

The Guru Within
April 18, 2026
10 AM
Requirements
Recordings
Seeing the World as Our Teacher
How does guru yoga deepen our meditation practice? What exactly are blessings, and how do they work? How can we connect with a teacher when we are physically distant or when devotion does not naturally arise? And what does it mean to discover the guru not only as a person, but to also recognize the world and the situations of our own lives as profound teachers?
For many of us, the idea of “guru” can feel foreign, confusing, or uncomfortable. We may wonder why a teacher is considered so essential when the goal is to discover our own true nature. The Vajrayana teachings offer a liberating answer to this question: the teacher is not a replacement for our own wisdom, but a catalyst for recognizing it. And the guru principle isn’t restricted to a single person: it unfolds through our practice, our life experiences, and ultimately, the very nature of our own mind.
On April 18, join meditation master Mingyur Rinpoche as he offers teachings on the meaning and purpose of the guru principle, showing how the relationship with a teacher and with the world itself become direct paths to recognizing awareness, compassion, and wisdom. There will also be a live Q&A, giving you the chance to ask Rinpoche your questions directly.
Through this webinar, Rinpoche sets the stage for the next phase of the Blueprints of Awakening Immersion course, exploring the guru principle and showing us how the entire world — especially its most challenging moments — can become our greatest teacher.
If you are not a Vajrayana Online member, please join the community to participate in the webinar. You’re welcome to start with a 10-day free trial.
This event is included with your Vajrayana Online membership.
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2025–26 TRANSMISSION
What You Will Learn in the
Blueprints of Awakening Immersion
The Guru Principle
The Three Kinds of Guru
Self-Liberation
Join Us Live!
This event offers a chance to connect not only with Mingyur Rinpoche but also with a vibrant community of fellow meditators, sharing the energy and support that comes from learning together. They will be held in a Zoom “Meeting” format, allowing you to turn your camera on if you wish and see other participants, so we strongly encourage you to join us in real time. However, if you’re unable to attend, the recordings will be made available in the Blueprints of Awakening Immersion course.
MEET YOUR TEACHER
Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur Rinpoche possesses a rare ability to present the ancient wisdom of Tibet in a fresh, engaging manner. His profound yet accessible teachings and playful sense of humor have endeared him to students around the world. Most uniquely, Rinpoche’s teachings weave together his own personal experiences with modern scientific research, relating both to the practice of meditation.
Born in 1975 in the Himalayan border regions between Tibet and Nepal, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a much-loved and accomplished meditation master. From a young age, Rinpoche was drawn to a life of contemplation. He spent many years of his childhood in strict retreat. At the age of seventeen, he was invited to be a teacher at his monastery’s three-year retreat center, a position rarely held by such a young lama. He also completed the traditional Buddhist training in philosophy and psychology, before founding a monastic college at his home monastery in north India.
In addition to extensive training in the meditative and philosophical traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Mingyur Rinpoche has also had a lifelong interest in Western science and psychology. At an early age, he began a series of informal discussions with the famed neuroscientist Francisco Varela, who came to Nepal to learn meditation from his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Many years later, in 2002, Mingyur Rinpoche and a handful of other long-term meditators were invited to the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Richard Davidson, Antoine Lutz, and other scientists examined the effects of meditation on the brains of advanced meditators. The results of this groundbreaking research were reported in many of the world’s most widely read publications, including National Geographic and Time.
Mingyur Rinpoche teaches throughout the world, with centers on five continents. His candid, often humorous accounts of his own personal difficulties have endeared him to thousands of students around the world. His best-selling book, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages. Rinpoche’s most recent books are In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying, Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom, and an illustrated children’s book entitled Ziji: The Puppy that Learned to Meditate.
In early June, 2011, Mingyur Rinpoche walked out of his monastery in Bodhgaya, India and began a “wandering retreat” through the Himalayas and the plains of India that lasted four and a half years. When not attending to the monasteries under his care in India and Nepal, Rinpoche spends time each year traveling and teaching worldwide.


















