Ngondro Lamrim
Over a period of two years, the Ngöndro Lamrim Training offers 16 months of training in the common and uncommon preliminary practices. The training is designed to generate the motivation that supports the development of calm abiding, special insight, and tantra. By cultivating the inner qualities needed to ease unskillful patterns of mind that are the cause of hindrances on the path, it facilitates deep transformation.
Have questions? Read the F.A.Q.
Ngondro Lamrim
Year 1
NOW
IDMT
Definite Emergence and Mind of Awakening
- Investigate emptiness through the Madhyamaka teachings of Nāgārjuna
- Practice shamatha, Vipaśyanā and bodhicitta according to Kamalashīla’s
- Experience the Buddha-nature that underlies confusion and conditioning
- Exchanging self and others: transforming problems into joy
Year 2
IDMT
Wisdom, Merit, Purification and Guru Yoga
- Establish a stable daily meditation practice
- Develop calm and settle the mind through shamatha
- Investigate how the mind works—its patterns, obscurations, potential
- Cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity
Frequently Asked Questions
Over the first eleven months the common foundations, renunciation, bodhicitta, and the view of emptiness, are explored based on the Lamrim. For the remaining five months the focus is on the uncommon practices, Vajrasattva purification, mandala offerings, and guru yoga. Weekly sessions each introduce a new topic that examines different ways to meditate and why, in combination with a guided meditation.
The training helps establish a consistent daily meditative practice in supports of its overall aim: to engage in contemplative meditation in a way that genuinely transforms the mind’s outlook on the world and gives one’s life a new direction. Students gain a deep understanding of how to accumulate merit and purify unskillful karma while cultivating a healthy relationship with the Three Jewels and their teacher. The emphasis is on learning to meditate in a personally tailored way, in accordance with one’s psychological makeup and life conditions.
The training helps establish a consistent daily meditative practice in supports of its overall aim: to engage in contemplative meditation in a way that genuinely transforms the mind’s outlook on the world and gives one’s life a new direction. Students gain a deep understanding of how to accumulate merit and purify unskillful karma while cultivating a healthy relationship with the Three Jewels and their teacher. The emphasis is on learning to meditate in a personally tailored way, in accordance with one’s psychological makeup and life conditions.
The teaching sessions are prerecorded. Each week a 90 minute teaching together with a guided meditation are uploaded. On four other days, advanced students contribute additional guided meditations. The teacher, Venerable Gendun, offers regular online Q&A sessions. For those who have already studied the Lamrim or the FPMT Basic Program, the training also offers specialized opportunities to learn how to guide others in meditation
The training will be offered annually. The first training runs from mid September 2026 to end of June 2028. Access is through the IDMT page. Participants register with their local IDMT participating FPMT center.