Discovering Strength Through Vulnerability: An Introduction to Karuna Training

Discovering Strength Through Vulnerability: An Introduction to Karuna Training

Saturday, July 27, 2024, 9 AM - 11:00 Moutain Standard Time

With Melissa Moore, Ph.D.

One of the many paradoxes we work with in Karuna Training is that our greatest heart strength naturally arises when we dare to open up to our most vulnerable emotions. How can that be? Many of us have been conditioned to hide our feelings and put on a solid front when feeling fearful, small, and weak. Others are struggling, just like us, and when we dare to open up and feel, even express those feelings, we find solidarity with others and the seed of our compassion.

Life is difficult for everyone, even when people put on a happy front; suffering is the Buddha's first noble truth, and yet we are always trying to manage our heartaches away, either using substances, relationships, consumerism, or any distracting way not to feel. Learning to feel our feelings directly allows us to transmute them into the wisdom they naturally possess. Karuna Training offers a community of folks all aspiring toward this openness of heart, and there is an art to learning to transmute emotions into their innate wisdom! This workshop could be the start of your transformative journey.

In this two-hour introduction, participants are introduced to three primary tenets of Contemplative Psychology:

• Trusting in our Basic Sanity
• Tapping the Wisdom of Emotions
• Compassionate Exchange

What to expect:

• Expect to speak up and participate in a kind, confidential space about what sits on our hearts.
• Expect to learn methods that quiet our minds and strengthen our hearts.
• Expect to participate in an experiential exercise with others in breakout rooms.

Please join us online for two enriching hours. This workshop is open to all, regardless of professional background or religious affiliation. One doesn’t need to be a therapist or a Buddhist for this material to apply to daily life.

Bio

Melissa Moore, Ph.D, has been the steward of Karuna Training North America since 2014 and a co-founder of Karuna Europe since 1996. Melissa has her MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and her Ph.D. in Psychological Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Melissa has been a student of Vajrayana Buddhism since 1979. Melissa has taught Karuna Training in nine countries and throughout the U.S. She is the author of The Diamonds Within Us: Uncovering Brilliant Sanity Through Contemplative Psychology: https://thediamondswithinus.org.