Reginald Ray
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Reginald "Reggie" Ray is a leading Buddhist academic and Vajra Master, teaching in the lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Since 1974 he taught in the Religious Studies Department at Naropa University. As of 2009, he is retired as a professor there.[1] Ray is a senior student of Chögyam Trungpa. Ray now dedicates his time primarily to the Dharma Ocean Foundation in Crestone, Colorado. The Dharma Ocean Foundation is a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to the practice, study and preservation of the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the practice lineage he embodied. Dr. Reginald A. Ray and Ms. Lee Ray are the co-founders of the Dharma Ocean Foundation, and Dr. Ray is the primary teacher with the assistance of his senior students. Lee Ray left DOF in 2009.
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[edit] History
Reginald Ray was born in New York City in 1942 and raised in Darien, Connecticut. Ray studied Buddhism as an undergraduate in the Religion Department at Williams College in Massachusetts. He met his primary Buddhist teacher, Chögyam Trungpa, in 1970 at Karmê Chöling in Vermont. In 1972, Ray went to India with a Fulbright-Hayes scholarship. In 1973, encouraged by Trungpa, he went to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim to study with the Sixteenth Karmapa.[2]
Ray received his PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1973. His dissertation advisor was the noted scholar of religions, Mircea Eliade. After receiving his PhD, he began a tenure track position at Indiana University. In the spring of 1974, at the invitation of Chogyam Trungpa, he resigned and moved to Boulder, Colorado where he became the first full-time faculty member and chair of the new Religious Studies Department at the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University).
Ray studied with Trungpa from 1970 until Trungpa's death in 1987. Trungpa Rinpoche's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, appointed Ray an Acharya (senior teacher) shortly after assuming leadership of Shambhala International, the umbrella organization that encompasses many of the distinct institutions carrying on the work of Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1990.
In addition to Trungpa, Ray has studied with many accomplished masters of the Nyingma and Kagyü schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. In recent years, he has worked with indigenous teachers from North and South America, and Africa, such as Malidoma Patrice Some.[3] In early 2005, Ray began to break away from Shambhala International. In March of that year, Ray founded the Dharma Ocean Foundation with his wife Lee.
On May 25, 2006, David Brown, the Executive Secretary to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, issued a letter to Ray asserting "there have been difficult, unresolved issues” concerning his “role as an acharya within the Shambhala community," and that "though there are a number of issues, the most basic one is that you [Ray] are giving vajrayana pointing out transmission without authorization from either the Vidyadhara or the Sakyong. As this goes beyond the role of an acharya, it is necessary to formally acknowledge that you have gone your own way and are no longer acting as an acharya within the Shambhala mandala."[4]
Recent programs led by Ray include Meditating with the Body, Winter Dathün, Buddhism and Shamanism, Vajrayana Training Intensive, Meditation Instruction Training, and Mahamudra Intensive.
[edit] Buddhist Saints in India
"Buddhist Saints in India is an extraordinarily impressive contribution to the study of Buddhism."[5] The book looks at paradigms of sainthood in the Buddhist tradition, and Buddhist practice and practitioners in Buddhist India. Ray uses the hagiography of the Buddha to establish a basic paradigm of sainthood. A pattern is established which includes more than thirty themes over the lifetime of the Buddha. However, one theme that stands out is his "forest renunciant" character - the paradigmatic Buddhist saint is not typically a monk living in a monastery (what Ray calls a "settled monastic"), but an ascetic living a solitary existence in some out-of-the-way place, practicing meditation. He then compares various figures (Mahakasyapa, Upagupta, Sariputra, and Devadatta for instance) with this paradigm and shows that to a large extent they do conform to the basic model. At the points where they differ, Reginald sees a bias in the telling of the story toward settled monasticism.
This is established by comparing various early scriptures including the Pali Canon and what has survived of the Dharmagupta, Sarvastivadin, and Mahasamghaka canons. What emerges, Ray argues, is a picture in which the original ideal was the forest renunciant, but with the rise of settled monasticism the renunciants began to be occluded in Buddhist texts which were preserved by the settled monastics. The practice of dhyana (meditation), and therefore the realisation of nirvana, was sidelined in favour of ethical observance and scriptural study. Settled monastics provided a focus for the lay community who relied on the merit gained by supporting monks to bring about a fortunate rebirth in the next life. As such, the ethical conduct of the settled monastics is of primary importance since the merit gained is proportional to the purity of the monks. Ray even suggests that the reputation of Devadatta as an evil person, a fallen saint in the Pali Canon, may be the demonisation of a forest renunciant by a group of settled monastics.
[edit] Bibliography
Reginald Ray's books include:
- Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values & Orientations. (1994 Oxford University Press US) (ISBN 0195134834)
- Indestructible Truth, which describes the exoteric traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. (2000 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1570621667)
- Secret of the Vajra World explores the esoteric and tantric aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, focusing on the Vajrayana. (2001 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 157062917X)
- In the Presence of Masters: Wisdom from 30 Contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Teachers. (2004 Shambhala Publications) (ISBN 1570628491)
- Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body. (2008 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591796180)
Reginald Ray's audio recordings include:
- Buddhist Tantra: Teachings and Practices for Touching Enlightenment With the Body (2003 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591790174)
- Meditating With The Body: Six Tibetan Buddhist Meditations for Touching Enlightenment With the Body (2003 Sounds True) (ISBN 1591790387)
- Your Breathing Body: Beginning Practices for Phyusical, Emotional and Spiritual Fulfillment, Volume 1" (2009 Sounds True)
- Your Breathing Body, Volume 2(2009 Sounds True)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Faculty
- ^ Lewis, W: "And Sparks Will Fly", page 30. Elephant, Winter 2005/2006
- ^ http://www.ngedon.shambhala.org/introduction.htm Ngedon School Faculty Biography
- ^ Open letter to Dr. Reggie Ray from David Brown, May 25, 2006
- ^ Journal of Religion, quoted in "Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations," Oxford University Press,USA, http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/Buddhism/?view=usa&ci=0195134834 (Accessed April 4, 2008)
[edit] External links
- Biography of Reginald A. Ray on Dharma Ocean Foundation site
- Article written by Reginald A. Ray for BuddhaDharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly
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