About the order of the subjects and integrating
meditation and practice with your homestudy

The Basic Program has been designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to ensure that students who want to study beyond the introductory level will gain a vast and profound knowledge of the key aspects of the entire Buddhist path. Basic Program students will study:

• the stages of the path to enlightenment of beings of low, middling, and great capacity (Stages of the Path)
• emptiness and the phenomena qualified by it (Heart Sutra)
• the six perfections – generosity, morality, patience, joyous effort, concentration, and wisdom – and how to practice them in everyday life (Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds)
• the law of actions and results, or karma, and the states of mind that shape our future experiences (Mahayana Mind Training)
• the buddha or tathagata essence that exists within every sentient being (Sublime Continuum)
• the way the mind knows phenomena and the mental factors that constitute the basis of our daily experience (Mind and Cognition)
• the tenets or philosophical systems of the four main schools of ancient Buddhist thought (Tenets)
• the 173 aspects of the enlightened or omniscient mind (Ornament for Clear Realizations and Seventy Topics)
• the four classes of tantra with emphasis on the generation and completion stages of highest yoga tantra (Grounds and Paths of Secret Mantra; Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth; and the Highest Yoga Tantra commentary)

You can study the subjects in any order you wish while taking your previous study and practice into account, but remember that the Stages of the Path (Lamrim) forms the overall context for the other subjects and for meditation practice throughout. Also, some understanding of Tenets and of Mind and Cognition will help you with the ninth chapter of Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (in part 2), and you may find Seventy Topics and Ornament rather challenging without quite a bit of prior study. The tantra subjects should not be attempted without a good overall understanding and practice of the path.

Your study of each of the subjects will bring its optimal result only if you include meditation sessions and retreats in your schedule. Therefore, all packages include either guided meditations or written meditation and retreat instructions, and you are strongly encouraged to make use of these. As a Basic Program student you are expected to have some experience of both Lamrim study and meditation; you need to be able to structure your own retreats and a daily or regular meditation practice. Centers implementing the Basic Program sometimes schedule practice days that you may like to consider participating in as well.

Read more about the required prior level of study and practice that will make your Basic Program homestudy most effective, and about the specific requirements for the tantra subjects here.