The Essence of Freedom Through Education
Most people who try meditation never get the full picture. Tarpa teaches the whole thing.
Tarpa is a free, secular educational nonprofit whose Palace of Learning teaches meditation as a contemplative scientific method—a rigorous, learnable approach to investigating your own experience, understanding what drives it, and developing the clarity and skill to change it. The curriculum is based upon courses Dr. Gregory Seton (DPhil, Oxford) developed and teaches at Dartmouth College. No religious commitments, fees, or prerequisites required.
What Tarpa's Offers
A self-paced online curriculum that takes you from the foundations of meditation theory through advanced frameworks—with each level designed so you can test the ideas through your own direct experience, not just read about them. The approach is academic and evidence-based, not religious.
For students who want to go deeper, Tarpa's meditation laboratories in Vershire, Vermont provide the controlled environment for immersive experiential learning—sustained investigation under conditions that daily life simply doesn't allow. Expert instruction and support from Dr. Seton are available throughout.
The curriculum has multiple levels and different entry points to meet you where you are—whether you've never meditated or have years of experience. You are never asked to accept or believe anything. You are trained to think critically and reach your own conclusions.
The Palace of Learning
Tarpa's online curriculum — the Palace of Learning — is a free, progressive course in meditation theory and practice drawn from Dr. Seton's courses at Dartmouth College and extended into a multi-stage framework that a single academic term cannot accommodate. Students move through five floors, each building on the previous, at their own pace with no deadlines or requirements.
For those seeking the full educational experience, each floor connects to a guided retreat at Tarpa's Vermont cabins — the distraction-free laboratory environment where students move from studying the methodology to investigating it across the full range of daily experience, with direct instructor guidance throughout.
Meet the Instructor
Dr. Gregory Seton is a Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth College with a DPhil in Buddhist Studies from Oxford University. He has taught Buddhist meditation theory and practice at Dartmouth since 2016, and brings 35 years of personal contemplative study to Tarpa's curriculum. What he offers is the combination that makes this curriculum distinctive: the analytical precision of rigorous scholarship, the methodological depth of serious long-term practice, and the commitment to making genuine investigation possible for any learner regardless of background. Full Credentials
Ready to Begin?
Browse Our Curriculum – Explore the Palace of Learning, free and open to all
Educational Approach – How Tarpa's scientific method framework works
Free Enrollment – No prerequisites, no commitments, no fees
About Our Retreat Cabins – Immersive study and practice with direct instruction
FAQs – Common questions answered
The Palace of Learning, a progressive course in meditation theory and practice