Working with awareness, compassion, and wisdom, we open our hearts and minds, rippling out towards a more joyful and peaceable world. 

— Mingyur Rinpoche

Starting a new year is not just about changing the calendar — it's a chance to redefine ourselves and align our actions with the visions we have for the future. The turn of the year brings a renewed sense of energy, a fresh slate for our aspirations, and an opportunity to embrace practices that nurture growth in every aspect of our lives. To make the most of this transition, we need to balance ambitious goals with thoughtful, purposeful routines that pave the way for these dreams to become reality.

WHY SHOULD I ATTEND?
This retreat will offer reflections and practices to help you set the aspirations that will chart the way for the year to develop. You will meet with fellow practitioners from Australia and beyond coming together to practice awareness, compassion, and wisdom, and you will also hear from our instructors about their own experiences practicing with these qualities.

WHAT WILL I LEARN?
In this program, you will explore and establish a deeper understanding of your own innate awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom — setting a foundation for your commitments to yourself and the world in the year to come.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS PROGRAM?
This event will include:

A New Year video from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
A live talk about the importance of aspirations by Tergar Instructors Edwin and Myoshin Kelley
Live guided meditation and Q&A on awareness, compassion, and wisdom

Location

Online via Zoom

Date/Time

Saturday, January 18 - 10am - 2pm Melbourne-time

Recordings

Recordings will not be made.

Ticket costs

Registration for this event is free, but donations are warmly accepted.

About your Instructors, Myoshin and Edwin Kelley:

Myoshin Kelley

At a young age, Myoshin decided that school could not teach her what she wanted to know and decided that life would be her teacher. This led her to a lifelong journey of living in spiritual communities while exploring the inner terrain of being human.

Myoshin received dharma instruction from renowned Buddhist teachers Chanmyay Sayadaw, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and Hogen Yamahata. She also developed a great love of retreats and at one point temporarily ordained as a nun in Myanmar.

Myoshin’s training as a meditation teacher began with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in 1994. She was appointed the teacher in residence at the Forest Refuge, the long-term practice center at IMS, in 2003.

In 1998, Myoshin was introduced to Mingyur Rinpoche. Twelve years later she moved to Minneapolis to help Rinpoche and others with the formation of Tergar Meditation Community. For a decade she led the team to oversee the formation of Tergar meditation groups and the training of Tergar community leaders. As a Tergar instructor, Myoshin leads programs that experientially explore how the practice of meditation and the wisdom of an open heart support the path of awakening.

Nature has been a strong teacher and support for Myoshin throughout her life. She loves to do solitary retreats in nature as well as hike, bike, cross-country ski, and now swim in the ocean on the beautiful Sapphire Coast in Australia, where she lives with her husband Edwin.

Edwin Kelley

Edwin Kelley attended his first meditation retreat near Perth, Australia in 1975. He later pursued a career as a public accountant and in 1992 went to Burma to undertake a six-month period of intensive meditation practice with meditation master Chanmyay Sayadaw. While practicing in Burma he ordained temporarily as a Buddhist monk.

In 1994 he was hired as Director of Operations by one of America’s best known meditation retreat centers, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), in Barre, MA. Eighteen months later he was appointed Executive Director of IMS and served in that capacity until 2003 when he resigned to pursue further long-term intensive meditation practice.

Edwin first encountered Vajrayana Buddhism in Dharamsala, India in 1993 and became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998. He has a post graduate diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland in the UK.

In 2009, Edwin and his wife Myoshin, moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to help establish the global Tergar Meditation Community, where he then served variably as Executive, and Co-Executive Director, and CFO, until retiring from his administrative role with Tergar International at the end of 2022. He now lives on the Sapphire Coast in southern NSW, Australia.

Tergar Australia
This event is being facilitated by the Tergar Australia — The Australian meditation community of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Tergar Australia supports individuals, practice groups and meditation communities throughout Australia in learning to live with awareness, compassion and wisdom. Established in May 2020, we currently meet weekly in both virtual gatherings online and in-person, and welcome practitioners from all corners of Australia and beyond. Sign up to our mailing list and learn more at http://www.tergar.org.au/