How is it that a person can meditate for five, ten, twenty years or more--and hardly change? Because they've reduced it to "a mental gymnastic," explains Reggie Ray. In Touching Enlightenment, the esteemed author of five books on Buddhist history and practice guides readers back to the original approach of the Buddha: a systematic process that results in a profound awareness "in our bodies rather than in our heads." Combining the scholarship he's renowned for with original insights from nearly four decades practicing and teaching meditation, Reggie Ray invites readers to explore: * The body as the ideal place for spiritual pilgrimage * How to cultivate imagination, deal with pain, breathe more naturally, and other essential skills * Why "rejected" experience becomes imprinted in the body--and the steps to release it "To be awake, to be enlightened, is to be fully and completely embodied. To be fully embodied means to be at one with who we are, in every respect, including our physical being, our emotions, and the totality of our karmic situation," writes Reggie Ray. Readers everywhere now have a map of unprecedented clarity and power for embarking on the journey toward ultimate realization in and through the body, with Touching Enlightenment.