IDMT Year 1 Foundational Insight Meditation Term 2

A unique training in (Mahayana) insight meditation

with Ven. Losang Gendun

Please note: our center will not open for this class on April 27 (King's Day) and there won't be class on May 4!

Online and onsite: classes are taught online, but we usually open the center for joint viewing.

Introduction of the 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.

Students will actively train in both shamatha and vipassana, gradually investigating the nature of self and phenomena. We will explore how we project layers of ignorance onto our perception and how to challenge these through reasoning and direct insight. This course is above all a practical one. It aims at helping students navigate their meditative lives successfully, both on and off the cushion.

Term 2: January 27 to April 27, 2024

The main topic of our first year’s second term will be the famous Mahasatipatthana Suttra. Defined by the Buddha as the direct path to liberation, it not only forms the basis for traditional and modern variants of insight meditation, but also practices ranging from Mahamudra and Dzogchen to Ch’an/Zen. Even after his Awakening the Buddha often practiced this form of insight meditation as an expression of his newfound state and to encourage us, the ones who follow in his footsteps.

On the basis of our practice of shamatha we will now explore the characteristics of samsara – impermanent, selfless and unsatisfactory – and its cause ‘ignorance’, to see how this points our understanding towards ultimate freedom.

In the sutra the Buddha shows how to apply the principles of the Dharma to our embodied, affective and cognitive experience, indicating a new way of life that, empty of center, is boundless and of permanent empowered freedom and wellbeing. Building on the breath we will further explore meditation on the four elements, feelings, mind, the four noble truths and many other topics.

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

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.

Venerable Losang Gendun

After 20 years of practicing Theravada Buddhism, Ven. Gendun became a monk in the Tibetan tradition in 2006. He studied Buddhist philosophy for nine years at Nalanda Monastery and practiced under various teachers from Gelug and Theravada Forest traditions. In total, Ven. Gendun spent more than four years in retreat. He has been teaching for over 15 years in the Netherlands, France, Monaco, the US, and the UK. He actively promotes interfaith practice, contributes to Emoena, an international interreligious leadership network, and is an active promotor of gender equality. His main goal is to translate traditional methods into contemporary terms to make them accessible to a Western audience.

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 
• If you are starting as a new student in term 2, we will give you some preparatory advice before you start the new term.

Practical details

• Study Terms: The year will have 3 terms. Term 2 runs from January 27 to April 27. After a break week, Term 3 will run from May 11 to July 6.
• 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: It will be given in English, with French translation
• Online: via Zoom. The center will be open to follow the online class together. Please let us know if you're interested in attending that.
• Registration:
  • You can register either for a couple of classes (to try it out) or for a whole term (total 14 classes). You can enter the preferred 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 organize Dutch language practice days or afternoons, led by experienced students or Ven. Gendun
• Access to the TBP Learning Platform:  
  • Video & Audio recordings of the teachings & meditations
  • AI-generated transcripts of the teachings in English

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.

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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