The Foundation Program is a structured study program designed to enable the student to gain a deeper understanding and experience of Buddha's teachings. Geshe Kelsang has said, "Our present understanding and experience of Dharma is quite superficial. We are like someone who has entered a huge food store and seen many things but sampled only a few. We may have received many different teachings from many different Teachers, but we have taken in very little, just a few morsels. Therefore our actual experience remains superficial. There is a gap between us and the Dharma. It feels as if Dharma is there and we are here. Our mind is not mixed with Dharma and so we cannot apply it in our daily lives. As a result our ordinary everyday problems remain. For example, we may have received many teachings on Lamrim and read many books. Intellectually we find it relatively easy to understand and we accept it all, but we find it difficult to integrate into our daily lives, and so we cannot use this Dharma to solve our daily problems. When we study Dharma our mind remains passive, like someone watching television. It does not engage in the subject and mix with it. Therefore our daily life and our Dharma remain completely separate and unrelated. Why is this? It is because we are not studying systematically according to a specially designed program. If we just pick at Dharma randomly we will never gain a deep and stable experience, and our wisdom will never become like a full moon." The FP is just such a program. With weekly reading assignments from the text, as well as discussions and meditations on the week's readings, The FP creates the conditions for us to develop deep inner experience of the teachings. The Foundation Program is a systematic study of six texts by our teacher, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. These include:
Beginning in September, we will be studying the book Heart of Wisdom. In this book, Geshe Kelsang provides commentary to the famous Heart Sutra, one of Buddha Shakyamuni's most profound teachings on wisdom. With great clarity and in great detail, Geshe Kelsang explains Buddha's highest wisdom teachings in a way that everyone can understand. We will spend approximately one year studying this amazing book. If you are sincerely interested in making your spiritual practice an important part of your life, please consider the Foundation Program. If our spiritual practice remains weak and unstructured, we will never achieve the results we desire. For those wishing to join the Foundation Program, you may attend up to three classes before deciding if you want to join the Program. Unlike the General Program classes we offer, participating in the Foundation Program does entail some commitments. Please contact our Foundation Program Coordinator to learn more. Class Structure The Foundation Program class meets each week, Sundays at 4:30pm. Students are also strongly encouraged to attend the Wishfulfilling Jewel puja on Sundays from 3:00pm - 4:00pm. The class schedule is:
The fee is $70 per month for the Foundation Program (at the Center or by correspondence). This monthly course fee also entitles FP students to discounts for other events and to attend General Program classes at no additional charge. No one is turned away for lack of funds; to arrange alternative payment arrangements, please contact our Foundation Program Coordinator. Foundation Program Correspondence Program If you live far outside Atlanta, or for valid reasons cannot attend study class every week, yet you would like to sincerely participate in the Foundation Program, please contact our Education Program Coordinator to register or for more information about the Correspondence Program. |
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