About Joy of Living

Mingyur Rinpoche • 4 min

What is the Joy of Living?

Joy of Living is a meditation path designed by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a renowned spiritual teacher, best-selling author, and TED speaker.

Rooted in the ancient Buddhist teachings of Tibet, it’s open to everyone, regardless of cultural or religious background.

Receive access to over 100 video teachings and guided meditations from Mingyur Rinpoche.

Engage with a structured, four-level curriculum covering awareness, compassion, and wisdom.

Explore Anytime Anywhere Meditation (AAM), a new course designed to make meditation accessible, practical, deeply meaningful, and applicable in daily life.

Benefit from live webinars with experienced meditation instructors, connect with an online community, and track your progress through our app, including space for reflections and optional daily reminders.

Try a Meditation

Open Awareness with the Breath

Mingyur Rinpoche • 8 min

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Different Ways of Joining

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Self-Paced Course

Embark on your journey of self-discovery at your own pace. Our step-by-step self-paced option allows you to explore the Joy of Living teachings at your own pace, with the flexibility to revisit materials whenever needed.
Support your practice with audio-guided meditations
Participate in live webinars and forums
Schedule 1-on-1 meetings with Tergar guides for expert guidance and answer your questions.
Learn, share, and connect during live Community Circle meetings with Tergar instructor Tim Olmsted.
Self-Paced
1 Self-Paced
Course
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Cohort

Join a supportive community of fellow learners and experience the Joy of Living teachings together. Choose from our six-month Joy of Living cohorts or the new five-week AAM cohort, both offering interactive and friendly environments where you can share insights, ask questions, and grow alongside others.
Cohort
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Find a Local Community

Connect with like-minded individuals in your area and practice the Joy of Living teachings in a welcoming and supportive setting. Located all around the world, local communities offer a space for group meditation, discussion, and mutual encouragement on your path to a more joyful life.
Community
3 Find
a Local
Community

Explore More Resources

A Guided Meditation for Difficult Moments with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

You Don’t Need to Clear Your Mind to Meditate + Guided Meditation with Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

How Can I Meditate in a Fast-Paced Urban Life? — Ask Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Wisdom for the Next Generation: Heart Advice for Young People with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Can Meditation Transform How You Experience Pain?

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Power of Meditating on Sensations

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Embracing Our Responsibility to Nature with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

How to Connect with Your Innate Well-Being? — Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

This Subtle Difference Between Empathy and Compassion is Life-Changing with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

I Felt Profound Peace Once—How Do I Meditate Without Chasing It? — Ask Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Why Community Is Essential for Meditation Growth — Mingyur Rinpoche

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Meditating with Sleep and Sleepiness

From: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Benefits of Meditation
Five Buddha Families: Emotions As Gateways

What if every emotion you’ve ever tried to get rid of — anger, jealousy, confusion — was actually a doorway to wisdom? The five buddha families offers such an exploration.

Community
Finding My True Home Through Immense Loss

When her mind wouldn’t stop spinning and her heart was breaking, Liliana Maravilla found a pathway to her true home.

Community
Monthlong Retreat: Deepening Practice in Portugal

A new monthlong Joy of Living retreat in Portugal is helping meditators experience the full arc of Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings — and the results are deeply inspiring.

How to meditate
Reminders for Practicing on Retreat

Drawing on decades of meditation experience, Myoshin Kelley offers practical and heartfelt guidance for anyone wishing to deepen their meditation practice.

Benefits of Meditation
Abandoning, Transforming, Recognizing Retreat Encompasses Totality of Practice

If you find that your emotions are challenging, join us on a transformative meditative journey as Justin Kelley reflects on Mingyur Rinpoche’s November retreat, “Abandoning, Transforming, Recognizing,” and the power of meeting the teachings where they come alive — at Tergar Osel Ling Monastery in Kathmandu.

Benefits of Meditation
Riding the Waves in the Ocean of Emotions

Merra Young offers a compassionate guide to being present with our difficult emotions — learning not just to survive life’s waves, but to ride them.

Community
From Cynicism to Pure Perception Hana Ko

After years of burnout and cynicism as a clinical psychologist, Hana Ko found renewed faith in humanity through the teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche.

Community
Meditation and University Life: A Conversation with Tshepo Molekwa

For first-year university student Tshepo Molekwa, meditation has become more than just a stress reliever — it’s a way to stay grounded, make wiser choices, and bring deeper meaning into student life.

Community
Mingyur Rinpoche's Visit to South Africa

Mingyur Rinpoche’s 2025 visit to South Africa brought together decades of Buddhist practice and fresh inspiration for a growing meditation community.

Community
Aging, Awakening Wisdom

With humor, tenderness, and deep trust in the teachings, writer Susan Barrett reflects on aging, loss, and wisdom — discovering how even wrinkles, hearing aids, and peony blossoms can become reminders of beauty and awakening.

Community
Deep Silence -- A Call to the Path

Drawn by a quiet call and a sense that life held something more, Diane McQueen-Smith shares her deeply personal journey into the heart of the dharma—from a chance encounter with sacred texts to the life-changing guidance of Mingyur Rinpoche.

Community
Boundless Compassion in Cape Town

The spirit of boundless compassionate Ubuntu filled the St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa on Mingyur Rinpoche's first-ever visit to the continent.

How to meditate
The Best Meditation Routine

What is the best meditation that can be done amidst hungry kids, barking dog, and busy boardrooms? Read more from Chris Pacheco, father of four young boys.

Benefits of Meditation
The Power of the Joy of Living Cohort

What happens when awareness, community, and friendship come together in a Joy of Living Cohort?

Meditation in Everyday Life
Middle Age: Full Catastrophe Living

"From raising kids to caring for aging parents, Amy Roth invites us into the heart of middle age — where the dharma meets daily life in all its complexity, humor, and unexpected beauty."

Community
Finding Freedom Beyond Addiction

In this moving account, Alex Kunkhyen reveals how the suffering of addiction became the unexpected path to freedom through the Dharma.

Meditation in Everyday Life
Householder Yogi: From Ballpark to Boardroom

What if becoming a householder yogi—a spiritual seeker embedded in real-world responsibilities—could help you find calm amidst the noise of modern life?

How to meditate
Navigating Conflict: Abandon, Transform, Transcend

What if the conflicts that fracture us could become the gold that mends us? In this deeply personal reflection, Emilda Rahim offers a meditative journey through the pain of disconnection toward healing, clarity, and quiet transformation.

Community
The Quiet Power of Returning—Again and Again—to the Path

Ever found yourself starting something over and over again—only to realize each beginning brought you a little closer to home? In this honest and richly textured reflection, Alex Welte traces a winding path through science, spirituality, and personal struggle to the quiet power of returning—again and again—to the path of dharma.

Meditation in Everyday Life
Just Keep Walking

In the midst of her mother’s devastating illness, Masha discovers unexpected gems of compassion, creativity, and presence.

Books by Mingyur Rinpoche

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The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

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Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom

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In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying

Stories of
Transformation

Meet Mingyur Rinpoche

+ 60,000

hours of Rinpoche’s life spent in formal meditation

+ 500,000

of students and followers around the world

+ 30

countries with meditation centers

Meet Mingyur Rinpoche

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a renowned meditation teacher, best-selling author, TED speaker, and spiritual leader of the Tergar Meditation Community.

Rinpoche blends ancient Tibetan wisdom with modern scientific research and has worked with famous neuroscientists to examine the effects of meditation on the brain.

He has written several books, including The Joy of Living, which has been translated into over twenty languages. Rinpoche teaches worldwide and founded Tergar International to provide both secular and Buddhist meditation programs. He is also involved in various social engagement projects and is committed to helping people and communities live with boundless awareness, compassion, and wisdom.

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