that support this experience, or want to read detailed and personal stories of transformation, you won't find them here.

if you are a spiritual practitioner who has never heard of body-oriented spirituality, or if you have an intuitive sense that the body is sacred and mysterious but have no experience with meditation, I would recommend this book as an introduction to the subject. however, if you have some experience with buddhism, yoga or bodywork, I would strongly recommend Tarthang Tulku's book 'Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga: A Complete Guide to Health and Wellbeing' over this one. it presents much of the same information in a much shorter space, and contains detailed and systematic instruction in over a hundred body awareness exercises. Ray's recordings 'Your Breathing Body' and 'Meditating with the Body' are also a lot "meatier" than this book.

I would also encourage anyone interested in these subjects to read Alexander Lowen's 'Bioenergetics' and the book 'Healing with Whole Foods'.

I was a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche back in the 1980's. He was, and remains a brilliant and very difficult teacher. Ray has been a senior student of Trungpa since the Tibetan came to the USA in the early 1970s. I wandered for many years in the spiritual wasteland until I saw an interview with Dr. Ray on a website called the Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. What Ray said in that interview rang me like a clapper in a bell. I went to my book shelf and pulled down this book which had been sitting there for 8 months and began reading. If you are interested in meditation and Buddhism, and particular if you are a little stale in your practice, please read this book. It could change your life.

I strongly echo the sentiments in Mr. Bucher's review. This is an important book. Mr. Ray appears to be a rare example of someone who is both a serious scholar and a deep practitioner. By the latter, I mean someone who is not just talking about the realization that is contemplated by Buddhist philosophy as an intellectual exercise, but who has experienced it personally through his practice. Anyone who has embarked on that path with any seriousness comes to realize that language and ideas, no matter how eloquent, can't change us in the ways described by the Buddha; only direct experience, unmediated by the conceptualization implied by language, can be transformative. The practices Mr. Ray discusses, derived from Tibbetan Yoga traditions, are a very direct path to this experiential wisdom. Ray seems also well positioned to speak to the particular needs of the modern person, including Westerners. His body-based approaches also, as eluded to by Mr. Bucher, seem especially appropriate for people who have experienced trauma. Although not discussed in the book, this is consistent with recent neuropsychological research, which is revealing the extent to which emotions and "unconscious" material are experienced and held throughout the nervous system, and hence, the body (see, e.g., the work of Allan Schore [[Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development; and Bessel Van Der Kolk Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society.

I'm not sure how objectively I can evaluate the "tone" of the book--which two reviewers describe as a bit intellectual--having seen Mr. Ray at several talks prior to reading it. In person, he is warm, engaging, humorous, and most essentially, human. In fact, he emphasizes that the purpose of these practices is not to transcend our humanity, but to become fully human for the first time. I personally experienced the tone of the book in the same way I experienced Mr. Ray in person, but it's possible one may have colored the other.

I found this book, and most especially the practices Ray describes and teaches, to be extremely beneficial to my personal practice and growth. I'm not sure where the Publisher's Weekly reviewer is coming from, but my best suggestion is to ignore that review and read this book.

Reggie Ray speaks about meditation practice in a way that I've never quite heard before. He finds ways to put practice into perspective very well. He focuses mostly on his understanding of meditation practice but also puts it into historical reverence of the buddhist tradition. It has definitely been a rethinking of what buddhist practice is for myself after reading this. I highly recommend this to anyone feeling that their own practice has gone stale in any way.

I don't give many reviews unless I consider what I've just read as great or awful. This book is great. If you wish to develop a meditation practice that will retain your enthusiasm for what many consider a boring exercise, this book could very well be for you. It first provides the basis for this particular practice then, at the end, provides a few sample meditations. I have been practicing zen for a year; the instruction given by Reginald A. Ray is compatible with my zen practice. It is based on the basic teachings of the Buddha which incorporate the mind with the body which is the first step toward developing mindfulness in one's life with, gradually, the reduction of mental and physical pain. I have found it so helpful that I will be going to one of Dr. Ray's teaching retreats when he comes to NYC.

This is an easy to read book with a great layout. Everything I read in this book has helped me progress on my path to enlightenment, the meditations are great, a must buy!

This book enables us to escape from the intellectual prison of the cranium, into the rich sensory universe of the body. It has a predominantly "Rolfian or Feldenkras" flavor. I found it to be an intensley fascinating read!

shares a lifetime of experience with us about how we can learn to meditate with real awareness of our bodies to truly effect personal transformation. This is a very important book and we are lucky to have him show us this path.