Editing Reginald Ray

{{short description|American Buddhist academic and teacher (born 1942)}}
{{distinguish|text=the French footballer [[Réginald Ray]]}}
'''Reginald Ray''' (born 1942) is an [[Buddhism in the United States|American Buddhist]] academic and teacher.

Ray studied [[Tibetan Buddhism]], traditional [[Shamanism|shamanic]] wisdom, and yogic-contemplative practices with the [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]] refugee and recognized [[Vajrayana]] traditional-wisdom holder [[Chögyam Trungpa]]; and later studied under the tutelage of traditional [[Dagaaba people|Dagara]] teacher from [[Burkina Faso]], [[Malidoma Patrice Somé|Malidoma Somé]].

A founding academic member of [[Naropa University]], Ray was a longtime senior teacher in [[Vajradhatu]] (renamed [[Shambhala International]] in 2000) and from 1996 to 2004 was teacher-in-residence at the [[Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center]] (which became [[Shambhala Mountain Center]] in February 2000).<ref>{{cite news|last=Joiner|first=Whitney|date=20 February 2008|title=Dive-bar dharma|newspaper=[[Salon.com]]|url=http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2008/02/20/dharma_in_dive_bars|access-date=3 December 2014}}</ref> He left the Shambhala organization to found his own teaching center in 2005, Dharma Ocean. Dhama Ocean, in addition to teaching meditation programs and hosting intensive retreats, is a non-profit foundation "dedicated to the practice, study and preservation of the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche."{{cite quote}}

==Academic training==
Ray has a BA in religion from [[Williams College]] (1965), and received an M.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1973) in History of Religions from the [[University of Chicago Divinity School]], where he focused on Buddhism and Indian religions. Among his mentors at Chicago was [[Mircea Eliade]], a Romanian historian of religion.<ref>Prebish, Charles. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XsHv_5VCzmMC&q=%22reggie+ray%22+&pg=PA170 ''Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America''.] University of California Press, 1999, p. 170.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dharmaocean.org/meditation/teachers/reginald-a-ray/ |title=Reginald A. Ray @ Dharma Ocean |website=www.dharmaocean.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709195145/http://www.dharmaocean.org/meditation/teachers/reginald-a-ray/ |archive-date=2014-07-09}} </ref>

==Teaching career==
Ray first encountered his main Buddhist teacher, [[Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche]], in 1970, and studied with him until Rinpoche's death in 1987. In 1974, at the invitation of Trungpa Rinpoche, Ray left a tenure-track position at [[Indiana University]] and relocated to [[Boulder, Colorado]]—then the center of Trungpa Rinpoche's community–to become the first full-time faculty member and chair of the Buddhist Studies Department at Naropa University, where he taught until his retirement in July 2009.<ref name="Prebish 1999 p. 170">{{cite book | last=Prebish | first=C.S. | title=Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America | publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-520-92225-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsHv_5VCzmMC&pg=PA170 | access-date=2020-12-14 | page=170}}</ref><ref name="pres">{{cite web | title=Reginald Ray | website=Naropa University | url=http://www.naropa.edu/presidents-office/past-presidents/Reginald%20Ray.php | access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref> Ray also served on the Nalanda Translation Committee<ref name="Nālandā Translation Committee 2016">{{cite web | title=Members | website=Nālandā Translation Committee | date=2016-10-25 | url=https://www.nalandatranslation.org/who-we-are/members/ | access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref> and held a half-time appointment in the Religious Studies department at the [[University of Colorado]].<ref name="Shambhala Times Community News Magazine 2014">{{cite web | title=Chogyam Trungpa: The Early Years | website=Shambhala Times Community News Magazine | date=2014-09-08 | url=http://shambhalatimes.org/2014/09/08/chogyam-trungpa-the-early-years/ | access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref>

From 1996 to 2004, Ray was teacher-in-residence at the [[Rocky Mountain Dharma Center]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Radner|first=Rebecca|title=Review: 'Indestructible Truth' by Reginald A. Ray|url=http://www.tricycle.com/node/32909|access-date=3 December 2014|newspaper=[[Tricycle: The Buddhist Review]]|date=Spring 2001}}</ref><ref name="pres"/> which became the [[Shambhala Mountain Center]] in February 2000. Ray is the director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Hamilton | first=Erica Shane | journal=Biofeedback | title=The Gifts of Illness: A Buddhist Perspective | volume=39 | issue=2 | date=Summer 2011 | pages=71–73 | doi=10.5298/1081-5937-39.2.05 | id={{ProQuest|893884557}}}}</ref>

==Publications==
'''Published books:'''
*''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}})
*''Tibetan Buddhism Reader,'' editor. (2010 Shambhala Publications) ({{ISBN|9781590308349}})
* ''The Awakening Body: Somatic Meditation for Discovering our Deepest Life.'' (2016 Shambhala Publications) ({{ISBN|1611803713}})
* ''The Wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism.'' (2017 Shambhala Publications) ({{ISBN|1611804752}})


'''Audio recordings:'''
*''Meditating With The Body: Six Tibetan Buddhist Meditations for Touching Enlightenment With the Body'' (2003 [[Sounds True]]) ({{ISBN|1591790387}})
*''Buddhist Tantra: Teachings and Practices for Touching Enlightenment With the Body'' (2003 Sounds True) ({{ISBN|1591790174}})
*''Your Breathing Body: Beginning Practices for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Fulfillment, Volume 1'' (2008 [[Sounds True]]) ({{ISBN|1591796598}})
*''Your Breathing Body, Volume 2'' (2008 [[Sounds True]]) ({{ISBN|1591796628}})
*''Mahamudra for the Modern World'' (2012 [[Sounds True]]) ({{ISBN|1604075694}})
*''The Practice of Pure Awareness: Somatic Meditation for Touching Infinity''. (2015 Sounds True) (ASIN: B0176O6IDU)
*''Somatic Descent: Experiencing the Ultimate Intelligence of the Body.'' (2016 Sounds True) (ASIN: B01M24YBVS)
*''Awakening the Heart: A Somatic Training in Bodhicitta'' (2017 Sounds True) ({{ISBN|1604078693}})

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.dharmaocean.org/meditation/teachers/reginald-a-ray Biography of Reginald A. Ray on Dharma Ocean Foundation site]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Reginald}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American Buddhists]]
[[Category:21st-century Buddhists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American scholars of Buddhism]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhism writers]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhist spiritual teachers]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhists from the United States]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]
[[Category:Shambhala vision]]
[[Category:Naropa University faculty]]
[[Category:University of Chicago Divinity School alumni]]
[[Category:Indiana University faculty]]
[[Category:American religious writers]]