Join the Two-Year Journey to Buddhist Awakening

The FPMT Lamrim Ngöndro Training is a two-year journey in the common and uncommon preliminary practices and meditating on the Stages of the Path.

Starting September 14th, only online.

Introduction

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. 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.

Over a period of two years, the FPMT Ngöndro Lamrim Training (NLRT) offers 16 months of training in the common and uncommon preliminary practices (ngöndro). The training is designed to generate the motivation that supports the development of calm abiding, special insight, and tantra facilitating deep transformation.

Content

Over the first eleven months the common foundations of renunciation, bodhicitta, and the view of
emptiness, are explored based on the Lamrim.

For the remaining five months the focus is on the uncommon practices: Vajrasattva purification, mandala offerings, and guru yoga. Weekly sessions each introduce a new topic that examines different ways to meditate, in combination with a guided meditation.

Aims

The training helps establish a consistent daily meditative practice that supports engaging in contemplative meditation that is genuinely transformative. 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.

Who is this training 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.

Highlights

Year 1: Definite Emergence and Mind of Awakening

• Prepare the mind for śamatha, vipaśyanā, and tantra
• Explore renunciation and bodhicitta, the first two Principles of the Path
• Develop genuine urgency through Lamrim contemplation
• Cultivate the aspiration to Awakening for all beings

Year 2: Wisdom, Merit, Purification and Guru Yoga

• Cultivate the wisdom realizing emptiness
• Accumulate merit and purify karma through mandala offerings and Vajrasattva
• Unpack and reframe guru devotion for a Western context
• Make ritual practice personal and alive

Format

• Weekly shared practice sessions: Once a week, we gather together online to do a meditation and have a discussion group. The exact weekday will be announced soon.
• Several weekly guided meditations: Each week, a 90-minute teaching together with a guided meditation are uploaded. On four other days, advanced students contribute additional guided meditations. All sessions are prerecorded. The teacher, Venerable Gendun, offers regular online Q&A sessions.
• Access to extensive materials: all meditations, lectures and reading materials are available through an online portal for all registered students.

Registration

The course runs for two years, each year consisting of three terms. The full training runs from September 2026 to June 2028.

Registration is per term, and Year 1 Term 1 takes place on September 17 – November 26 (11 classes in total).

Suggested donation per term is 110€, which is paid to Tara Liberation.

Your teacher: Venerable 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.