Powerful Practice for Challenging Times: Introduction to Karuna Training

June 8,  9:00am - 4:00pm  & June 9, 1:00pm - 4:00pm PST

IN-PERSON at the San Diego Shambhala Center

Spend a weekend exploring and interacting with others using the skillful art of Compassionate exchange in a stand-alone introductory course to Karuna Training and the foundations of Contemplative Psychology. 

During this weekend program, participants will be introduced to contemplative methods presented in Karuna Training, an extended 21-month Certificate program in Contemplative Psychology. 

Karuna Training is a program rooted in Tibetan Buddhism that integrates ancient teaching and methodologies to invoke the Five Buddha Family Mandala. As one practices with this mandala, the elemental energies and blessings can be experienced and understood in a non-dualistic way and reveal to us the ordinary magic of the Mandla in the present moment. Through the Five Buddha Families, we can explore the elemental world around us and the inner elemental world of emotions and habits of mind. This way, we make friends with the invisible forces’ outer, inner, and secret nature. 

Please join us to explore how confusion can be transformed into wisdom through contemplative methods and practices of Contemplative Psychology. 

To attend this weekend's Karuna Training program and the entire Certification program, you do not need to be a Buddhist or a Therapist. This program is open to all. We will spend the weekend exploring the strength inherent in our vulnerability. 

Participants will learn:

• How to be more present in an embodied way with ourselves and others in the face of challenge. 
• Build the capacity to tap into your emotional intelligence in relationship to the elements in resourcing oneself. 
• An elemental introduction to the Mandala of the Five Buddha Families.
• A brief introduction to Contemplative Psychology as presented in Karuna Training. 

What to Expect:

• Short guided meditation periods, walking meditation, and a short meditation interview. 
• This is an introduction to the view of Contemplative Psychology: Intrinsic Health, Compassionate Exchange, and the Five Buddha Family Mandala. 
• Short investigations into the Five Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Space as presented in Contemplative Psychology.
• Learning the practice of mixing our bodies, speech, and mind experientially with space. 

Melissa Moore, Ph.D. (she, her)  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.

Emma Bunnell (they/she) has been practicing meditation and studying Buddhism since 2014. She currently works at a software company in San Diego, CA, as a Director of Software Implementation. In 2018, Emma began leading meditation groups, and she completed the Karuna Training Graduate Program in May 2023. Emma aspires to embody the Karuna principles of deep listening, exchange, and intrinsic health in her leadership and teaching styles to encourage and support a kinder, more inclusive, human-centric workplace and community.