This Buddhist Meditation Course is designed for complete beginners, and is presented within the context of the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist tradition.

The course provides an overview of meditation and introduces basic meditation techniques such as watching the breath, mindfulness, visualization with mantra recitation and analytical meditation. It will also include teachings on the foundations of Buddhist philosophy and mind training.

Course Structure

Through this course you will learn the importance of analytical and stabilizing meditation in promoting more insight into the thought and behavior patterns of your daily life. Every day you will have an opportunity to have a practical experience of these meditations and discuss your experience.

As a preparation for the analytical meditation, we will look briefly at a few of the main Buddhist principles as the basis of the analytical meditations, such as loving kindness, compassion, impermanence, etc.

You will learn how to set up a meditation session and how to establish a long-term meditation practice, what kinds of skills are developed in meditation and how these are useful in our daily lives. You will have a direct experience of why meditation is so useful, practiced so widely and in so many different forms. You will take back home with you a deeper knowledge of the practice of meditation.

Please note that this is not a Vipassana Meditation course.

Details of the course

COURSE DATE: 26 Oct to 02 Nov 2024

COURSE TEACHER: Ven Tenzin Choden

FLAT COURSE FEE IN A DORM: US$ 140

The course fee includes all meals, accommodation in a dormitory and a free book.

Students can also choose staying in single, double and triple rooms with private or shared facilities. There is an extra charge for these type of rooms, please click here and use the red column to know the daily room charges, you will need to add these to the Flat Course Fee. When you do your booking, please choose your room preferences in accordance with your budget based on this list. We cannot guarantee you will be accommodated in your first room choice; rooms are allocated by order of booking and are confirmed upon arrival.

Check-in time is 26 Oct from 9am to 3pm at the latest. The first session is at 5.30pm, please make sure to be here at that time.

You are welcome to come one or two days earlier, and leave one or two days later. To check the extra cost of these days please click here. Our reception opens at 9 am and closes at 5.30 pm, arrivals are due to be done only within these times.

The course concludes on 02 Nov with lunch.

Your daily schedule begins at 6.45 am and finishes at 9 pm. Participants are required to attend all session, attendance to all sessions is compulsory. Silence is kept from 9 pm until after lunch the next day.

Mobile phones and other internet connectable gadgets need to be checked in at the reception for the duration of the course. Read more on course discipline.

During your stay at Kopan, please follows our​ strict dress code. Check if you are dressed appropriately for a monastic environment.