IDMT Year Four: The Vajra Ground: Mahāmudrā and Kriyā Tantra

with Ven. Losang Gendun

Please note: from September 14 onwards, Ven. Gendun will also offer a new complimentary program, which is an excellent accompaniment or precursor to IDMT for newer students: the two-year Ngöndro Lam Rim Training (NLRT). 

Meditation is essential for personal transformation and a crucial complement to Buddhist studies. This 4-year online 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.

Introduction - The Vajra Ground

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.

As always, the year will start with generating the mind of awakening, using evocative instructions ranging from Langri Thangpa to Nāgārjuna and Lord Buddha in the famous Bodhisattvapiṭaka. This mind generation we'll cultivate through the four immeasurable thoughts and the support of calm abiding.

Illuminated by the life stories of the masters of the Gelug Mahāmudrā lineage and beyond, we'll explore its roots in the history of the early Indian Mahāsiddhas, such as Saraha and Tilopa, through the Kagyü master Gampopa's and Je Tsongkhapa's Mañjuśrī lineage up to Paṇchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen's Highway of the Conquerors and its perspective on this practice. In Sūtra Mahāmudrā we will practice resting attention in the empty nature of awareness, recognizing its clarity and openness as inseparable.

Kriyā Tantra offers a complementary method. Rather than suppress the ordinary, narrow self-narrative that we impose on ourselves and our world, it substitutes for it an extraordinary perspective of pure view. Occasionally, by way of introduction, we'll also taste practices from the higher tantras—glimpsing how afflictive emotions can be met as innate wisdom, and how the dissolution of the death process opens onto the innate mind of clear light. The structured practices of generation and recitation become a rehearsal for transformation, training perception to meet appearances as pure.

These methods rest on a relationship. We will therefore examine the practice of guru devotion candidly—both as the means by which the lineage's realization is transmitted and as a practice with real pitfalls, requiring discernment as much as trust. Through the Ganden Lha Gyāma, the Yoga of the inseparability of guru and Avalokiteśvara, and supporting sādhanas, devotion is approached not as deference but as the ethical road toward the state of Vajradhara: the full integration of wisdom and method.

This final year is an invitation to let realization ripen into a way of being. Grounded in bodhicitta and the four immeasurables, sustained by the preliminary practices, and held by the strength of community, we learn to meet the mind without grasping and to meet the world as pure appearance. Our aim is not to accumulate practices, but to bring the path to maturity—wisdom and compassion no longer cultivated separately, but lived as one.

About the teacher

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.

For more information about the content of the course, download the course description (PDF) here.

Student’s interests & profile

• An interest in deepening your knowledge about and your practice in (Buddhist) meditation
• Previous experience in a form of meditation either in retreats or other courses
• A basic understanding of Mahayana Buddhism is a prerequisite, you do not need to be a (Mahayana) Buddhist 

Are you a new student to IDMT? Don’t worry, you are welcome to join us.

Practical details

• Study Terms: Year 4 will have 3 terms. Term 1: September 5 - November 28 (13 classes).
• Day & time: The In-Depth Meditation Training will run weekly on Saturdays from 15.30 to 18.00 hrs. CET, consisting of about 1 hour of guided meditation and 1,5 hours of teachings.
• IDMT Reflection Group: every Monday from 19.30-20.30 hrs which you can join without registration
• Language: English, with simultaneous French translation
• Online / onsite: Most of the classes will be only online or by recording. We usually open the center for joint online viewing.
• Registration:
  • You can register for a whole term or make a donation in 3 installments (see below under Donation).
  • Last-minute registration? Please also send an email to amsterdam@maitreya.nl after your registration through the website.
• Access to the TBP Learning Platform:  
  • Video & Audio recordings of the teachings & meditations
  • AI-generated transcripts of the teachings in English
  • Condensed meditation scripts

Donation

Dāna (generosity) is one of the cornerstones of the Buddhist path. By virtue of their generosity, the Buddha and the ordained sangha offer us the teachings, and in exchange, the lay community supports Dharma centers and the monastic community. This interdependence is essential for us to share the Dharma and continue our work to benefit all sentient beings. With your donation we support our teachers in their cost of living and we uphold our dharma center, which is managed entirely by volunteers.

The suggested donation for this class is €15 per class, payable for the whole term or in 3 installments. To make a donation for one installment, please click here. For students and people with low income, the suggested donation is €10 per class. Please send an email to amsterdam@maitreya.nl if you'd like to make use of this option. We transfer a percentage of all donations to The Buddha Project, which offers this program to partner FPMT centers.

The donation amount should never be an obstacle to your access to the Dharma! Please contact us if it might be an obstacle for you.

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