About Event:
The In-Depth Meditation Training program (IDMT) was developed in dialogue with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, inspired by his conviction that the true fulfillment of our precious human life lies in generating the awakened mind, bodhicitta – and that accomplishing this requires deep meditative practice.
The full range of traditional Buddhist methods will be gradually introduced in ways fit for a modern Western audience. It provides the opportunity to experience a genuine taste of the nature of reality and bodhicitta (the mind of awakening).
Currently in Year 3 of this iteration of the 4-year IDMT course, students are warmly welcome to join this term’s teachings and beyond.
Rest assured that due to the time difference, recordings will be available should you be unable to attend live Zoom sessions.
What is In-Depth Meditation Training (IDMT)?
The IDMT program is led by Venerable Losang Gendun, who recently gave teachings at Chenrezig Instiute as part of his inaugural Australian tour. Based in the Lamrim and in the Gelug tenets, this training progresses from foundational shamatha and insight to mahamudra and kriya tantra. It contextualises Buddhist ideas in Western philosophy, psychology, and science. Each year forms a self-contained module that can be joined independently.
Weekly guided meditations are combined with in-depth lectures and meditation training, prioritising the needs and levels of practice of the participants. This is a course that serves the students, adjusting itself in accordance with their needs, developing with them.
The IDMT course provides:
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.
This course is a collaboration between a cohort of FPMT Buddhist centres throughout the world. Therefore, the course is attended by a large 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.
Year 3, Term 3 –
The Radiant Ground: Emptiness and Buddha Nature
Currently in the third year of the IDMT 4-year course, we are delighted to offer our students and community the chance to join Venerable Gendun in Term 3 teachings on The Radiant Ground: Emptiness and Buddha Nature. While this round of the course is currently in its later stages, students are most welcome to join now or at any time throughout the class calendar.
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.
Please note that these classes are offered online only. Zoom links will be sent upon registration, and students will have access to recordings of Ven. Gendun’s teachings if live participation is not possible due to the time difference.
Practical Details
Current Term 3 dates: May 2 to July 4, 2026 (10 classes) – note that we have 7 classes remaining for Chenrezig Institute students to participate in, starting from May 23.
Day & time: IDMT is broadcast live from Europe and runs weekly, Saturdays 11:30pm into Sunday 2:00am AEST.
Class format: One-hour guided meditation followed by 90 minutes of teaching with Q&A
Language: English, with simultaneous French translation
Online / onsite: Classes will be only online and/or by recording.
The sessions are recorded and accessed via the Buddha Project website for viewing afterwards. Once you register and make a donation below, you will receive instructions on how to access the recordings via email.
About our 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.
You can read more about The Buddha Project here. If you want to hear Ven. Gendun's story in his own voice, listen to the Wisdom Podcast.
Registration and Donations
You can register either for one or two classes (to try it out) or for a whole term (preferred option, total 7 classes for remainder of Term 3).
The suggested donation for this class is $26 per class. For students and people with low income, the suggested donation is $15 per class. Please send an email to spc@chenrezig.com.au if you’d like to make use of this option. We transfer a percentage of all donations to The Buddha Project.
Sangha are always able to attend our courses free of charge. Please contact spc@chenrezig.com.au for a discount code to register.
NOTE: the IDMT events are all online from home only. Once you register for the event you will be sent a Zoom link for the session. Access to recordings is via The Buddha Project website – access instructions will be sent to you separately.