“The primordial fire of reality is going to burn through the hull of our little ego spaceship, and scatter us like stars…

Through shamatha practice—through coming back to the breath over and over—we are beginning to get a handle on ourselves and we are beginning to learn how to work with ego. The first thing we are learning, is that you don’t have to go along with ego. That is an unbelievable discovery when people realize that. You can boycott the ego. You can just not do it. The ego is saying, “This is what we have to do, this what I have to work out, this is the phone call I have to make.” And you are labeling ‘thinking,’ and coming back to the breath. ‘Thinking,’ you come back to the breath. The ego is confused. The ego is not sure what is happening, but it still realizes that it has a role. However, it doesn’t have total control over us anymore. That initial decision to take refuge and to begin to do shamatha practice is beginning to get a handle on this kind of egomaniac that is within all of us.

There is a natural responsiveness that exists within us, waiting, waiting to happen. All we have to do is slow down, relax, open our minds and let go of all this self-referencing we do all the time that we call ego.” ~Reggie Ray of the Dharma Ocean Foundation

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Dr. Reggie Ray currently resides in Crestone, Colorado, where he is Spiritual Director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the practice, study and preservation of the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the practice lineage he embodied.

The Dharma Ocean Foundation has an online media store where you can download “theme-based affordable bundles of talks, as well as complete program recordings.” Right now they are offering a free MP3 or PDF download, a talk from Reggie Ray entitled, “Emotional Awakening.” Click here for this free download.

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