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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & the Tergar Meditation Community –
Losar Newsletter

February 14, 2010

Losar Greetings from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Happy Losar, friends, students and fellow meditators!

I am at my monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu at the moment, where all the monks are busily preparing for Tibetan New Year (Losar), the biggest holiday of the year. As I observe the frenzy of activity all around me, I am reminded of the time I spent with my father as a child and the gentle guidance he offered me as a beginning meditator. As I’m sure many of you already know, my father was a true meditation master and one of my most important teachers.

I was only eight years old when I went to stay with him at his hermitage, but even then I had a deep yearning to learn the art of meditation. I was troubled by overwhelming feelings of fear and anxiety that seemed to follow me like a shadow. When I timidly shared my troubles with my father, he told me that the constantly shifting thoughts and emotions we experience are only one small part of our inner world. Each and every moment, he said, we have the opportunity to connect with a timeless awareness that is not affected in any way by the changing conditions of our lives. Read more...

What's Mingyur Rinpoche up to?

Right now Mingyur Rinpoche is at Osel Ling Monastery in Kathmandu. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche gave this monastery to his two sons, Mingyur Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, when they were both young. For many years, Tsoknyi Rinpoche has been overseeing the activities of the monastery, though Mingyur Rinpoche has also been intimately involved.

This Losar, Mingyur Rinpoche is formally taking responsibility for the activities of Osel Ling Monastery. On February 17th, he is inaugurating a new shedra (monastic college) at Osel Ling. There is no shortage of shedras in Nepal, but Mingyur Rinpoche’s new institution is quite unique. Rather than focusing solely on academic study, the monks of Osel Ling will practice study, contemplation, and meditation together, as Rinpoche did while studying and meditating at Sherab Ling Monastery in India. Students of the shedra will be trained not only in debate and teaching, but also in composition, and the curriculum is Rimé (non-sectarian). Teachings will focus on the classic texts of the Kagyü lineage, but the works of the Nyingma, Sakya, and Geluk schools will be studied as well.

True to form, Mingyur Rinpoche has not wasted a spare minute over the past few months. While in Sherab Ling, he began working on a new book on the preliminary practices. This new work is still in its formative stages, but it is sure to be as profound and inspiring as his other two works.

To supplement the Joy of Living and Path of Liberation programs, Rinpoche has also been filming extensively. He has given countless hours of teachings directly to the camera, on topics ranging from spiritual community to relationships to the view of the Middle Way. Not surprisingly, he has also given extensive teachings on various topics related to meditation and retreat. Our aim is to make these video teachings available online or as part of the Tergar study program.

Rinpoche will be in Kathmandu for a few more weeks before embarking on the first leg of his worldwide teaching tour. To see where he’ll be next, check Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s online schedule.

Tergar International's Current Activities

Preparations for Mingyur Rinpoche’s jam-packed tour are certainly keeping us busy, but we’ve got a lot of other things going on as well. Since last October, we’ve been holding the first Joy of Living video retreats, using video-taped teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche in tandem with live instructions and discussion with Tergar instructors. We’ve already held level I retreats in Portland, Phoenix, and Minneapolis and have many more retreats coming up. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Right now we’re hard at work preparing the material for level II (on love and compassion), and this summer we’ll be filming material for level III while Rinpoche is on tour.

In addition, we are also working on getting the Joy of Living and Path of Liberation teachings online. Though it will be some time before they are up and running, we are planning to hold seminars, and even practice retreats, online for those who do not have access to a center or meditation group. Eventually, we aim to have a wide range of teachings, from the basics of meditation to more advanced teachings on the preliminary practices and other topics, available in the form of online seminars. These are meant to supplement the teachings that students receive in a live-retreat format.

We are also hard at work developing practice materials, such as new chant books and ngondro liturgies, instruction manuals for the various Joy of Living and Path of Liberation levels, and recommended reading lists. As those of you who live nearby a Tergar Meditation Center or Group already know, we have also begun to offer a new program of practice and study for our regular meditation groups. This new program offers a deep immersion into the teachings found in Mingyur Rinpoche’s two books, Joy of Living and Joyful Wisdom, offering weekly readings, guided meditations, topics and questions for discussion, and meditation exercises to practice at home.

This is just a sample of what we’re working on at the moment. For more information on these programs and more, please check our website regularly or get in touch with us directly. We’d love to hear from you.