Online Dharma: Mingyur Rinpoche to Give Teaching on “Mahamudra: Songs of Realization from the Indian Masters”

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Online Dharma: Mingyur Rinpoche to Give Teaching on “Mahamudra: Songs of Realization from the Indian Masters”

By Craig C Lewis
July 26, 2023

The Tergar Meditation Community, founded by the revered Dharma teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, has announced that Mingyur Rinpoche will offer an online teaching on the theme “Mahamudra: Songs of Realization from the Indian Masters” on 5 August.

“This short talk is dedicated to the great Indian master Tilopa and his famous text The Ganges Mahamudra, which is at the heart of the meditation tradition that Mingyur Rinpoche represents,” Tergar shared with BDG. “This event marks the beginning of Tergar’s 2023–24 transmission: a series of online courses and retreats with Mingyur Rinpoche on Mahamudra.”

This program is intended as a precursor to Tergar’s upcoming course “Voices of Mahamudra,” which runs from 5–31 August. Mingyur Rinpoche’s teaching on 5 August will approach Tilopa’s Ganges Mahamudra and offer an introduction to the view of Mahamudra, as well as an opportunity for participants to learn about Tergar’s upcoming transmission, “Mahamudra: A Song of Realization.”

“This is the first time that Mingyur Rinpoche will give a teaching on The Ganges Mahamudra in English to a Western audience, so we welcome you to join us on this precious occasion,” Tergar explained.

This free teaching by Mingyur Rinpoche is open to all and will be live-streamed via YouTube and on Zoom, with translations into Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, at the following times:

Auckland: 2am, Sunday, 6 August
Canberra: 12am, Saturday, 5 August
Seoul, Tokyo: 11pm, Saturday, 5 August
Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei: 10pm, Saturday, 5 August
Bangkok, Jakarta: 9pm, Saturday, 5 August
India Standard Time: 7:30pm, Saturday, 5 August
Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm: 4pm, Saturday, 5 August
London: 3pm, Saturday, 5 August
Montreal, New York: 10am, Saturday, 5 August
Los Angeles, Vancouver: 7am, Saturday, 5 August

Tilopa (988–1069) was an Indian mahasiddha, or great tantric adept, who is known in Tibet as the originator of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and was the teacher of the mahasiddha Naropa (1016–1100). Tilopa was an accomplished meditator with a profound understanding of the nature of mind, and was a key figure in the development of many core tantric practices.

A single lamp dispels the darkness of a thousand aeons; Likewise, a single flash of the mind’s clear light erases aeons of karmic conditioning and spiritual blindness. (Tilopa)

Click here for full details and to register for online attendance

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Image courtesy of Tergar International

Mingyur Rinpoche, the founder of the Tergar Meditation Community, which has centers and practice groups across the world, is a renowned teacher and best-selling author whose books include: The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness (2007); Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom (2009); and Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism (2014).

Born in 1975 in the Himalayan border region between Tibet and Nepal, Mingyur Rinpoche received extensive training in Tibetan Buddhist meditative and philosophical traditions from his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–96), considered one of the greatest modern Dzogchen masters, and subsequently at Sherab Ling Monastery in northern India. After just two years, at the age of 13, Mingyur Rinpoche entered a three-year meditation retreat and then completed a second immediately afterward, serving as retreat master. At 23, Rinpoche received full monastic ordination.

Mingyur Rinpoche famously undertook a four-year solitary wandering retreat through the Himalaya from 2011–15. In recounting how he came to terms with the realities of his ambition to practice in the manner of a wandering yogi, Rinpoche revealed that he confronted many personal and spiritual challenges—including, at one point, his own mortality. Rinpoche has described the years he spent wandering in the Himalaya as “one of the best periods of my life.”*

The habit of thinking that things exist “out there” in the world or “in here” is hard to give up, though. It means letting go of all the illusions you cherish, and recognizing that everything you project, everything you think of as “other,” is in fact a spontaneous expression of your own mind. (Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, 101)

* Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Returns from Four-year Wilderness Retreat (BDG) and Y ongey Mingyur Rinpoche Releases Video Offering Insights Following His Retreat (BDG)

References

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. 2007. The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness. New York City: Harmony.

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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