The Buddha Project 
In-Depth Meditation Training
This training is designed to provide meditators with long-term support and guidance to help them progress in their meditative practice.
The full range of traditional Buddhist methods will be gradually introduced in ways fit for a modern Western audience. It provides the opportunity to experience a genuine taste of the nature of reality and bodhicitta (the mind of awakening).
Although grounded in the theory and practice of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, with a drop of Theravada, the training will prioritize the needs and levels of practice of the participants. The training will run over the course of four years.
This course is a response to Lama Zopa’s Rinpoche’s insistence that true fruition of our precious human life is the generation of bodhicitta, recognizing that a practitioner will need a good meditative practice to be able to accomplish this.
Welcome to the In-Depth Meditation Training!
Have questions? See our FAQs
EXTENSIVE CONTENT
Weekly guided meditations combined with in-depth lectures that cover a wide range of topics over the four years course
What you will learn
- Foundational Vipassana (insight meditation)
- Yogacara (Mind-Only School)
- Madhyamaka (Middle Way – Consequence School)
- Tathagatagarbha (exploring our buddha nature)
- Mahamudra (investigating the ultimate nature of the mind)
- Kriya Tantra (transforming everyday experiences into opportunities for spiritual growth and realization)
To put these ancient techniques in a contemporary context, we will give special attention to the psychology of meditation, through topics such as spiritual bypassing (using spirituality to hide from our problems), identity, narrative (the role of stories in our mental makeup and practice), language philosophy and ritual.
Practical focus
The course emphasizes direct, personal experience through meditation while involving all three traditional practices of hearing, contemplating and meditating. It aims at guiding you as a meditator in how to navigate your meditative journey successfully, both on and off your cushion. It will help you make progress amid your daily, often hectic life. Diverse topics necessary for your level of practice, and that of your fellow practitioners, are illustrated and explored in guided meditations.
Training concentration and insight
You will train in both shamatha (concentration) and vipassana (insight). Together we will gradually explore and investigate both the nature of self and phenomena as being impermanent and selfless, empty of imaginary nature and of inherent existence, our buddha nature, and the union of bliss and emptiness respectively.
Open heart and mind
While various forms of insight meditation will take center stage, the goal is to provide contemplations that will open your heart, through such topics as compassion, the precious human life, definite emergence, bodhicitta and devotion. These are often, but not exclusively, taken from the sutras and Lamrim texts on the gradual path to enlightenment.
Engaged
To avoid that your practice becomes disconnected from the real-world issues you experience, attention will be given to how the Dharma can inform us on how to engage with our everyday challenges, avoiding dogmatism, political bias, or polarization, and be of benefit to the world that we are all a part of.
Supporting materials
You will be provided with a reader that focusses on instructions from the Buddha and other foundational texts. This will be complemented with numerous essays and practical advice on a range of topics such as the arhat and bodhisattva ideals, the role of ritual, identity formation, metaphor in Yogacara, Buddhist epistemology, theory of narrative and so on.
Year 1
Foundational Vipassana
- Setup a shamatha practice
- Develop vipassanā by way of the seven enlightenment factors
- Deepen your faith by applying insight to motivation
- Use Lamrim reflections to develop your faith, aspiration, and effort
Year 2
Yogacara and the Jataka tales
- Cognitive illusions, non-duality and the three natures
- Jatakas, and the of narrative and metaphor in perception
- Becoming a Buddha for the welfare of all beings
- Transforming ordinary mind into wisdom
Year 3
Madhyamaka and Tathagatagarbha
- Groundless and the groundlessness of groundlessness
- Awakening by exchanging self and others
- Natural freedom and buddha potential
- Shaping a shared social world through ritual
Year 4
Mahamudra and Kriya Tantra
- Meditating on the empty nature of the mind
- Preliminary practices and relating to a teacher
- Transforming ordinary perception into pure view
- Ethical identity and the state of Vajradhara
FAQ
Hosted by five FPMT centers and taught on a weekly basis by Ven. Gendun. The sessions consist of an hour of meditation, an hour of lecture, and half an hour for Q&A. The teachings are always held on Zoom. When Ven. Gendun is visiting one of the participating centers, the sessions can be attended live in that location. The recordings are made available the day after the teachings, so that everyone, regardless of their commitments can follow the course.
Aimed at practitioners with a solid foundation in Buddhist thought who want to further their meditative practice. Grounded in tradition, the course takes a non-sectarian stance and contextualizes Buddhist ideas in Western philosophy, psychology, and science. It is suitable for participants from all walks of life. Practitioners who want to make Buddhist values and goals part of their lives, transforming their time on and off the cushion into a path to enlightenment within the settings of a supportive community, will find the course rewarding.
The program is offered every Saturday from 3:30pm to 6pm CEST, from February to the end of June and from September to the end of November. The course is in English, with live French translation available. Additionally, there is the possibility to deepen one’s practice through various week and weekend retreats offered by the hosting centers, led by Ven. Gendun. More information you can find about these in the Events Section of our homepage.
Sessions are available on Zoom, through this website, and live when Ven. Gendun visits one of the participating centers in the Netherlands, France, the UK, Sweden, and the USA. Depending on where you live, you can Sign up for this course through any of our hosts, after which all necessary information will be send to you by email.
