Guidance on how to run a Study Group

When you have a small group of people ready to participate in a study group, schedule the meetings either in person or online. For online, you can use Google Meet or Zoom.

Everyone should have a copy of the text you are to study.

Start each session by reciting together the ‘Gangloma’ Prayer to Manjushri, which increases intelligence. It contains the ‘Arapatsana’ mantra of Manjushri, which can be repeated 7, 21 or 100 times in each session. The prayer can be downloaded here.

Then, review the main points of the last study group meeting, unless you are starting a new text.

Now go through the next part of the text together, focussing on the following objectives:

• Read the text aloud to the group in order to recall the words of the teaching.

• Have people explain the current section back to the group in their own words to check and compare understandings.

• Ask each other questions to uncover gaps and deepen your grasp.

• Question critically—explore the teachings from multiple perspectives to deepen your understanding.

• Embrace challenges—don’t shy away from difficult topics or uncertainties; facing them with others directly strengthens your insight.

• Extract the essence by identifying the most important points and how they apply to your life.

• Be patient with understanding—allow insights to develop over time instead of forcing quick conclusions.

• Memorize the root text and its structure between sessions to create a strong foundation.

How frequently you meet, how long each session lasts, whether or not you do homework and preparation for each meeting will vary for each group.

Lastly, we’d love to hear from you which texts you are studying and how it is going!