Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche on Find Your Innate Basic Goodness | EP 601
Tue, 22 Apr 2025
In Episode 601 of the Passion Struck podcast, host John R. Miles sits down with renowned Tibetan Buddhist meditation master, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, for a conversation that will stay with you long after it ends. Known for his radiant smile, open heart, and profound clarity, Rinpoche shares a perspective on emotional healing and inner peace that turns conventional thinking upside down.Rather than offering a roadmap to “fix yourself,” Rinpoche invites us to explore the idea that we already possess what we need. Drawing from his early life struggles with severe panic attacks, he shares how fear became his greatest teacher—an unlikely but powerful path to awakening.Click here for the full show notes: https://passionstruck.com/yongey-mingyur-rinpoche-why-the-path-is-with-you/Join the Ignition Room!Join the new Passion Struck Community! - The Ignition Room: https://station.page/passionstruckThe conversation explores core themes like:Why pain isn’t the enemy, but a guideThe illusion of needing to "earn" mattering or self-worthHow awareness and compassion are not destinations—but your natural stateThe power of micro-moments to create deep transformationHow to move from “I matter” to “we matter” in a fractured worldAs Rinpoche explains, “Awareness doesn’t mean we get rid of thoughts or pain. It means we learn to hold them with kindness.” It’s a radical reframe—one that reminds us healing is not about becoming someone else, but about coming home to who we’ve always been.For more information on Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche - https://tergar.org/yongey-mingyur-rinpocheSponsors:Factor Meals: http://factormeals.com/factormeals50off and use code “FACTOR MEALS 50 OFF”Rosetta Stone: Unlock 25 languages for life at “ROSETTASTONE.com/passionstruck.”Prolon: Reset your health with 15% off at “ProlonLife.com/passionstruck.”Mint Mobile: Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at “MINT MOBILE dot com slash PASSION.”Hims: Start your journey to regrowing hair with Hims. Visit hims.com/PASSIONSTRUCK for your free online visit.Quince: Discover luxury at affordable prices with Quince. Enjoy free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/PASSIONFor more information on advertisers and promo codes, visit Passion Struck Deals.Speaking Engagements & WorkshopsAre you looking to inspire your team, organization, or audience to take intentional action in their lives and careers? I’m available for keynote speaking, workshops, and leadership training on topics such as intentional living, resilience, leadership, and personal growth. Let’s work together to create transformational change. Learn more at johnrmiles.com/speaking.Episode Starter PacksWith over 500 episodes, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. We’ve curated Episode Starter Packs based on key themes like leadership, mental health, and personal growth, making it easier for you to dive into the topics you care about. Check them out at passionstruck.com/starterpacks.Catch More of Passion Struck:My solo episode on The Mattering Mindset in Love – Choose the Love You DeserveCan't miss my episode with Jennifer B. Wallace on the Consequences of Prioritizing Achievements Over MatteringMy episode with The Art of Listening: How to Make People Feel Like They MatterCatch my interview with Laurie Santos on How to Matter in a Busy WorldListen to my solo episode on Fading into Insignificance: The Impact of Un-Mattering in Our Interconnected EraIf you liked the show, please leave us a review—it only takes a moment and helps us reach more people! Don’t forget to include your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally.How to Connect with John:Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMilesFollow him on Instagram at @John_R_MilesSubscribe to our main YouTube Channel and to our YouTube Clips ChannelFor more insights and resources, visit John’s websiteWant to explore where you stand on the path to becoming Passion Struck? Take our 20-question quiz on Passionstruck.com and find out today!
Chapter 1: Who Are the Speakers in This Episode?
Coming up next on Passion Struck.
Chapter 2: What Does Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Teach About Panic and Emotional Healing?
At a certain level, I discovered that I have the panic of panic, what I call that aversion to panic, resist, feeling of resistance to the panic attacks. I'm fighting with my panic, actually. And my father said, don't fight, welcome the panic.
Then I begin to welcome a little bit.
It helps a little bit. And I thought, oh, now I know the new strategy. So if I say welcome, then panic will not come back. It's become a little bit like dog chasing tail, but even that fake welcome helps for me.
Chapter 3: How Does John R. Miles Introduce the Concept of Mattering and Inner Peace?
Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself.
If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes.
now let's go out there and become passion struck welcome to episode 601 of passion struck i'm your host john miles and whether you're joining us for the first time or you've been with us on this journey i am so glad you're here this is not just a podcast it's a movement One that's redefining how we live, love, lead, and grow.
Here we explore what it means to live intentionally, to flourish fully, and to make what truly matters matter most. And now we're creating a space to go even deeper. It's called the Ignition Room, a new community designed to help you put these ideas into action.
It's where insights become daily practices and where people come together to build lives of meaning, courage, and contribution, which brings me to today's conversation. Let me start with a few questions. What if the feeling of emptiness you carry isn't a flaw, but a signpost? What if pain and panic aren't obstacles to peace, but invitations?
And what if everything you've been searching for is already within you? Today's guest is one of the most revered meditation masters, Yonge Minyor Rinpoche. a bestselling author, global spiritual teacher, and the embodiment of joyful presence.
In this profound conversation, we explore how suffering can become wisdom, how awareness is always with us even when we forget, and why mattering isn't something we earn, but something we uncover. In our conversation, we explore how panic became Rinpoche's greatest teacher, why awe, appreciation, and compassion are portals to our true nature,
We go into the difference between feeling like you matter and truly knowing you do. We discuss how to heal the wounds of anti-mattering and restore connection in divided communities, and why spiritual awakening doesn't require becoming someone new. It requires remembering who you are. If you're struggling with identity loss or simply trying to feel whole, this episode is for you.
And last week, I released a solo episode on serendipity and how chance encounters and unexpected turns often hold the deepest clues to our own sense of mattering. It's part of a larger conversation I'm bringing in the Ignition Room, how we can reawaken our sense of purpose through small moments that shift everything.
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Chapter 4: What Is Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's Perspective on Innate Basic Goodness?
I am very happy you're here from Nepal as well. And I actually interact with people in Nepal all the time because my whole web development team is based in Nepal. Yes. And some of the most passionate people I have worked with and dedicated. So I'm very happy to call them to be part of what we do here at PassionStruck. Thank you. So I thought I would open with this question.
You often say the world is your meditation teacher. In this time of so much division and disconnection, what is the world trying to teach us?
So in my tradition, we believe that everybody has wonderful nature. So what we call basic innate goodness. So this basic innate goodness is the fundamental quality of our own mind. Normally what we call the unity of awareness, love and compassion and the wisdom. For example, when I was young, I had panic attacks. So when we experience panic attacks, not happy at all.
So we think world is a danger, not safe. And I have special anxiety for strangers and the weather. And I begin to learn meditation with my father when I was nine years old. And my father said, yes, I understand you have this panic attacks, but at the same time, you have wonderful nature. And I never believed that at the beginning. And he tried to give me a lot of examples.
So one example is in my hometown, I was born in the middle of Himalaya mountain in Nepal. So we have very nice environment, but not always like that. There's storms, thunderstorm, snowstorm in the winter, sometimes crazy. And he said, though there's a lot of storm here, you can watch. will these storms can change the nature of cloud or not? And I look at storm comes, they pass, sky never change.
So of course we have this lot of clashes, what we call suffering clashes, and in our mind, in our life, in the world, but at the same time, we have this wonderful quality within ourselves. And eventually, I learned a lot from my panic attacks. So now I consider my panic attacks as my teacher and best friend. I rode many bulls. I'm here now talking about this topic because of panic attacks.
So what we call obstacle may become opportunity. Problem may become solution if we take it as learning process to grow, to transform. So although we said, accept it, let it go, but letting go is not giving up. Don't give up, transform, learn.
Thank you for sharing that. And I myself have experienced my own set of anxiety and trauma. So I understand how difficult it can be to overcome those things. When you look at the growing sense of the loneliness epidemics and the hopelessness that's happening globally, what do you believe is at the root of it?
I think the root is now the world is really become very fast. And one of thing is comparative. So we are comparing all the time compared with our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, colleagues, and the company at our work, then we feel like
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Chapter 5: How Can We Understand and Embrace Our Panic and Fear as Teachers?
And the more I was concerned about the money, the accolades, the titles, the more I lived my life, even though outwardly it was successful, I was living it almost like I was a pinball where I was bouncing off of things, the wrong things, instead of being intentionally committed to the right things. And so what ended up happening to me, you talked about being hollow, is I felt more hollow
physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationship-wise than I ever had in my entire life. I felt like I was a shell of myself. And when you reach that point, it's very... worrisome. I can't even tell you how painful it felt because you've gotten to this bottom of the abyss and you have no idea how to climb out of it.
And so what I'm doing now with the podcast is maybe people haven't fallen that far and we can help them before they do.
but i think what i am trying to bring is i have lived this so for me this is a really painful aspect of my life and what i am trying to do is to help people i think like you are so that they don't have to suffer like i did but it really means that you have to shift your whole life and your value system and what you hold sacred to a whole different
element because all the things that I thought were going to bring me success, fulfillment, brought me emptiness. But now that I have really focused on impacting people, trying to end as much suffering as I can, trying to give myself to others, my sense of fulfillment has risen and the other areas of my life has as well. So I think that that is an example of what you were saying with your words.
exactly i think you are such embody this journey that you go through all this and now the problem sometime many people they stuck there and some people not even realize that Like in our tradition, what we call dukkha, dukkha meaning like we cannot find exact translation.
So some people they translate suffering, sometimes dissatisfaction, but the real meaning dukkha meaning the sense of hollow, incomplete, something missing, a little bit sad or insecurity. So that sometimes what we call background noise, that dukkha.
and because of that feeling then we look we are very busy entire life to fulfill that hollow or dissatisfaction or empty like when we go with the many people we feel also noise they talk a lot i want to be alone when we come home After two, three minutes later, oh, I'm lonely. I need somebody. I need my smartphone.
But then when you look at the smartphone after a certain level or something, never satisfying. So what we call, if we recognize that feeling, and then if we see what we call, sometimes what we call the wisdom, That's three things, right? Awareness, love and compassion, wisdom. So what we call wisdom is the biggest paradox.
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Chapter 6: What Does It Mean to Truly 'Matter' Beyond External Achievements?
So it's always, it's changing a little bit and then they are depending each other. So what we call is the connection. You is full of connection and you and other is also full of connection into the world, to the society. And these connection, how this connection become the positive is based on the matter, purpose, love, compassion. So when we follow that direction, then what we call win situation.
You win, others win, everybody win.
So I wanted to get your perspective from your traditions and spiritual background of what happens within us when we witness someone's kindness, compassion, or courage. What opens? What heals?
When we witness compassion from others or ourselves, Then that, the hollowness, incompleteness, dissatisfaction, or sometimes sad, lonely, it heals normally. So if we feel, so we feel more complete. We feel more secure. We feel more not hollow. That's what we call confidence. competence not based on pride, but contentment.
So when we experience this contentment, completeness, then there's purpose, then there's a matter, of course, as you mentioned, that comes, and then we get energy, actually, then we feel happy. That happiness is what we call what I call the real happiness. So if you drink coffee, we can feel happy, But that happy can coexist with the hollow. If you win the lottery, it looks like happy.
But that happiness also exists with the hollow, the empty. But then now this happiness is the real happiness, the contentment, the joy, like coming back to home, being with who we are.
The leading scientist in the world on the science of mattering is a gentleman named Dr. Gordon Flett from Canada, and he has coined this term anti-mattering. Do you think that the experience of anti-mattering is a delusion of the ego or a real wound that needs healing?
So normally in my tradition, we talk about healing. three sense of self so the surface level what we call unhealthy sense of then more deeper level we have the healthy sense of self then the core the essence what we call luminous self or self beyond self so if we give the example the lamb maybe lamb candle lamb
and we can cover that lamp with a glass ball with a very beautiful image like flowers or rainbows, whatever. Then what we see is our room will be full of beautiful image. So that is what we call healthy sense of self. then we can put another layer with a scary image, maybe spider, poison snake, in the Himalayas, tigers, leopards.
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Chapter 7: How Does Meditation and Awareness Affect Our Baseline Happiness?
In our tradition, same thing. Go back to the basic innate goodness. So as I mentioned, the lamb has three unity qualities the light the warm or heat and yellow color they are different aspect but they are one so our true nature has awareness love and compassion and the wisdom so now The second practice, what we call how to connect with that innate love and compassion.
So first time when I hear this from my father, that he said, actually, you have love and compassion 24 hours. And I said, what? I never believed that at the beginning. I thought, oh, my father is doing my father's job. What we call sweet talk. I thought it's sweet talk, but then he. Kiss me so normally we have first what we call view, which is introduction of this in love and compassion.
Then we have practice the meditation and number three is what we call application. Then we apply in everyday life. So the he introduced me this feeling that. He said. Do you want to be happy? I said yes, of course. I have this text. I want to be happy. He said that is the love. And at the same time we don't want to suffer. Actually that is compassion.
So he said, every movement of your body is looking for happiness, don't want to suffer. So sometimes I listen to his talk like this. Sometimes I bought and become like this, like this. And he said, when you do that, if you keep too long, you feel uncomfortable. Oh, I need to change. Oh, a little bit happy, relax. But then again, the suffering comes, maybe like this.
So each movement, each eye's blink is looking for happiness. If we don't blink our eyes, then feel pain, right? Happiness. And even unconscious level, each breath is looking for happiness to avoid suffering. And he said, not only the movement in your body, in your mind, it's a thought process. Each emotion, in the end, they're all looking for happiness, don't want to suffer.
So he said, first, we need to recognize this within us. And then we practice self-love and compassion that, may I have happiness and the causes of happiness.
Then we understand others.
actually everybody looking for happiness 24 hours 24 7 each movement each breath each thought process so we might skin look different culture look different tall or short but the deeper level everybody looking for happiness and everybody has this wonderful nature so when we see this with others just like you then you feel can then not just
your friends or family, everybody in the world wanting to be happy, don't want to suffer. So then in the end, we have this practice of immeasurable love and compassion that we wish that may all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all being free from suffering and the causes of suffering. So this way, then we connect with you, others, society, the world.
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Chapter 8: What Personal Experiences Does John Share About Fulfillment and Emptiness?
realize that actually they have kind to each other there's a lot of love there and they have a lot of good qualities within each other which is they never see before and they discuss and actually they really like each other eventually though they both has personality the husband still have this tendency of control wife still worries a lot but then they make humor So they give each other nickname.
The husband's name is control freak and the wife's name is worry freak. So sometime the husband go out and come home, he knocked the door and he said, the most powerful person in the world is coming. And the wife said, most worrious person in the world welcome you. So sometime we all have problem, mistakes, all these things.
Sometimes we cannot change the right way, but bring awareness and be kind with ourselves, be kind with our friends or family for others. I think these are really important.
Thank you so much for sharing that. And I think the last thing I wanted to explore with you before we get into a quick wrap up questions is, How do we practice compassion, love, and kindness in communities where we feel betrayed or misunderstood?
we have this practice, how to practice loving-kindness, compassion with a difficult person. So maybe I will tell one story. So one time, me and my father in Nepal, Kathmandu, on the mountain, there's a nunnery. So he was in a nunnery, and a group of people came to learn meditation from my father. My father was a great meditation teacher. And there's two men within that group fighting all the time.
especially in the evenings, sometimes they fight a lot and hitting each other also sometimes. So one day in the evening, me and my father were having soup, like a Tibetan dish, what we call . And suddenly one man appear in the room and I asked my father, please teach me how to control my anger and hatred.
my father while having the soup asked him why you hate the other person he said oh he beat me say bad things so i hate him my father said oh then you should hate the words from him the stick that he used and that person said i'm not stupid this stupid logic doesn't help me And my father said, oh, why? He said, the stick is controlled by him. The word is controlled by him.
I hate him, not the stupid, not the stick. And my father said, oh, then maybe you should hate the emotion, the clashes within that person. Because that person, when the hatred comes, he cannot control, just like you. you come here, want to control your hatred and anger, but when it comes, you cannot control it.
He said, yeah, that's right.
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