Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (b. 1975) is a teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has authored two best-selling books and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, a global network of Buddhist meditation centers. Mingyur Rinpoche was born in Nepal in 1975 the youngest of six brothers. From the age of nine, his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, taught him meditation and Mahamudra traditions.
At the age of eleven, Mingyur Rinpoche began studies at Sherab Ling Monastery in Northern India, the seat of Tai Situ Rinpoche. Two years later, Mingyur Rinpoche began a traditional three year retreat at Sherab Ling. At age twenty, Mingyur Rinpoche became the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling. At twenty-three, he received full monastic ordination. During this time Mingyur Rinpoche received important Dzogchen transmissions from Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
In 2007 Rinpoche completed the construction of Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, which will serve large numbers of people attending Buddhist events at this sacred pilgrimage site, serve as an annual site for month-long Karma Kagyu scholastic debates, and serve as an international study institute for the Sangha and laity. The institute will also have a medical clinic for local people.
In June, 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche left his monastery in Bodhgaya to begin a three years of retreat. Instead of staying in isolation, as he did in his early years of retreat, for this period he will be wandering from place to place without any fixed plans or agenda. Rinpoche left a farewell letter before leaving his monastery.
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, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a rising star among the new generation of Tibetan Buddhist masters. From a young age, Rinpoche was drawn to a life of contemplation. He spent many years of his childhood in strict retreat. At the age of seventeen, he was invited to be a teacher at his monastery’s three-year retreat center, a position rarely held by such a young lama. He also completed the traditional Buddhist training in philosophy and psychology, before founding a monastic college at his home monastery in north India.
In addition to extensive training in the meditative and philosophical traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Mingyur Rinpoche has also had a lifelong interest in Western science and psychology. At an early age, he began a series of informal discussions with the famed neuroscientist Francisco Varela, who came to Nepal to learn meditation from his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Many years later, in 2002, Mingyur Rinpoche and a handful of other long-term meditators were invited to the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin, where Richard Davidson, Antoine Lutz, and other scientists examined 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.
Currently, Mingyur Rinpoche teaches throughout the world, with centers on four continents. His candid, often humorous accounts of his own personal difficulties have endeared him to thousands of students around the world. 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’s most recent books are Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom and an illustrated children’s book entitled Ziji: The Puppy that Learned to Meditate.
The mission of the Tergar Meditation Community is to make the ancient practice of meditation accessible to the modern world. For centuries, the practice of meditation has been used by countless individuals to transform suffering into joy and confusion into wisdom. Tergar meditation and study programs are designed to facilitate this transformation. Under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a remarkable teacher celebrated for his ability to make the practice of meditation accessible to people of all backgrounds, the Tergar community of meditation centers and practice groups provides a comprehensive course of meditation training and study, with programs for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.
The Tergar journey begins with the Joy of Living, a series of three seminars that present practical advice on how meditation can be used to calm the mind, open the heart, and develop insight. The Path of Liberation builds on the foundational teachings of the Joy of Living, presenting a series of meditative practices designed to strip away the causes of suffering and uncover the radiant awareness that underlies all experience.
Tergar International oversees the activities of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche outside of Asia. Our activities include the creation of materials for practice and study, training programs for meditation instructors and facilitators, programs that serve the entire worldwide community of Mingyur Rinpoche's students, and the scheduling of Rinpoche's teaching tours.
Tergar Meditation Centers and Groups offer weekly meditation and study sessions, as well as regular seminars on meditation and the core principles of the Buddhist path. Contact a Center in your area.
Mingyur Rinpoche, the millionaire monk who renounced it all
by Mary Finnigan, The Guardian, 22 September 2011
The Buddhist teacher's decision to leave his monastery suggests a revival of the principles laid down by the Buddha
Bodhgaya, India -- On first impression, Mingyur Rinpoche seemed to have everything well set up for a high profile career as a globe-trotting meditation teacher in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The youngest of three sons of the late, much venerated Tulku Urgyen, by the age of 36 he had a bestselling book (The Joy of Living) to his name, a monastery in India and Tergar, an international organisation based in the US with branches worldwide.
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Mingyur Rinpoche was living comfortably with a retinue of attendants. He was in high demand as a teacher and admired by developed world devotees in particular, for his interest in the scientific implications of meditation – specifically its effect on brain function and the nervous system. He already had 10 years of solitary meditation retreat behind him and Tibetan Buddhist aficionados were impressed with his personal qualities.
But Mingyur Rinpoche was not content to rest on his laurels. Nor was he interested in becoming yet another celebrity guru, living in luxury and spoiled by the adulation accorded to important lamas. One morning in June this year his attendants knocked on the door of his room at his monastery in Bodhgaya, India, and when there was no response they went in to find it empty – except for a letter explaining that he had left for an indeterminate period to become a wandering yogi, meditating wherever he alighted in the Himalayas.
"He took no money, and no possessions," explained his brother Tsoknyi Rinpoche. "He didn't take his passport, his mobile phone or even a toothbrush."
In his letter Mingyur Rinpoche said that from a young age he had "harboured the wish to stay in retreat and practise, wandering from place to place without any fixed location". He advised his followers not to worry about him, assuring them that in a few years they would meet again. To this day no one has any idea of his whereabouts and he has not been in touch with his family.
Mingyur Rinpoche (the title Rinpoche means Precious One) left on his journey from Bodhgaya, the place where the historical Buddha Siddhartha attained enlightenment.
"There's an interesting parallel with the Buddha," says Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan. "Since the fall of the Tibetan monarchy in 842, incarnate lamas have served as a kind of aristocracy in Tibet, so a high-ranking tulku is not unlike a prince. Mingyur Rinpoche has renounced royal life, just as Prince Siddhartha did. This radical step that he has taken is essentially a return to the lifestyle that the Buddha prescribed for all monks."
The life of a mendicant monk may have been a viable option for followers of the Buddha in 400BC India and for Tibet's great yogi Milarepa, but among Tibetan tulkus (incarnate lamas) it is virtually unprecedented in the present day. Mingyur Rinpoche's disappearance was greeted by the Tibetan Buddhist establishment with a mixture of astonishment and awe, accustomed as they are to many young tulkus heading off to America in search of fame, fortune and an extravagant lifestyle. They follow precedents set by an older generation of lamas like the late Trungpa Rinpoche, who made no secret of his fondness for vodka and the pleasures of the flesh, and more recently by Sogyal Rinpoche, a notorious womaniser.
Long retreats have become established among western Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, but they usually take place at secure locations and are conducted on a group basis. They are also expensive – especially for people who have to put their careers on hold in order to take part. So is it likely that more aspirant yogis and young lamas will follow Mingyur Rinpoche's example?
"We see his decision as very positive," says Cortland Dahl, the director of Mingyur Rinpoche's organisation Tergar. "It's an inspiration. You read about people doing this in the past, but no one seems to want to do it in this modern age."
Dahl points out that it must have taken some courage: "Rinpoche suffered from panic attacks when he was a child and there he was, heading off into the unknown in Bihar – one of the most bandit-ridden states in India."
The British yogi-lama Ngakpa Chogyam, however, does not fear for Mingyur Rinpoche's wellbeing:
"Religious mendicancy is understood in the Himalayan regions – but it is probably only viable for Tibetans and Indian sadhus. I imagine that Mingyur Rinpoche would be likely to find sponsors wherever he went. The main problem he might face would be people wanting to do too much for him – and he would probably have to spend some time escaping from generous benefactors."
Cortland Dahl says Mingyur Rinpoche is not only uninterested in fame and money, he is also a "pure monk" who maintains vows that include celibacy. He has this in common with a small number of young tulkus – including Kalu Rinpoche and the 17th Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje. It seems as if Tibetan Buddhism might be at a turning point – away from widespread allegations of corruption and towards a revival of the principles laid down by the historical Buddha.
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