IDMT Year Three: The Radiant Ground: Emptiness and Buddha Nature

with Ven. Losang Gendun

This year’s journey will weave together the profound view of Madhyamaka, as presented by Nāgārjuna and his successors, with the compassionate vision of Tathāgatagarbha, the Buddha-nature teachings that reveal our deepest potential for awakening. Far from abstract philosophy, these teachings offer a radical reorientation of how we perceive ourselves and the world—pointing us beyond habitual grasping to a space of clarity, openness, and profound compassion.

Having cultivated the foundational practices of shamatha and vipashyana in the first year and explored Yogācāra’s profound psychology of ignorance and awakening in the second, we now turn to the very heart of Tibetan Buddhism: the nature of emptiness and the luminous potential that resides within every living being.

Guiding us in this exploration will be core texts from India and Tibet. Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā will serve as a central pillar, systematically dismantling the illusions of inherent existence. In dialogue with this, we’ll study Kamalashīla’s Stages of Meditation, a practical and accessible map for cultivating deep meditative insight grounded in the view of emptiness.

Balancing the radical freedom of Madhyamaka, we will encounter the warmth and encouragement of Maitreya’s Ratnagotravibhāga, a poetic illumination of the Buddha-nature within all beings. These teachings remind us that beyond confusion and conditioning, there is a basic goodness that has never been lost.

To ground these profound insights in daily life, we will also study the beloved text of Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, The Seven Points of Mind Training. With its pithy slogans and deeply practical tone, it offers tools for transforming adversity and cultivating bodhicitta on and off the cushion.
Throughout the year, our study and practice will be enriched by meditative teachings from both the Pāli and Sanskrit sūtra traditions, inviting a direct and experiential understanding of emptiness—not as a concept, but as a liberating shift in perception.

This year is an invitation to let the view of emptiness infuse your practice—not as abstract philosophy, but as living experience: clear, liberating, and rooted in compassion. Our aim is not to gather concepts, but to transform how we see and relate to the world. Through study, reflection, and meditation, we learn to meet life with less grasping, more openness—and a heart that naturally responds with wisdom and care, held by the strength of community.

Introduction of the IDMT training

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 weekly course will offer:

• Authentic traditional instructions, in contemporary language, aimed at providing a comprehensive set of meditation tools for students to transform their knowledge of the Dharma into personal experience.
• Traditional and modern theories on supplementary topics such as models of healthy psychological and spiritual development, ritual, narrative, ethics, and social engagement.
• An international community of meditators, online and live.

To complement the IDMT course we will also offer:

• Meditation Retreats – week & weekend retreats on vipassana, compassion, and mahamudra, offered both at the centers and online.
• Yogi Bootcamp - an intensive, guided, 1-year meditation training with weekly personal interviews (call) for a small group of international students.
• Practice days guided by Ven. Gendun and experienced students of Ven. Gendun
• Weekly reflection sessions, led by experienced students
• City Weekends, such as Engaging Bodhisattva Vows (Nov. 8-9).

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

This course is a collaboration between 5 FPMT Buddhist centers: Shantideva Center New York (US), Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds (UK), Institut Vajrayogini in Marzens (FR), Yeshin Norbu Stockholm (SW) and Maitreya Instituut (NL) and therefore the course will be attended by an international group of Buddhist practitioners.

If you’re enrolling later on in the course, it is possible to request access to recordings of previous classes.

Venerable Losang Gendun

Venerable Losang Gendun has dedicated nearly four decades to practicing the Dharma, serving as a fully ordained monk in the Tibetan tradition for the past 19 years. Prior to his ordination, he worked in diverse fields such as palliative care, technology, refugee organizations, and management. His extensive training includes ten years of studying Buddhist philosophy and practice in monasteries across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar.
He spent over four years in retreat, immersing himself in Tibetan sutra and tantra, as well as the Burmese Theravada Forest Tradition. For the last 15 years, Ven. Gendun has taught worldwide, sharing his knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation. He serves the aspirations of H.H. the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as part of the FPMT.

In addition to providing long-term guidance for Buddhist meditators, Venerable Gendun’s main interest is intercontemplative social engagement. He serves as an interreligious canon at the Peace Cathedral in Tbilisi, Georgia, and collaborates with a Mevlavi Sufi dargah in Istanbul. Ven. Gendun is a member of Mind & Life Europe, a multidisciplinary laboratory that brings together researchers and contemplative practitioners.

For more information on The Buddha Project, please see: www.thebuddhaproject.org.

If you want to hear Ven. Genduns story in his own voice, listen to the Wisdom Podcast.

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 

Practical details

• Study Terms: Year Three will have 3 terms. Term 1 runs from Sept. 6 to Nove. 29, 2025 (total 13 classes). Term 2: Feb. 7 - April 4, 2026 (9 classes), Term 3: April 18 to July 4, 2026 (12 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.
• 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 either for a couple of classes (to try it out) or for a whole term (preferred option, total 13 classes). You can enter the number of classes in the 'shopping basket'.
  • Last-minute registration? Please also send an email to amsterdam@maitreya.nl after your registration through the website.
• Practice days: we'll at times organize Dutch language practice days or afternoons, led by experienced students.
• 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. 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.

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