Mingyur
Rinpoche

In July 2026, The Rumi Foundation was honoured to host the renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche at Friends House in Euston. The evening, entitled The Distraction Epidemic: Unlocking the Power of Awareness, explored how we can find clarity, balance and inner freedom amid the constant demands of modern life.

The setting carried particular significance. Friends House is the headquarters of Quakers in Britain and was where Mingyur Rinpoche’s teacher, Sitar Rinpoche, taught over thirty years earlier. The Quaker traditions of silence and inward reflection—and their commitment to peace, equality, simplicity and truth—provided a natural home for an evening centred on awareness, compassion and our shared responsibility towards others.

Drawing upon ancient Buddhist wisdom, personal experience and modern scientific understanding of the mind, Mingyur Rinpoche spoke about our capacity to change our relationship with distraction. Thoughts and emotions need not control us: through awareness, we can learn to observe them with openness and transform moments of anxiety, uncertainty and difficulty into opportunities for understanding and growth.

At the heart of his teaching is a belief in the innate goodness and potential within every person. Awareness helps us recognise that potential; compassion enables us to extend it beyond ourselves. In a world increasingly shaped by division, noise and competing demands for our attention, these qualities offer a practical path towards greater resilience, empathy and connection.

These ideas resonate deeply with the work of The Rumi Foundation. Our commitment to nurturing potential, supporting young people and encouraging positive social change rests on the same conviction: that a kinder and more harmonious future begins with how we understand ourselves and how we choose to respond to others. Mingyur Rinpoche’s message reminded us that meaningful change does not always begin with a grand gesture—it can begin with a single moment of awareness.