Thrangu Sekhar

Institute of Meditation

Department of Meditation

Meditation lies at the core of Buddhist study and practice, and we make it the foundation of all our activity at Thrangu Sekhar Institute of Meditation. It is said that all study is to inform our practice, and that any practice without requisite study is futile. This is why every meditation module offered by the Institute includes units of both explication and practice, where students are guided through the phases of contemplation or meditation by an experienced meditation master, and subsequently engage in hours of meditation sessions where these instructions are put into practice.

The certificate course focuses mainly on calm abiding meditation (śamatha), with the aim of becoming familiar with trying to settle the mind on a particular focal suuport––be it an external object, internal object or visualisation. The essential points of body posture are given particular emphasis at this beginner level.

Bachelor students follow a traditional progressive training that starts with the preliminary practices of contemplating the four thoughts that turn the mind, and culminates in great seal (mahāmudrā) meditation as taught in accordance with the sutras. Mind training (blo sbyong), clam abiding and insight meditation (vipaśyanā) are taught in progressive order, based on authoritative textual sources.

Teaching and examination

These teachings are given by our resident meditation master, Drupön Khen Rinpoché Karma Lhabu. They are delivered in Tibetan with simultaneous English, Mandarin, French (and sometimes German and Cantonese) translation. Course material is available in Tibetan, English, French and Mandarin. 

All modules are tested with mid-semester oral, but explication only modules are tested with end-of-semester written examinations, while practice only modules have end-of-semester meditation examinations. Combined modules may be tested in either way. Meditation exams consist of monitored group contemplation or meditation sessions in which examiners give marks for points of posture, levels of concentration and reactions to external stimuli. During contemplation-meditation exams, students must record a brief self-report detailing their stages of contemplation and any insights that might have arisen. This report can be given in either English or Tibetan. 

Each practice module counts towards 20% of the overall annual grade for their respective course. Mid-semester oral exams each count for 4% of the overall annual grade, and the end-of-semester meditation exams count for 6% each.

Course Modules

Certificate: Buddhist Meditation

Semester 1 

Semester 1: 

Module 1: Calm Abiding Meditation – Explication and Practice : Part 1
  1. Explication of :
    1. The benefits of focusing the mind on an image of the Buddha
    2. The methods for focusing the mind on the image of the Buddha
    3. The seven-point meditation posture
    4. Practise in accordance with these
Module 3: Calm Abiding Meditation – Explication and Practice: Part 2  
  1. Explication of :
    1. The benefits of focusing the mind on a stone
    2. The methods for focusing the mind on a stone
    3. Practise in accordance with these 
Semester 2

Semester 2

Module 1: Calm Abiding Meditation – Explication and Practice: Part 3
  1. Explication of :
    1. The benefits of focusing the mind on the breath
    2. The methods for focusing the mind on the breath
  2. Practise in accordance with these
Module 3: Calm Abiding Meditation – Explication and Practice: Part 4
  1. Explication of:
    1. The benefits of focusing the mind on a mental image of the Buddha
    2. The methods for focusing the mind on a mental image of the Buddha
    3. Practise in accordance with these

Bachelor: Buddhist Mind Training

Semester 1

Year 1 – Semester 1: 

Module 1: Precious Human Life – Leisures – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. the eight states without freedom
    2. the sixteen states without freedom
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Module 2: Precious Human Life – Opportunities – Explication & Practice 
  1. Explication of:
    1. the five personal opportunities 
    2. the five opportunities provided by others
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Module 3: Impermanence – The External World – Explication & Practice 
  1. Explication of:
    1. the impermanence of the world 
    2. the impermanence of the seasons
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Module 4: Impermanence – Inner Beings – Explication & Practice 
  1. Explication of:
    1. The many who have died
    2. The many causes of death
    3. How it will be at the time of death
    4. How it will be after one dies
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Semester 2

Year 1 – Semester 2: 

Module 1: Causality of Non-Virtue – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the ten non-virtues
  2. Progressive contemplation on the ten non-virtues
Module 2: Causality of Virtue – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the ten virtues
  2. Progressive contemplation on the ten virtues
Module 3: The Faults of Cyclic Existence in General – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the sufferings of:
    1. Hell beings
    2. Deprived spirits
    3. Animals
    4. Demigods
    5. Gods
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Module 4: The Faults of Cyclic Existence for Humans in Particular – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the sufferings of:
    1. Birth, ageing, sickness and death
    2. searching and failing to acquire what we lack
    3. struggling to protect what we have 
    4. parting from what we love 
    5. encountering the undesirable
  2. Progressive contemplation on these
Semester 3

Year 2 – Semester 3: 

Module 1: Recognising Our Mothers – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the recognition of our mothers
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Module 2: Recollecting Our Mothers’ Kindness – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of the recognition of our mothers’ kindness in: 
    1. producing one’s body
    2. going through great hardships for one
    3. giving one life
    4. teaching one about the world
    5. connecting one with the sacred dharma
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Module 3: Repaying Their Kindness – Explication & Practice 
  1. Explication of one’s mothers’ sufferings as:
    1. a hell being
    2. a deprived spirit
    3. an animal
    4. a human
    5. a demigod
    6. a god
    7. the resolve to end these sufferings
  2. Progressive contemplation on each of these
Module 4: Impartiality – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. How present enemies were friends in past lives
    2. How present friends can become enemies in the future
    3. Extending love towards both friends and enemies, as well as neutral strangers
  2. Progressive contemplation on each of these
Semester 4

 Year 2 – Semester 4: 

Module 1: Loving Kindness – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. the recognition that all beings only want to be happy
    2. engendering the wish to bring them that happiness
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Module 2: Compassion –  Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. the recognition that no being wants to suffer
    2. engendering the wish to free them from all suffering
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Module 3: Joy – Explication & Practice  
  1. Explication of:
    1. Identifying the negativities of jealousy and competitiveness
    2. Identifying the positive qualities of others and wishing them even more
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Module 4: Joy – Explication & Practice  
  1. Explication of:
    1. The benefits of the awakening mind
    2. Giving one’s happiness and virtue and taking others’ suffering and negative karma
    3. The precepts of the awakening mind
  2. Progressive contemplation on that
Semester 5

Year 3 – Semester 5: 

Module 1: The Necessity of Meditative Concentration –  Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The necessity of meditative concentration
    2. The necessity by way of analogies
  2. Progressive contemplation of: 
    1. The limitations of intellectual understanding
    2. The practice of bringing an intellectual understanding into the experiential realm
Module 2: Types of Meditative Concentration – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The different types of meditative concentration
    2. The difference between mundane and transcendent meditations
    3. The essence of calm abiding and insight meditation
    4. The relationship and etymologies of calm abiding and insight meditation
  2. Progressive contemplation of meditative concentration
Module 3: Adopting the Causes of Calm Abiding – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The counter-productive circumstances
    2. The causes of calm abiding meditation
  2. Progressive contemplation of: 
    1. The counter-productive circumstances
    2. The causes of calm abiding meditation
Module 4: The Stages of Calm Abiding – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The meditation of desire realm beings
    2. The meditation of beings in the form and formless realms
  2. Progressive contemplation of: 
    1. The meditation of desire realm beings
    2. The meditation of beings in the form and formless realms
    3. The meditation in the state of cessation
Semester 6

Year 3 – Semester 6: 

Module 1: The Process of the Practice – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The correct posture
    2. The four general methods of focusing
  2. Progressive practice in: 
    1. Adopting the posture
    2. The four general methods of focusing
Module 2: Abiding with a Focal Support – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The meditation with an impure focal support
    2. The meditation with a pure focal support
  2. Progressive practice in: 
    1. The meditation with an impure focal support
    2. The meditation with a pure focal support
Module 3: Abiding Without a Focus – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The meditation on aspects of the body
    2. The meditation on an imagined image of an enlightened being
    3. Bodhibhadra’s Essay on Meditative Concentration
  2. Progressive practice in: 
    1. The meditation on aspects of the body
    2. The meditation on an imagined image of an enlightened being
Module 4: Abiding Within the Essential Nature – Explication & Practice
  1. Explication of:
    1. The essence of calm-abiding meditation
    2. How the essence is the consummate state of calm-abiding meditation
  2. Progressive practice in pursuing the essence
Semester 7

Year 4 – Semester 7: 

Module 1: Ascertaining the Apprehended Objects – Explication
  1. General explication of ascertaining the apprehended objects
  2. Specific explication of the relevant scriptural sources
Module 2: Ascertaining the Apprehended Objects – Practice
  1. Analysing to ascertain apprehended objects
  2. Abiding within the insight of the analysis
Module 3: Ascertaining the Apprehending Mind – Explication
  1. General explication of ascertaining the apprehending mind
  2. Specific explication of the relevant scriptural sources
Module 4: Ascertaining the Apprehending Mind – Practice
  1. Analysing to ascertain the apprehending mind
  2. Abiding within the insight of the analysis
Semester 8

Year 4 – Semester 8: 

Module 1: Ascertaining the Remedy Itself – Explication
  1. General explication of ascertaining the remedy
  2. Specific explication of the relevant scriptural sources
Module 2: Ascertaining the Remedy – Practice
  1. Analysing to ascertain the remedy itself
  2. Abiding within the insight of the analysis
Module 3: The Manner of Abiding in Calm Abiding and Insight Meditation in Union – Explication
  1. General explication of a calm abiding and insight meditation in union
  2. Specific explication of the relevant scriptural sources
Module 4: The Manner of Abiding in Calm Abiding and Insight Meditation in Union – Practice
  1. Practicing calm-abiding and insight meditation in union