By Hans van den Bogaert

This year Maitreya Instituut in the Netherlands finishes the first round of its five-year Basic Program. Currently we are rounding off the study program with some extra topics, requested by the participating students. The venerable Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen, whose roots are at Gaden Jangtse Monastery, currently teaches the Madhyamakavatara by Acharya Chandrakirti from Lama Tsongkhapa’s commentary Illumination of the Thought (Gongs-ba Rab-sel).

It was felt by most students that the program is very complete. The base for a stronger program was laid over the last 20 years. Since the first days of its existence (the late 70s) Maitreya Instituut has conducted a yearly lam-rim summer course, modeled after the November course in Kopan Monastery in Nepal. The first two lam-rim courses were taught by Dutch monk Ven. Marcel Bertels. From 1984 until 1992 the venerable Geshe Konchog Lhundup was our resident teacher and in many ways he prepared the ground for the longer and more serious subjects of the Basic Program.

Upon his arrival in 1992 our current resident Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen started off with some general teachings: thought transformation; mind and mental Factors; and The Three Principal Aspects of the Path. He started teaching the Basic Program in 1993. It presented all the main subjects as suggested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, although at times the texts recommended by Rinpoche were replaced by other texts which had already been translated into English. This was done both for the translator’s convenience and for the students to be able to read along in the English text.

Except for the annual summer course, all subjects were taught in weekends. Students arrived at the compounds of the rural Maitreya Instituut in Emst on Friday evening and returned home at the end of Sunday afternoon. In addition to the five lectures by Geshe-la, a weekend comprised group meditations and discussions on the subjects taught. Although no real examinations were taken, students were presented with a questionnaire on the subjects at the end of each term. The answers to the questions gave rise to interesting discussions and complicated issues were at times related back to Geshe-la.

All courses, which were studied at weekends, were translated directly into Dutch by our long-term interpreter/translator Hans van den Bogaert. At the start of each course a draft translation of the root text in Dutch was handed out to the students. This helped them enormously to keep in touch with the subjects Geshe-la would elaborate on. After each weekend a transcript was produced to be handed out the following weekend. This enabled students to reread Geshe-la’s comments at ease in their homes and refresh their memory. It also allowed them to relate the commentary to the root text.

The number of students who completed the entire Basic Program is not very large; about 50 completed most of the subjects. During the wisdom chapter of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara as many as 80 people enjoyed the teachings. We still have to figure out the numbers of people who attended specific subjects. Many students would have liked to attend the whole program, but could not because of their other responsibilities (regular jobs and family life).

This year’s lam-rim summer course is only one week, as Geshe-la has (finally) agreed to give a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation to his students with a commentary following the lam-rim teachings. This shorter duration probably brought the number of participants of the lam-rim course up to 80, which is the maximum number the institute can accommodate.

The venerable Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen always succeeds in relating the at times very abstract or metaphysical subjects to the practice of the participating students. The teachings were not given at a very high speed and the subjects were always linked to the three levels of scope of the lam-rim and to the students’ various levels of thought and motivations. Geshe-la stressed the importance of receiving waves of inspiration for those aiming for realizations, but never pushed anything to those merely studying from an academic point of view. When, however, he taught about the correct manner to rely on a spiritual teacher, he always praised his own teachers and while doing so his eyes would fill with tears of gratitude.

This winter Geshe-la will have a break in India, after which the second round of the Basic program is due to start in April 2000. Maitreya Instituut is fully millennium proof, so we look forward to welcoming many of our old students as well as many new ones. We all hope and pray that the present conducive conditions in Europe will last and develop even more.