Dharma Ocean: The Body and the Three Bodies of the Buddha

Dr. Reginald “Reggie” Ray is the Director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation, dedicated to the evolution and flowering of the somatic teachings of the Practicing Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He teaches in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. The author of many books, audio courses, and online series, Reggie’s work and teachings draw from his background as a Buddhist scholar and practitioner. With a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago (1973), he was the first full-time faculty member and chair of the Buddhist Studies (later Religious Studies) Department at Naropa University. Over nearly four decades he grew the department and played various leadership roles at Naropa, developing with Trungpa Rinpoche many of the initiatives and projects that became part of Naropa’s unique identity as a Buddhist-inspired university. He began explicitly working with dharma students in 1995 and now devotes all of his time to transmitting the teachings of the Vajra dharma of his teacher.

In Vajrayana, [or Tibetan Buddhist tantric] teachings, the meditative state—or the awakened state—is said to contain three dimensions. First, it is unconditionally open and we need to connect with that openness as a direct experience, in our bodies. Second, once we have done so, we find ourselves beholding the world and, beyond that, the universe, in its totality, as pure and completely beyond judgment; that revelation, if you will, is inseparable from the openness and an important dimension of the wisdom of the body. And finally, beholding the totality in that way, there arises from the depths of our being, our body, very naturally, a spontaneous response to the world, what Buddhism calls non-conceptual compassion. In the end, of course, these three are no more than aspects of just one thing; they are all dimensions of the wisdom of the body, of the awakened state in its full, multidimensional form.

The fully embodied nature of realization, so emphasized in Vajrayana, leads Buddhism to speak about it in terms of “the three bodies of the buddha”: the Dharmakaya, the ultimate openness body; the Sambhogakaya, the blissful energy body; and the Nirmanakaya, incarnational body of compassionate response. But these three bodies are not somebody else’s body—for example, the body of some ideal person such as an idealized teacher or even the Buddha himself. No, these three bodies refer to our very own, present human body and its possibilities, when we have to let go of our conventional opinions about our body and look right into it, behold it within the mirror of non-conceptual awareness. This is something we can and must experience for ourselves, in a real, tangible, concrete way. And when we do so, we find ourselves moving quickly toward what is called the country of enlightenment, this very world and this very life of ours but seen in an entirely new and different way. It is Somatic Meditation, and within that especially the practice of Somatic Descent, that makes this possible for us.

But how are we going to discover our body in this way? How are we going to realize it as the three bodies of the Buddha, the three bodies of enlightenment? Now we come to the special genius, the unique spiritual creativity of the tantra. Vajrayana provides somatic tools and meditative methods so that we can make the journey to the kind of fully embodied awakening and realization that I am talking about.

So it is that Somatic Descent leads us through a progressive journey into full presence and engagement with the wisdom of the body—the wisdom of our body. It leads us back to our three aspects: (1) it opens up an unconditioned, experiential space in our own being to receive and witness all the realities of our life and death and those of others—the world we have to be in and interact with; (2) it brings us to an intimate, powerfully somatic, felt experience and connection with what this universe is, including all its realms and beings; and (3) it unleashes the natural and spontaneous responsiveness, the unconditional love, that is an integral part of our awakened nature and that, alone, can be of most benefit to this world of ours. What realization could possibly be more complete or more ultimate or more fulfilling than this?

It is important to mention that these three qualities have not been equally emphasized across all Buddhist traditions and lineages. Even in Tibetan Buddhist meditation as usually taught, in common with the other major meditative traditions (Chan, Zen, Soen, “forest” Theravada), it is the first two qualities—openness and the experience of sacred perception—that are mainly accentuated. While the third quality, spontaneous response or nonconceptual compassion, is certainly implicit in all these lineages and sometimes spoken about, it is often not emphasized as part of the practice and therefore often remains underplayed or even unnoticed. And yet, as I say, it is the third quality that is the hallmark of Vajrayana and it is this third quality that most fully and deeply connects our meditative experience with our life in the world.

So in summary, with Somatic Descent, we begin by coming into our body fully. This involves paying attention to our physical body. At first, we may feel, “Well, I already know what that is—grrrr. What is the point of doing this?” But as we continue to pay attention, our experience of this familiar body of ours may begin to shift and become slightly unfamiliar. We may notice sensations previously unseen and a fluidity of somatic experience that is also new. Continuing to pay attention, we may then notice a kind of spacious feeling opening up, first in our experience of the body and then, surprisingly, within the body itself. And then, maybe a glimpse of an expanse of awareness, all happening within the envelope of our body. Once we begin to be able to be with these aspects of our somatic experience a little, we will bring our conscious awareness right to the boundary of the unconscious, the depths of the body, and hold it there.

In that very peculiar boundary area, which we may call “the somatic zone,” we are not exactly residing in our habitual conscious world nor have we completely lost ourselves in the unconscious. In this strange, liminal, shadowy awareness, a kind of no-man’s-land or limbo, we are able to be present to the unique expressiveness of the Soma in its most pure and elemental form. We are now in a position to hear what the body is continually holding for us and wanting to “communicate to us. We are beginning to connect with the wisdom of the body.

Once we experience the Soma [body] as an intelligent, communicating whole, we will see that it has, in fact, much information for us, for our conscious ego, about what our unadorned human experience means—where it may be directing us—and also about how we can live our lives in light of that unadorned experience on the most practical levels. In Somatic Descent, we meet the Soma as a coherent intelligence with a point of view, a process with direction, a source of wisdom, and a limitless benevolence. We see not that it holds and “wants” to protect our entire person; and it constantly communicates information, whether about our own innermost journey, about what is ultimately real in this present existence of ours, or about how to handle specific situations in our lives; and it is all so easy and natural. In Somatic Descent, the Soma almost begins to feel like an entity, but it is not an objectifiable and solid thing; rather it is a supremely intelligent dynamism, a living force, a supreme guardian and guide in our own process of living, loving, and unfolding. In a very real sense, it is our process; it is our true life. And that, in concrete truth and reality, is nothing other than the three bodies of the buddha.