The FPMT has a range of structured courses suitable for a range odf people, from new to Buddhism to settled in Buddhism and specializing in one or other area of practice.
These courses are ideal for students who have been coming to different classes at Jamyang and feel ready to take a more structured approach to Buddhist theory and practice.
Some of these courses, such as Discovering Buddhism, The foundation of Buddhist Thought and the Basic Programme, require a greater level of commitment from the student, and will require extra study at home.  

You can navigate from one course to the next one enhancing your understanding of Buddhist thought. They all build on each other, and it is very likely you will want to do them more than once, since re-studying them allows you to see the interconnectedness of Buddhist Theory and practice.

Discovering Buddhism

Discovering Buddhism (DB) is a beginner-level programme in Buddhist philosophy and practice, which aims to give the student a solid footing in the practice of Mahayana Buddhism. By engaging in this programme, you will gain an experiential taste of the Buddha’s teachings, meditation retreat experience, and the skills needed to make life most meaningful.  Discovering Buddhism is designed not only as an academic study of Buddhism, but to change your life. The DB programme is currently being offered in more than 40 FPMT centres around the world, including Jamyang. You can also do it in your own home as a correspondence course.

Assembled under the guidance and advice of FPMT’s Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Discovering Buddhism consists of 14 modules (“subject areas”) coveringmajor Buddhist topics. For more information about this course and the FPMT please click here. 

Discovering Buddhism at Jamyang is offered as a weekend course, and it is led by students who have graduated from the different courses at Jamyang. A DB weekend would usually consist of teachings, discussions, activities and meditation. You can drop in to any module. You need to register in advance to receive the required reading before the weekend. To register, please contact the office at: admin@jamyang.co.uk.

WHAT THE BUDDHA SAID

Registration for the first module of the course closes on Friday 4 September and no further applications for that module will be considered after that date.  Please ensure that you have paid your registration in full before that date to complete your registration for the course

A new structured course by Geshe Tashi running over 20 months from September 2010 to April 2012

Starting Tuesday 21 September 2010 Geshe Tashi will teach a new structured learning course in five modules looking at five different sutras from the collection of sutras translated into Tibetan called the Kanjur.  Entitled What the Buddha Said the course will run until April 2012.

The driving force behind Geshe Tashi offering this course is the often expressed wish of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that Tibetan Buddhists study the Indian sources for their religion rather than just relying on works written by Tibetans.  In this way students get a clearer idea of the richness of the Indian traditions of practice, which is sometimes lost in the simplifications of Tibetan 'school' works

Booking for module one of the course will open from 10 May 2010.  Booking for modules 2, 3 and 4 of the course will open 0n 4 December 2010.  Booking for module 5 will open in early December 2011.

Course content

The five modules will cover sutras from the two broad styles of Buddhist practice, hinayana and mahayana. 

Module 1 – The Gathering of Meanings Sutra

Geshe Tashi will start the course by looking at selected passages from a sutra known as the Gathering of Meanings (Skt: Arthaviniscaya) Sutra.  Translated from the Sanskrit this sutra was classed as a Hinayana sutra by the compilers of the Kanjur.  It is sutra full of lists of the types of phenomena (skt: dharma) experienced in our daily life and as we progress along the path. 

The Sutra can be seen as an example of the kind of sutra used as the source material for the Higher Knowledge (Skt: Abhidharma) texts found in the third teaching 'basket' (Skt: Pitaka), the Basket of Higher Knowledge (Skt: Abhidharmapitaka) developed later within the various Indian Buddhist schools.  Its title in Tibetan calls it a Chokyi Namtrang (Skt: dharmaparyaya) which seem generally to be meditative techniques that use reviewing memorised lists of phenomena we can experience so as to really understand the way they function and the way they exist.  The text has been translated into English by N H Santani, is published as the Gathering of Meanings by Dharma Publications, and is available through book sellers.

Module 2 – The Section of Sayings Sutra

Next Geshe Tashi will look at selected passages from another hinayana sutra, the Section of Sayings (Skt: Udanavarga) Sutra.  Translated from the Sanskrit, confusingly this is not the same as the text known as Udanavagga in Pali, but it is very close to the text in Pali known as Dhammapada and the surviving text in Gandari known as the Dharmapada.

The Sutra is a collection of short pithy verse sayings attributed to the Buddha and collated under various themes by an early follower.  The Text has been translated into English by Gareth Sparham as The Tibetan Dharmapada but has been out of print for quite some time. 

Module 3 – The Diamond Cutter Sutra

Geshe Tashi will then move to the Mahayana sutras looking at the Diamond Cutter (Skt: Vajracchedika) Sutra, from the perfection of wisdom type of Mahayana sutra.  It is one of the three texts that Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche regularly asks FPMT Centres and students to ritually recite aloud to ward off obstacles and to attract good fortune etc. 

It is basically a record of a discussion between the Buddha and one of his leading disciples, Subhuti about the relative merits of the perfection of wisdom in comparison to other forms of meritorious activity, the sacredness of the perfection of wisdom and its ability to make people and places sacred, let alone the understanding of it to have the same effect.  The Sutra has been translated many times and a number of the translations are still in print.  For the course we intend using the translation by Ven George Churinoff of the FPMT, available from the FPMT Foundation store.

Module 4 – The Rice Seedling Sutra

Geshe Tashi will then present excerpts from the Rice Seedling (Skt: Salistambha) Sutra.  Though not widely known today it was considered an important Mahayana Sutra by the scholar practitioners of ancient India, and was considered a key source sutra for the madhyamaka understanding of contingent and final reality. 

The Sutra uses the analogy of the growth of a rice seedling from seed to explore dependent arising and the power of imputation.  From a Buddhalogical/ Antiquarian point of view this sutra is seen as a key bridge between the hinayana and mahayana.  The Sutra has been translated into English twice, by Shoening and by Ross Reat, but both translations are quite hard to come by.

Module 5 – The Inexhaustible Intelligence Sutra

Geshe Tashi will end the course by looking at excerpts from the Inexhaustible Intelligence (Skt: Aksayamati) Sutra.  This mahayana sutra is larger than the other two and sets out the inexhaustible qualities of a bodhisattva's practice and understanding in eighty topics.  Again Geshe Tashi will focus on extracts from the sutra. 

The extracts will cover the sections on the four reliances and the four foundations for mindfulness and the four practices starting with thorough abandonment.  The four reliances show how to rely healthily on the practices contained in the teachings of the Buddha and on the teachers of those practices.   The four foundations for mindfulness and the four practices set out the practices that people do when they first start the mahayana path.  The Sutra has been translated in to English by Jens Braavik, but the translation is now long out of print. 

Course participation requirements

 Students can only participate on a module by module basis.  Geshe Tashi sees this course as being for people who really want to understand the actual words of the Buddha as handed down in the sutras contained in the Tibetan cannon.  

So the requirement for course participation is a genuine interest and a willingness to commit to a whole module at a time.  Each module will therefore be a closed module from the first evening (ie after the first evening no new students will be admitted). 

Course structure and costs

Each module will consist of ten units, all on Tuesday nights and each module will cost £100. 

A limited number of half price and full price bursaries will be available.  For every ten people signing up to do the course at full cost we can offer either one full price redemption bursary place, usually for ordained Sangha but exceptionally for people committing to do key course support functions, or two half price bursary places for people committing to other course support functions.  

If you will need a bursary please be aware that we might not have enough full price payers to offer that many bursaries for each module and you may have to pick and choose from the modules available.  

Generally the structure of the evenings will be a 7pm start and a 9.30pm close.  Every third week (ie weeks 3, 6 and 9) Geshe la’s class will finish early and then there will be discussion in small groups.  At the beginning of each module Jamyang will provide students with copies of an English translation of the extracts that Geshe Tashi will focus on. 

 Homework 

Students will be asked to take time in the days after the teaching to read, contemplate and meditate on the section of the Sutra commented on by Geshe Tashi so that the text and the teachings stay fresh in their minds.  

It is possible that once each module students will be given homework in the form of an extract from the Sutra that Geshe Tashi has not yet taught on to read, contemplate and meditate on at home.  They will then be asked to note what they found inspiring or striking, share their findings back with the members of their discussion group, and within the group work up two questions to ask Geshe Tashi. 

Please note that oral transmissions for the sutras will not be given.