Tergar International, founded by the revered meditation teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, has announced the launch of a new mobile app named “Joy of Living” after Tergar’s foundational Buddhist practice and learning course.
Following a kickstarter campaign and several months of development,* the app is now available from the App Store and Google Play, aimed at enabling practitioners to access Dharma teachings anytime, anywhere, in a format specifically designed for mobile screens.
“For years, people around the world have learned and practiced with Mingyur Rinpoche through retreats, courses, books, and Tergar communities,” Terger International said in an announcement. “Now, you can access these teachings anytime, anywhere, with an experience designed specifically for your phone.
“This release is the result of many months of work by our team to create a new way to learn, practice, and engage with Rinpoche’s teachings in everyday life. We’re very happy to finally share it with you.”
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.
“At the heart of the app is the step-by-step approach central to Joy of Living,” Tergar explained. “Rather than leaving you to figure out what to practice next, the teachings unfold as a path—from learning what awareness is to discovering how it can become part of everyday life.”
The app, which is optimized to help users apply the theory of the teachings into action and a daily practice, offers video teachings with Mingyur Rinpoche, guided meditations and contemplations, and advice and frameworks for applying the teachings wherever one might be.
“If you are new to Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings, you can start for free with the Anytime Anywhere Meditation course, a step-by-step introduction to awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom,” Tergar remarked. “And if you already practice with Rinpoche, the app offers a new way to revisit familiar teachings and keep a structured path of learning and practice close at hand.”
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.”*
The essence of Buddhist practice is not so much an effort at changing your thoughts or your behavior so that you can become a better person, but in realizing that no matter what you might think about the circumstances that define your life, you’re already good, whole, and complete. It’s about recognizing the inherent potential of your mind. In other words, Buddhism is not so much concerned with getting well as with recognizing that you are, right here, right now, as whole, as good, as essentially well as you could ever hope to be. — Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
* Online Dharma: Tergar Kickstarter Campaign for New “Joy of Living” Mobile App Gathers Steam (BDG)
** Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Returns from Four-year Wilderness Retreat (BDG) and Yongey 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
See more
Tergar Institute
Tergar Sangha
Tergar
Tergar Asia
Related news reports from BDG
Online Dharma: Mingyur Rinpoche to Lead Live-streamed Introduction to Dzogchen Webiner
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Leads Inauguration of Tergar Osel Ling Monastery in Kathmandu
Online Dharma: Mingyur Rinpoche to Lead Webinar Introducing Meditation Teacher Program
Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Five-Day Summit on Science and Human Potential
Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Live-Streamed Losar Celebration with Khenpo Pema Woser
Related features from BDG
Authenticity on the Path: An Interview with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The Good News of Suffering: Four Questions on the Four Noble Truths with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Living with Awareness, Practicing with Intent: An Interview with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Exclusive Interview: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche on Living Life with Balance and Awareness
