User:ZacInSpoon

Reginald Ray was born in New York City in 1942. When he was young, his family moved to Darien, Conneticut, where he was raised.

Ray studied Buddhism as an undergrad in the Religion Department at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Ray met his primary Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, in 1970 at Karmê Chöling in Vermont.

In 1972, Ray went to India on a Fulbright-Hayes scholarship. Encouraged by Trungpa, he went to Sikkim from India in 1973 to Rumtek Monestary. There he met the 16th Karmapa. After the Karmapa performed a black crown ceremony, he told Ray that he and his wife will be the father and mother of Buddhism in the West.

Ray received his PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1973. His dissertation advisor was Mircea Eliade.

After receiving his PhD, he took up a tenure track position at Indiana University.

In the spring of 1974, at the invitation of 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 his 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 of 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.

In 2005, Ray began to break away from Shambhala International. In March of that year, Ray founded the Dharma Ocean Foundation with his wife Lee. During this period, Shambhala International stripped Ray of his status as Acharya.

Recent programs led by Ray include Meditating with the Body, Winter Dathun, Buddhism and Shamanism, Vajrayana Training Intensive, Meditation Instruction Training, and Mahamudra Intensive.

Themes of Ray's teaching:
importance of the body for modern meditators

the Buddhist path of meditation is a way to reconnect with the primordial spirituality characteristic of pre-agricultural, indigenous cultures

moving beyond viewing the teacher as a savior

the highest possible spiritual attainment is to become completely individuated and to engage the world fully