Tergar Meditation Training

Discover the depths of awareness and insight meditation through Tergar's comprehensive training program. At its core lies the Joy of Living - a transformative series of three seminars guided by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. In these sessions, he shares practical meditation techniques designed to cultivate inner calm, nurture compassion, and develop profound insight into reality's true nature. What makes the Joy of Living special is its universal approach, welcoming practitioners from every spiritual background and belief system.

Here in South Africa, Tergar offers the Joy of Living courses in both online and in-person formats throughout the year. The flexibility of online access means you can also complete the program at your own pace. Whether you're new to meditation or an experienced practitioner, we warmly invite you to join these courses as a complement to our regular practice sessions.

Regular Programme

Click here to see our in-person and online regular practice groups

Meditate with us

For those drawn to explore Buddhism as their primary spiritual path, The Path of Liberation offers a deeper journey. Building on Joy of Living's foundation, this advanced program introduces meditation practices rooted in Tibet's ancient Buddhist wisdom. These techniques aim to address suffering at its source by dissolving fundamental misconceptions and transforming harmful patterns that keep us bound in cycles of anxiety and discontent.

What sets Tergar apart is how seamlessly it weaves together theoretical understanding with practical meditation. Rather than keeping these elements separate, core spiritual principles are taught experientially, making them immediately applicable to daily life.

“The only difference between meditation and the ordinary, everyday process of thinking, feeling, and sensation is the application of the simple, bare awareness that occurs when you allow your mind to rest simply as it is—without chasing after thoughts or becoming distracted by feelings or sensations.”

– Mingyur Rinpoche

Understanding Meditation

Meditation is the art of cultivating awareness and insight—a practical tool that helps us undo destructive emotional patterns, develop wisdom and compassion, and access the mind's fundamental nature of pure awareness.

The Essence of Meditation: Awareness

Mingyur Rinpoche teaches that awareness forms the core of meditation practice. Rather than trying to eliminate our perceived flaws or forcibly improve ourselves, meditation reveals our inherent wholeness. It's a practical approach to discovering our true nature.

The meditation journey unfolds in two key stages:

  1. Recognizing awareness's fundamentally pure and good nature as the source of lasting happiness
  2. Nurturing this recognition until it permeates our daily experience

A New Approach to Difficult Emotions

When facing challenging emotions, we typically react in two ways:

Both responses perpetuate suffering. However, meditation offers a third path: using difficult emotions as supports for awareness. This approach creates space between you and the emotion, teaching you to be with feelings rather than become them. While initially challenging, this practice helps us eventually embrace all emotions as natural expressions of awareness.

Scientific Evidence of the Benefits of Meditation

In recent years, meditation has garnered significant attention from the scientific community. Researchers from esteemed institutions like Harvard, MIT, and the University of Wisconsin have delved into the effects of meditation on various aspects of human health and well-being. Their findings reveal not only the profound impact meditation can have on the brains of seasoned practitioners but also the potential of even a few minutes of daily meditation to significantly increase the brain’s regions associated with happiness and overall well-being. Moreover, meditation has been demonstrated to enhance the body’s immune system, improve concentration for extended periods, and serve as an effective treatment for numerous psychological disorders.

rinpoche-science

Neuroscience of Meditation

In a landmark study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Laboratory, researchers used EEG and fMRI technology to study Mingyur Rinpoche's brain during meditation. The findings were remarkable: during compassion meditation, his brain showed unprecedented levels of gamma wave activity - waves associated with consciousness and learning. This research provided some of the first scientific evidence that long-term meditation practice can fundamentally alter brain function and structure.

Where to Begin

Starting to meditate isn't as difficult as you might think. At Tergar South Africa, we welcome new meditators with free weekly online meditation and discussion sessions, where experienced and new practitioners learn together following the Tergar curriculum. We also gather monthly for in-person meetups to deepen our practice in community.

Our newsletter keeps you informed about upcoming events, including special teachings from visiting instructors. Tergar offers a range of online courses, from free introductory sessions to the comprehensive Joy of Living program. Though rooted in Tibetan Buddhist teachings, these practices are secular and accessible, focusing on basic qualities of mind like mindful awareness and our natural movement toward happiness and away from suffering.

Through these practices, we gradually transform our relationship with present-moment experience, learning to approach every thought, feeling, and sensory experience with unconditional warmth and acceptance. Visit our events page to learn more about upcoming sessions and courses.

Tergar International offers several pathways to learn meditation:

Joy of Living Program

Live courses run throughout the year at various times to accommodate different time zones.

Regular Practice Groups

Our online and in person groups meet regularly and we would love to practice with you!

Practice Groups