Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is the youngest son of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and a brother of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and the late Chokling Rinpoche. He was recognised as the seventh incarnation of the Yongey Mingyur tulku line of the Karma Kagyu and trained at Sherab Ling Monastery under HH the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, and at Shechen Monastery under HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
He completed traditional three-year retreat at the age of thirteen and was appointed retreat master at Sherab Ling at sixteen — the youngest in his generation to hold that office. He is the founder of Tergar Meditation Community, an international organisation with centres on six continents, and of the Joy of Living and Path of Liberation curricula, which together form one of the most accessible introductions to Tibetan Buddhist practice in the world.
In 2011, Rinpoche left his monastery and undertook a four-and-a-half-year wandering retreat across the Himalayas and the plains of India — sleeping in caves, in temples, and at times beside the road. He very nearly died in the early weeks of the retreat, an experience he describes in the book In Love with the World. The retreat is widely regarded as a turning point in contemporary Vajrayana — a master of his generation undertaking the old form of wandering practice and returning to teach about it openly.
Mingyur Rinpoche is also a long-time participant in neuroscience research on the effects of meditation, including the Mind and Life Institute studies with Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His brain scans were among the first to demonstrate measurable, large-effect-size changes in trained meditators.
He teaches the Mahamudra pointing-out instructions in the Tulku Urgyen family style and the Dzogchen of the Nyingma lineage. His teaching style is famously warm, accessible, and rooted in personal experience — including his lifelong work with panic attacks, which he speaks about openly as part of his teaching on the nature of mind.
Applications for personal time with Rinpoche are received through Tergar Asia on a quarterly cadence. Pilgrim Circle members of The Promised Studios receive priority routing.
