Ezra's Bookshelf

In Love with the World

by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche · 290 pages · ~5.5 hrs

Religion & SpiritualityPhilosophy

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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's spiritual memoir recounts his decision, at age thirty-six, to abandon his comfortable life as abbot of several monasteries and wander India as a homeless mendicant—and the near-death experience that transformed his understanding of the teachings he had spent his life mastering. Mingyur Rinpoche, recognized as a tulku (reincarnated master) as a child and trained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition from early age, had achieved considerable status when he felt the pull to test his realization against the raw challenge of homelessness. The early chapters describe his escape from his monastery and his initial struggles with the basic challenges of survival—finding food, sleeping safely, relating to strangers. Then, in Varanasi, he fell catastrophically ill, facing death over several days as his body failed. Mingyur Rinpoche describes how his training prepared him for this confrontation and how the experience nevertheless revealed new dimensions of the teachings. He emerges with deepened understanding of impermanence, compassion, and the relationship between spiritual practice and physical existence. The book benefits from collaboration with journalist Helen Tworkov, who helps frame the narrative for Western readers while preserving the teacher's voice. Readers interested in Buddhism, contemplative practice, or accounts of extreme experience will find a rare first-person description of what it means to approach death with decades of meditation training as preparation.

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