In Love with the World

1

Who Are You?

Are you Mingyur Rinpoche?

My father asked me this question soon after I began studying with him, when I was around nine years old. It was so gratifying to know the correct answer that I proudly declared, Yes, I am.

Then he asked, Can you show me the one thing in particular that makes you Mingyur Rinpoche?

I looked down the front of my body to my feet. I looked at my hands. I thought about my name. I thought about who I was in relation to my parents and my older brothers. I could not come up with an answer. He then made looking for the real me sound like a treasure hunt, and I earnestly searched under rocks and behind trees. When I was eleven years old, I began my studies at Sherab Ling, a monastery in northern India, where I brought this search inside myself through meditation. Two years later, I entered the traditional three-year retreat, a period of intense mind training. During this period, we novice monks did many different exercises, each one deepening our understanding of subtler levels of reality. The Tibetan word for meditation, gom, means to become familiar with : familiar with how the mind works, how it creates and shapes our perceptions of ourselves and the world, how the outer layers of mind the constructed labels function like clothing that identifies our social identities and cloaks our naked, nonfabricated state of original mind, whether that outerwear consists of business suits, jeans, uniforms, or Buddhist robes.

By the time I set off for this retreat, I understood that the value of the labels shifts according to circumstances and social consensus. I had already affirmed that I was not my name, title, or status; that the essential me could not be defined by rank or role. Nonetheless these same designations, empty of essential meaning, had circumscribed my days: I am a monk; a son, a brother, and an uncle; a Buddhist; a meditation teacher; a tulku, an abbot, and an author; a Tibetan Nepali; a human being. Which one

Born in 1975 in Nubri, Nepal, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is an eminent meditation master among the new generation of Tibetan Buddhist teachers trained outside of Tibet. Mingyur Rinpoche teaches throughout the world, with centers on five continents. He is the author of The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, which has been translated into more than twenty languages, as well as Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism and Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom.

With this book, we enter into the interior life of a remarkable young Buddhist teacher. After setting off by himself on a wandering retreat, he immediately encounters fear, aversion, sickness, and near death. Yet the same emotional and physical difficulties that would throw the average person for a loop become opportunities for Mingyur Rinpoche to work with his mind, and to deepen his commitment to transforming adversity into awakening. His willingness to describe this process in such intimate detail has been an immense help to my own path, and makes this one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart

One of the most generous, beautiful, and essential books I ve ever read thoroughly engaging, so clear, so honest, so courageous and full of wisdom. In it, deep Buddhist teachings are presented with frankness and great clarity like a friend talking to a friend. It is also a great adventure story, really, about the most important adventure any of us can ever embark upon: the story of one noble soul attempting to come to an understanding of the workings of his own mind and thereby live in a truly sane and loving way. George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

Vivid, compelling . . . This book is a rarity in spiritual literature: Reading the intimate story of this wise and devoted Buddhist monk directly infuses our own transformational journey with fresh meaning, luminosity, and life. Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

In Love with the World is a magnificent story moving and inspiring, profound and utterly human. It will certainly be a dharma classic. Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

This slim book moved me and left me with a better appreciation of Tibetan Buddhism than so many weightier tomes I ve struggled to understand. Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy

Readers seeking a deep exploration of Buddhist