Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Live Talk with American Actor Michael Imperioli on His Buddhist Journey

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Online Dharma: Tergar Announces Live Talk with American Actor Michael Imperioli on His Buddhist Journey

By Craig C Lewis
August 5, 2024

Tergar International, founded by the revered Dharma teacher and meditation master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, has announced a free webinar on 18 August in which American actor and musician Michael Imperioli will share his experiences with meditation and talk on the topic “Why Outer Success Did Not Translate into Inner Fulfillment.”

“Michael Imperioli, celebrated for his role in HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Sopranos and for his band Zopa, will join Tergar International Executive Director Dr. Cortland Dahl to share personal insights and stories about his experience with meditation and Buddhism,” Tergar shared with BDG

Tergar International is a non-profit organization founded by founded by the revered Dharma teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Rinpoche’s intention through Tergar is to make the ancient practice of meditation accessible to the modern world. With a global community of meditators and an international network of centers and groups, Tergar is dedicated to helping people of all backgrounds discover the joy and benefits of meditation.

Despite achieving considerable success and renown as an actor and musician, Imperioli, who has been a Buddhist since 2008, found that his career in the arts did not provide the inner fulfillment that he sought: “I really wanted a certain degree of success, and I was driven toward that,” Imperioli remarked. “When that success did come, I realized that it wasn’t an end unto itself. I felt intuitively that what was missing was on a spiritual level—that there was a wisdom that was lacking.”

Michael Imperioli, right, and spouse Victoria with Garchen Rinpoche. Image courtesy of Tergar International

“Michael Imperioli will share how meditation has profoundly shaped his life, fostering creativity, resilience, and personal growth,” Tergar explained. “Whether you’re a seasoned meditator or simply curious about mindfulness, join us in this unique opportunity to learn from a passionate advocate and delve into meditation’s transformative potential.”

The webinar program includes an interview with Imperioli based on carefully curated questions, and an open Q&A for participants to ask questions. “Why Outer Success Did Not Translate into Inner Fulfillment” will be live-streamed at the following times:

Auckland: 2am, Monday, 19 August
Canberra: 12am, Monday, 19 August
Seoul, Tokyo: 11pm, Sunday, 18 August
Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei: 10pm, Sunday, 18 August
Bangkok, Jakarta: 9pm, Sunday, 18 August
New Delhi: 7:30pm, Sunday, 18 August
Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm: 4pm, Sunday, 18 August
London: 3pm, Sunday, 18 August
Montreal, New York: 10am, Sunday, 18 August
Los Angeles, Vancouver: 7am, 10am, Sunday, 18 August

Click here for full details and to register

“Discover how meditation can provide the space to develop insight into how we can get hooked by the relentless pursuit of external achievements, allowing you to cultivate a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you,” Tergar noted.

Among his many acting credits, Imperioli was a key cast member across six seasons in HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Sopranos, for which he earned five Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations before winning an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Imperioli also wrote five episodes of the series. More recently, Imperioli has been part of the second season of the hit HBO series The White Lotus, playing Dominic Di Grasso, for which he received a 2023 Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Imperioli can currently be seen in season two of the Hulu series This Fool. Imperioli is also guitarist and vocalist for the band Zopa, co-host of the popular podcast Talking Sopranos, and New York Times Best Selling Author of Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of the Sopranos. Imperioli took refuge in 2008 and is a student of Garchen Rinpoche.

Mingyur Rinpoche, the founder of the Tergar Meditation Community, which has centers and practice groups across the world, is a renowned teacher and best-selling author whose books include: The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness (2007); Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom (2009); and Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism (2014).

Born in 1975 in the Himalayan border region between Tibet and Nepal, Mingyur Rinpoche received extensive training in Tibetan Buddhist meditative and philosophical traditions from his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–96), considered one of the greatest modern Dzogchen masters, and subsequently at Sherab Ling Monastery in northern India. After just two years, at the age of 13, Mingyur Rinpoche entered a three-year meditation retreat and then completed a second immediately afterward, serving as retreat master. At 23, Rinpoche received full monastic ordination.

Mingyur Rinpoche famously undertook a four-year solitary wandering retreat through the Himalaya from 2011–15. In recounting how he came to terms with the realities of his ambition to practice in the manner of a wandering yogi, Rinpoche revealed that he confronted many personal and spiritual challenges—including, at one point, his own mortality. Rinpoche has described the years he spent wandering in the Himalaya as “one of the best periods of my life.”*

* Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Returns from Four-year Wilderness Retreat (BDG) and Y ongey Mingyur Rinpoche Releases Video Offering Insights Following His Retreat (BDG)

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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