A forum on Tantra with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Anne Carolyn Klein, and Larry Mermelstein, with an introduction by Reggie Ray. When tantra touched down in America half a century ago, Westerners tended to view it as an exotic brand of Buddhism built on impenetrable esoteric doctrines. Western writing still often portrays the tradition inaccurately, perpetuating myths and [...]
Pain Not Suffering
As long as we have bodies, we will have physical pain. Buddhism promises no escape from that. What we can change is how we experience pain. Three well-known Buddhist teachers offer techniques to lessen pain’s mental suffering, look at its true nature, and learn its valuable lessons. One Button at a Time By Darlene Cohen When I became crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, I [...]
The Three Lineages
Inspiration, innovation, institution—Reginald A. Ray looks at the different manifestations of lineage and how they maintain their awakened quality. All religions concern themselves with questions of authenticity and legitimacy. How can we tell whether a particular teacher or teaching is a genuine and true reflection of a certain tradition? In Tibetan Buddhism, the question of [...]
Give and You Shall Receive
Reginald A. Ray argues that far from being a "lesser" practice, giving is central to all schools of Buddhism and essential to – perhaps synonymous with – the relinquishment of ego. Among Buddhists in the West, the traditional practice of giving is often considered a lay virtue aimed at achieving a better rebirth in the next life. While there is nothing particularly wrong [...]
Three in One: A Buddhist Trinity
The “three bodies of the Buddha” may seem like a remote construct, says Reginald Ray, but they are the ground of existence and present in every moment of our experience. It is said that the Buddha is defined by three bodies of enlightenment, the so-called trikaya of classical Mahayana theory. These include the dharmakaya, the body of ultimate reality; the sambhogakaya, the [...]
What is Vipashyana?
Vipashyana as defined by Reginald A. Ray, an American Buddhist academic and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. The Sanskrit Buddhist term vipashyana (Pali, vipassana; Tibetan, lhagthong; Japanese, kan), is composed of two parts: pashyana indicates “seeing” while the prefix vi- adds the meaning of “extraordinary.” Vipashyana means “to see things in an extraordinary way”—not as we [...]
How to Study the Dharma
Understanding Buddhism, says Reginald Ray, takes place in stages of ever-deepening and more direct experience. In Buddhism, an ever-deepening understanding unfolds naturally from intellectual study. This process is classically expressed in the teaching of the three prajnas, or kinds of knowledge—hearing, contemplating and meditating. The first prajna, "hearing," [...]
Good Cause
"When we understand how our mind works, the practice becomes easy." "When we understand how our mind works, the practice becomes easy." Reginald A. Ray discusses the close connection between Buddhist philosophy and practice. Buddhism is known, above all, as a religion of meditation, direct experience and personal transformation. At the same time, it contains a massive [...]
The Practice and Philosophy of the Buddhist Path
According to Reginald Ray, Buddhist philosophy and practice can't be separated. Once you understand, through study, what the Buddha is saying about his own awakening, you are already within the fiery process of the path. My recent essays have been exploring the phenomenon of the "self" and how it arises moment by moment out of the underlying, boundless awareness within, which [...]
That Problematic “Self”
"Self" is a purely conceptual construction says Dr. Reginald A. Ray in his fourth and final article exploring the "self." He says, "What makes one’s ‘self’ so problematic is its degree of isolation from our actual experience, its rigidity and dissonance with reality beyond itself.” In my current series of articles, I’ve been considering Buddhist notions of the "self," [...]