Foundation Program offers a structured and thorough approach to learning modern Buddhism and taking meditation to a deeper level. The program works like this:
This program is enrollment-based. Both in-person and live-streamed options are available. Live-stream enrollment is available for those who live remotely or whose travel is limited by disability.
Class meets weekly, with term breaks throughout the program, including a longer break in the summer.
In addition to a teaching from the book, each class includes chanted prayers, guided meditation, and discussion.
Universal Compassion provides practical instructions showing how to transform even the most difficult daily life experiences into opportunities for spiritual growth through developing and enhancing minds of universal love and compassion. The heart of Buddha’s teachings is unconditional love and compassion. In this inspiring explanation of the popular Buddhist poem Training the Mind in Seven Points, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche reveals powerful and far-reaching methods for us to develop these altruistic states.
Resident Teacher Kerrin Perniciaro is a long-time practitioner of Modern Kadampa Buddhism. She has studied and taught Buddhism at the International Kadampa Retreat Center Grand Canyon (IKRC), Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Center (in the 6-month Intensive Teacher Training Program), Los Angeles and Long Island. She is an inspiring example of a lay practitioner of Kadampa Buddhism, and teaches meditation and Buddhism very practically, with clarity, warmth and kindness.
Interested in joining Foundation Program? Please email Tim at: info@meditateinfortcollins.org
Cost for Foundation Program is Supporting Membership, which includes free access to all weekly classes and half-price for most events at Heruka Kadampa Meditation Center. Please see the Membership page for details.
There are three reasons why we need to study and practice the teachings of Buddha - to develop our wisdom, to cultivate a good heart and to maintain a peaceful state of mind.
Our Founder, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, specially designed the Foundation Program to provide a systematic presentation of particular subjects of Mahayana Buddhism to enable practitioners to deepen their knowledge and experience of the spiritual path.
By studying on this program we shall gain confidence in our meditation practice – from basic techniques for overcoming our everyday problems to practices leading to heartfelt happiness and lasting inner peace.
In this way, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of Buddha’s teachings, maintain a daily meditation practice that is effective and focused, and make genuine spiritual progress.
Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, teaching in New York in 2006
Learn five essential topics of Buddhism in Foundation Program. These subjects and practices form the foundation for effectively integrating Buddhist meditation practice with our daily life. They are:
Joyful Path of Good Fortune – We gain the ability to put all Buddha’s teachings of both Sutra and Tantra into practice. We can easily make progress on and complete the stages of the path to the supreme happiness of enlightenment. From a practical point of view, the Stages of the Path, or Lamrim, is the main body of Buddha’s teachings, and the other teachings are like its limbs.
Universal Compassion and The New Eight Steps to Happiness – We gain the ability to integrate Buddha’s teachings into our daily life and solve all our human problems, especially learning how to transform adverse conditions in to the path to enlightenment.
The New Heart of Wisdom – We gain a realization of the ultimate nature of reality, emptiness. By gaining this realization we can eliminate the ignorance of self-grasping that is the root of all our suffering.
Meaningful to Behold – We transform our daily activities into the Bodhisattva’s way of life of the six perfections, thereby making every moment of our human life meaningful.
How to Understand the Mind – We understand the relationship between our mind and its external objects. If we understand that objects depend upon the subjective mind we can change the way objects appear to us by changing our own mind. Gradually we shall gain the ability to control our mind and in this way solve all our problems.
149 W Harvard St, Suite 102, Fort Collins, CO 80525
info@meditateinfortcollins.org
970-798-0090
Heruka Kadampa Meditation Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit
A member of the New Kadampa Tradition - International Kadampa Buddhist Union