About the Foundation Programme – The next step…

Many people have been asking about the next step to take to deepen their meditation practice. We are delighted to invite you to discover how to make your practice deeper, more structured, more regular and more enjoyable.

Foundation Programme (FP) is an ongoing, weekly course on Buddhism and meditation. The course is suitable for anyone with interest in deepening their understanding of Buddhist meditation and wisdom.

The Programme consists of a dynamic combination of teachings, meditation and discussion, all of which enable us to go deeper into the layers of meaning within each book that we study. All of this helps us to make real progress along our spiritual path. Each class consists of preliminary prayers, guided meditation and reading from the book with commentary and discussion.

There are many benefits to joining the Foundation Programme namely:

• Increased personal insight, wisdom and experience of Dharma (Buddha’s teachings)
• Studying and meditating more effectively following a specially-designed programme and qualified meditation teacher
• An opportunity to discuss and ask questions
• Help, support and friendship from like-minded people
• Gain the ability to integrate Buddha’s instructions into busy modern life.

How do I start?

We are currently studying Joyful Path of Good Fortune.

When you join the Foundation Programme, you commit to studying one section of the book. This can take differing lengths of time, depending on which book is being studied, and how far through we are. The current section – Joyful Path part 1 – will take approximately 10 months to complete.

In each class there are guided meditations, teachings on the book, and discussion in pairs. Every fifth or sixth class is a group discussion, which enables students to ask questions and clarify the meaning of the text.

What are we studying?

Joyful Path of Good Fortune by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche

A clear and comprehensive explanation of the entire path to enlightenment. We all have the potential for self-transformation, and a limitless capacity for the growth of good qualities, but to fulfil this potential we need to know what to do along every stage of our spiritual journey. With this book, Geshe Kelsang offers us step-by-step guidance on the meditation practices that will lead us to lasting inner peace and happiness. With extraordinary clarity, he presents all Buddha’s teachings in the order in which they are to be practised, enriching his explanation with stories and illuminating analogies. This is a perfect guidebook to the Buddhist path.

This book is available to buy at the class (£15.95)