About Event:
A two-year journey in the common and uncommon preliminary practices, an excellent preparation for the FPMT In-Depth Meditation Training (IDMT).
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, based on writings of the Indian master Atisha. 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. Each teaching is carefully arranged to meet the mind where it is and guide it—step by step—toward genuine change.
Please note that these sessions are pre-recorded and uploaded week-to-week. Once uploaded, students can access each week’s session at any time.
What is Ngöndro Lamrim Training (NLRT)?
The uncommon preliminary practices (ngöndro) are powerful methods to purify the mind and prepare it for lasting transformation.
Over a period of two years, the Ngöndro Lamrim Training (NLRT) offers 16 months of training in the common and uncommon preliminary practices. The training is designed to generate the motivation that supports the development of calm abiding, special insight, and tantra. By cultivating the inner qualities needed to ease unskillful patterns of mind that are the cause of hindrances on the path, it facilitates deep transformation.
Course content:
Over the first eleven months the common foundations, 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 and why, in combination with a guided meditation.
Course aims:
The training helps establish a consistent daily meditative practice in supports of its overall aim: to engage in contemplative meditation in a way that genuinely transforms the mind's outlook on the world and gives one's life a new direction. 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 it 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.
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 realising 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 & Practical Details:
The NLRT teaching sessions are prerecorded. Each week, a 90-minute teaching together with a guided meditation are uploaded. On four other days, advanced students contribute additional guided meditations. Once you have an account, the materials and recordings can be found at: The Buddha Project.
NLRT Year One, Term 1: September 17 – November 26 (11 classes in total)
The teacher, Venerable Gendun, offers regular online Q&A sessions. For those who have already studied the Lamrim or the FPMT Basic Program, the training also offers specialized opportunities to learn how to guide others in meditation.
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
The training will be offered annually. The first training runs from mid-September 2026 to end of June 2028. Each year is divided in three terms, and registration is per term. After registration, you will get access to the materials through The Buddha Project learning platform.
The suggested donation is $180 for the full term (11 classes). For students and people with low income, the suggested donation is $110. 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.
For more information on the course itself, please send an email to info@thebuddhaproject.org.
NOTE: The NLRT events are all online from home only. Access to recordings is via The Buddha Project website – access instructions will be sent to you separately.