Buddhist meditation, psychology & philosophy

To join this training you need to register via our website.

The course
Meditation is essential for personal transformation and a crucial complement to Buddhist studies. This 4-year online FPMT course provides students with long term, in-depth support in their meditative development. This is a collaboration between The Buddha Project and 14 FPMT Buddhist Centers around the world.

The Vajra Ground - Mahamudra & Kriya Tantra
In this culminating fourth year of our journey, our path turns inward to the mind itself—its empty, luminous nature—and outward to the transformative methods of tantra, where the naturally pure nature of our perception is recognized as the very ground of awakening.

The teacher - Ven. Losang Gendun
Venerable Losang Gendun has spent nearly four decades in Buddhist practice, living as a fully ordained Bhikshu in the Tibetan tradition for the past twenty years. His training spans ten years of monastic study across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar, and more than four years in solitary retreat in both Tibetan and Burmese Theravāda traditions. For the past eighteen years he has taught Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation worldwide within the FPMT, serving the vision of H.H. the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 2023 he founded The Buddha Project, offering long-term guidance for serious meditators and fostering dialogue between Buddhist traditions, contemplative science, and the arts. Its core program is the four-year FPMT In-Depth Meditation Training.

New to the training and have questions? Please write to amsterdam@maitreya.nl.

For this course you need to register via our website

A Two-Year Journey in the Common and Uncommon Preliminary Practices

Introduction to FPMT Ngöndro Lamrim Training
The Lamrim - "Stages of the Path" in Tibetan - is a systematic presentation of the entire Buddhist path to Awakening, written by the great Tibetan master Je Tsongkhapa in the 14th and early 15th century, based on writings of the Indian master Atisha. It arranges every essential teaching of the Buddha into a single, coherent, graduated sequence tailored to your mind, exactly as it is right now. Its true power lies not in study alone, but in practice. Each teaching is carefully arranged to meet the mind where it is and guide it-step by step-toward genuine change.
The uncommon preliminary practices (ngöndro) are powerful methods to purify the mind and prepare it for lasting transformation.
Over a period of two years, the FPMT Ngöndro Lamrim Training (NLRT) 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.

Aims
The training helps establish a consistent daily meditative practice in support 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.

About the teacher
Venerable Losang Gendun has spent nearly four decades in Buddhist practice, and has been living as a fully ordained gelong in the Tibetan tradition for the past twenty years. His training spans ten years of monastic study across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar, and more than four years in solitary retreat in the Tibetan Mahayana and the Burmese Theravāda traditions.
For the past eighteen years he has taught Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation worldwide within FPMT, serving the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 2023, as a gesture of gratitude to his teachers, he founded The Buddha Project (TBP), offering long-term guidance for serious meditators.

Who is it for?
The training is designed for students with a solid grounding in the Lamrim or an equivalent Dharma background - particularly for those seeking structured support in their practice, for those preparing for śamatha, vipaśyanā, and especially tantra, or for those encountering challenges in their meditative practice. While not a prerequisite, the training forms an excellent preparation for the FPMT In-Depth Meditation Training.

Format
The NLRT teaching sessions are prerecorded. Each week, a 90-minute teaching together with 2 guided meditations are uploaded. On other days, advanced students contribute additional guided meditations. The teacher, Venerable Gendun, offers regular online Q&A sessions.

Introduction
Join us in studying the special techniques of mind training (lojong) that allow us to transform problems into happiness. Together we will discuss the profound statement by Lama Zopa Rinpoche that we should “learn to like problems as much as ice cream” and explore how this remarkable statement can be implemented through wise and insightful techniques. We will explore the disadvantages of self-centeredness and the immense advantages of cherishing others.
🎥 - Click here for an introduction to the topic

Discovering Buddhism is designed for people who wish to gain basic knowledge on and/or deepen their understanding of the key Buddhist concepts. You do not need to be a Buddhist or have previous knowledge.

Annelies van der Heijden
Annelies is a Dutch, registered FPMT teacher and qualified mindfulness teacher. She is actively involved with the Maitreya Institute and with the FPMT organization since 1997. She has been a teacher for many years and facilitates program activities at both the Maitreya Institute in The Netherlands and within the FPMT organization worldwide. She has a background as a dietician, shiatsu therapist and yoga teacher.