Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Free Webinar Series with Mingyur Rinpoche on Buddhism and Neuroscience

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Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Free Webinar Series with Mingyur Rinpoche on Buddhism and Neuroscience

By Craig C Lewis
March 7, 2025

The Tergar Meditation Community, founded by the revered meditation teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, has announced an upcoming series of free webinars on Buddhism and neuroscience, under the theme “Born to Flourish: How to Thrive in a Challenging World.” The first session of this six-part series will be live-streamed on 8 March.

“Led by esteemed meditation teacher Mingyur Rinpoche, world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard J. Davidson, and contemplative scientist Dr. Cortland Dahl, this free six-part series blends ancient wisdom with modern science,”Tergar International said in an announcement shared with BDG. “Each session offers practical tools to navigate stress, work with emotions, and unlock your full potential for awareness and compassion.”

Tergar International is a non-profit organization founded by Mingyur Rinpoche with the intention of making the ancient practice of meditation accessible to the modern world. With a global community of meditators and an international network of centers and groups, Tergar is dedicated to helping people of all backgrounds discover the joy and benefits of meditation.

“Learn how to transform your mind and brain through cutting-edge neuroscience and timeless Buddhist wisdom,” Tergar remarked. “This . . . webinar series blends practical insights from Buddhism with the latest research in neuroscience to help you unlock your potential for inner peace, resilience, and transformation.”

Dr. Richard Davidson is an award-winning researcher on the neural bases of emotion and methods to promote human flourishing, including meditation, and is the author of more than 400 published articles. Dr. Cortland Dahl is a scientist, translator, and meditation teacher, holding a PhD in Mind, Brain, and Contemplative Science.

The brain is neither immutable nor static but continuously remodeled by the lives we lead. — Dr. Richard Davidson

The webinars are open to all and include live discussion and Q&A sessions with the speakers. Translation from English will be offered into Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. The series will tackle the following topics:

8 March: Transforming Stress into Opportunities: Insights from Science and Buddhism
15 March: The Distraction Epidemic: Unlocking the Power of Awareness
22 March: Befriending Your Emotions: A Guide to Self-Discovery
29 March: Rewiring the Craving Mind: A Path to Overcoming Addiction and Unhealthy Habits
5 April: Transforming a Divided and Disconnected World
12 April: Establishing Lifelong Practices for Personal Transformation

Click here for full details and to register

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 in 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.”*

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them. — Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

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

References

Mingyur, Yongey. 2007. The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and 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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