Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Buddhist

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche possesses a rare ability to present the ancient wisdom of Tibet in a fresh, engaging manner. His profound yet accessible teachings and playful sense of humor have endeared him to students around the world. Most uniquely, Rinpoche’s teachings weave together his own personal experiences with modern scientific research, relating both to the practice of meditation. Born in 1975 in the Himalayan border regions between Tibet and Nepal, Mingyur Rinpoche is a much-loved and accomplished meditation master. He began his life of contemplation early, spending much of his childhood in retreat, and at age seventeen became a teacher at his monastery’s three-year retreat center. After completing the traditional Buddhist training in the meditative and philosophical traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, he founded a monastic college at his home monastery in north India. In addition Mingyur Rinpoche has had a lifelong interest in Western science and psychology. He has worked with famed neuroscientists Francisco Varela, Richard Davidson, Antoine Lutz, and others, examining the effects of meditation on the brains of advanced meditators. The results of this groundbreaking research were reported in many of the world’s most widely read publications, including National Geographic and Time. Mingyur Rinpoche teaches throughout the world, with centers on six continents. His best-selling book, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages. Rinpoche is also the author of: Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom, In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying, and an illustrated children’s book entitled Ziji: The Puppy that Learned to Meditate. When not teaching or attending to his monasteries in Nepal and India, he is organizing various health, hunger, hygiene and empowerment projects in the Himalayas.

The intersection between ancient Buddhist meditation and modern neuroscience and psychology.

Meditation is the art of cultivating awareness and insight. It can be used as a practical tool to undo destructive emotional patterns, to develop positive qualities like wisdom and compassion, and to access the mind’s fundamental nature of pure awareness. When we explore the landscape of the heart and mind with awareness, we discover a true and lasting happiness that does not depend on the outer conditions of our lives.

Author, Meditation Master, Teacher

When I was young, I struggled with severe panic attacks. I was extremely unhappy, despite growing up in a beautiful setting in the deep Himalayas and being raised in a family of meditators. My struggle with panic prompted me to seek out the practice of meditation. When I was 9 years old, I learned meditation from my father, who was a highly regarded Tibetan lama, and at 13, I did a traditional 3 year retreat. While in retreat I realized that I had been running from my panic, and the more I ran, the more it followed me like a shadow. Everything changed when I shifted my attitude. I made up my mind to live with my panic, to accept it and see what it could teach me. My panic became my best friend and my greatest teacher. Through my panic, I learned a great deal about my mind – how it can be trained and transformed – and began to teach meditation around the world. Although I transformed my panic, I still had a lot to learn through meditation, and a new ego emerged, with my role as a spiritual teacher. In 2011, I decided to take a big step to explore these more subtle aspects of identity. I left everything behind for a period of wandering retreat. I left my monastery in the middle of the night, with just a few Indian rupees in my pocket and the clothes on my back. I had no plan other than to wander freely and meditate in the Himalayas and on the plains of India. In my first few weeks, however, I became deathly ill from severe food poisoning, but I decided to continue my retreat, even if it cost me my life. This led to a profound near-death experience where I directly experienced a state of pure awareness. This experience completely changed my perspective. After this experience, I felt completely at home in the world, whether living on the street begging for food or staying in comfortable surroundings. What I saw is that we all have basic qualities like awareness, compassion, and wisdom that are part of our basic nature. What we Buddhists call “buddha nature.” or “basic goodness” I saw that I have these qualities and that everyone else does too, but we don’t recognize what we have. We mistakenly think we are broken and flawed when we are not. Luckily, we don’t need a near-death experience to connect to this awakened nature. Meditation is a powerful way to get in touch with it. With meditation we can learn to shift from a state of “doing” to one of “being” – and through that, to learn to experience these qualities for ourselves. This helps us to connect with the wonderful awareness that we all have, but that we usually don’t recognize.