Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Somatic Spirituality

1 Somatic Meditation 9

2 To Be a Body 15

3 Consider Your Body's Mind 21

Part 2 The Six Core Somatic Practices

4 An Overview of the Somatic Protocols 31

5 Practice One: Ten Points 39

6 Practice Two: Earth Descent 57

7 Practice Three: Yin Breathing 65

8 Practice Four: Coming into the Central Channel 72

9 Practice Five: Whole Body Breathing and Rooting 78

10 Practice Six: Twelvefold Lower-Belly Breathing 89

Part 3 How the Practices Unfold

11 Intention, Attention, Sensation, and Discipline 99

32 Tension and Breathing 108

13 As the Practice Matures 121

14 How the Soma Protects Us and Supports Our Transformation 129

15 Paradoxes of the Soma 136

16 What the Body Knows 141

17 Making Sense of Ego and Soma 148

18 Changes in Our Ongoing Relationship with Our Body 152

Part 4 Final Thoughts

19 The Soma and the Human Genome 157

20 The Soma and the Cosmos 161

List of Audio Tracks 167

Notes 169

Index 173