A Free Way to Learn Meditation: Tergar’s Anytime Anywhere Meditation App

There are countless ways to learn meditation now. There are apps, YouTube videos, online courses, weekend workshops and people sharing their own approaches.

Having so much choice can be useful, but it can also make it surprisingly difficult to know where to start, and perhaps more importantly, who to learn from.
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Personally, if I am going to learn something as important as meditation, I want to understand what meditation actually is and learn how to practise it properly, within a framework that has been developed and tested over generations.

That is one of the reasons I particularly like Tergar's Anytime Anywhere Meditation programme.

​And you can start completely free.

Anytime Anywhere Meditation

Anytime Anywhere Meditation, or AAM, is an introductory meditation programme developed by Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche through Tergar International.

Although Anytime Anywhere Meditation has its roots in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, you don't need to be Buddhist or religious to practise it. The programme focuses on learning how to meditate and developing awareness in everyday life, making it accessible to anyone, whatever their beliefs or background.
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The programme is designed to fit meditation into ordinary life. As the name suggests, meditation isn't restricted to sitting quietly on a cushion at a particular time of day. You learn ways of working with awareness that can be brought into everyday activities and experiences.
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This is one of the things I particularly appreciate about it. Meditation is not presented simply as a relaxation technique or another task to fit into your morning routine.
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The mind is always active, always generating thoughts, just as the ocean always generates waves. We can’t stop our thoughts any more than we can stop waves in the ocean. Resting the mind in its natural state is very different from trying to stop thoughts altogether. ​Meditation does not in any way involve attempting to make the mind blank. There’s no way to achieve thoughtless meditation. ​​​ - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The free Joy of Living app

The easiest way to explore Anytime Anywhere Meditation is through the Joy of Living app, which is available free for Apple and Android devices.

The app gives you access to the introductory AAM programme so that you can work through it at your own pace. You don't have to commit to a course, find a teacher or pay a fee to get started.

Over five modules, you will learn to:

• Meditate anytime and anywhere
• Recognise and strengthen natural awareness
• Bring compassion and wisdom into daily life
• Build a steady, sustainable practice

​So this isn't simply an app containing a collection of guided meditations. It gives you an introduction to the principles behind the practice as well as opportunities to actually meditate.

Why I value the framework

There is nothing wrong with learning from someone's personal experience of meditation, and there are many excellent teachers and traditions.  The difficulty is knowing what you are actually being taught.

There are now so many confident voices online that personal opinion can easily be presented as established fact. One person tells you that you need to meditate for 20 minutes every morning. Another says five minutes is enough. One teaches you to focus exclusively on the breath, while another tells you that you should empty your mind completely.

Some of these approaches may be useful. But how do you know which advice is grounded in a genuine understanding of meditation and which is simply someone's interpretation?

For me, this is where an established tradition matters.

Tergar's programmes come from a longstanding Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition, and AAM is part of a much broader system of teaching rather than an approach created specifically for an app.

That doesn't make it the only way to meditate, and I'm certainly not suggesting that other approaches are wrong.

It simply gives me confidence that I am learning within a framework that has depth behind it.
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And in a world where there are so many opinions masquerading as facts, I think that is incredibly valuable.

What about the benefits of meditation?

There is now a substantial and growing body of research into meditation and mindfulness, with studies finding benefits across areas including stress, anxiety, mood, attention, emotional wellbeing and brain health. Research is also continuing to explore how meditation influences the brain and nervous system, and how regular practice may support longer-term changes in mental and emotional wellbeing.
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It is an exciting area of research, and one we are likely to hear much more about in the coming years.

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche has also been closely involved in the dialogue between meditation and modern neuroscience for more than two decades. In 2002, he became involved in research at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with neuroscientists including Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz. He has subsequently participated in and advised ongoing research into the neural and physiological effects of meditation, with follow-up work involving researchers at Harvard University, MIT and other research centres.

You can read more about the research behind these benefits in my earlier article:  Science Backed Benefits of Mindfulness in 2025
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What I particularly like about Anytime Anywhere Meditation is that it gives you a way to explore meditation itself, rather than simply using meditation as a tool for a particular health outcome. The programme introduces awareness, compassion and wisdom, and shows how meditation can become part of everyday life. 

More about anytime anywhere

You can go further if you want to

Anytime Anywhere Meditation is an introduction to the wider Joy of Living programme.

If you prefer learning with other people and having access to a teacher, Tergar also offers workshops and longer courses, including online options. These provide a different experience from working independently through the app and, naturally, teacher-led courses generally involve a fee.

But you don't need to make that commitment to begin.
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The free app gives you the opportunity to explore the approach first and decide whether it is something you would like to take further.

My recommendation

If you have been thinking about learning meditation but have not known where to start, I think Anytime Anywhere Meditation is an excellent place to begin.

It is free, accessible and self-paced, but importantly, it is more than a collection of meditation exercises. It gives you a coherent framework for understanding what meditation is, how to practise it and how to bring it into everyday life.

And for me, that last point is crucial.

I don't want to learn meditation from someone who is only one step ahead of me. I want to learn from a tradition that has taken meditation seriously for generations, from teachers who have devoted their lives to understanding and practising it, and within a framework that I can trust.

That doesn't mean there is only one way to meditate.

It simply means that, with so many opinions now presented as facts, I think it is worth choosing carefully who you learn from.

​If you are curious, there is no need to take my word for it.  Try it yourself and see what you think.

Learn more about Anytime Anywhere Meditation

​​​​Vanessa Winter
​Naturopath & Medical Herbalist
BHSc (Deans Award for Academic Excellence), BED, Adv.Dip.Nat., Adv.Dip.Herb.Med., NMHNZ
​Registered with Naturopaths and Medical Herbalists of NZ (NMHNZ)

Note: The comments above are my personal evaluation of the programme and are not an endorsement by or representation of Tergar.