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46 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

A Transformative experience

at Abiding Heart Education

By Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was born in 1975 in the Himalayan border regions
between Tibet and Nepal. 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. In 2002,
Mingyur Rinpoche and some long-term meditators were invited to the Waisman
Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, 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.

Mingyur Rinpoche teaches throughout the world, with centers on five 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 In Love with the World: A Monk’s
Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying. Turning Confusion into Clarity: A
Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing
Change and Finding Freedom, and an illustrated children’s book entitled Ziji: The
Puppy that Learned to Meditate.

In early June, 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche walked out of his monastery in Bodhgaya,
India and began a “wandering retreat” through the Himalayas and the plains of
India that lasted four and a half years. When not attending to the monasteries
under his care in India and Nepal, Rinpoche spends time each year traveling and
teaching worldwide.