Karuna Training is a mindfulness and compassion-based training program that offers participants both Many say this is the most helpful aspect of the training.
Karuna means ‘compassion’ in Sanskrit, and our unique program provides teachings, tools, and practices for those who want to deepen their ability for compassionate communication and action. Throughout the program, participants train in a supportive peer environment where they learn how to stay present and meet the challenges of everyday life, while still speaking fearlessly, honestly, and genuinel
y. Through personal exploration, ongoing faculty mentoring, and in-person practice communicating compassionately with peers, participants forge the real skills and habits needed to live a life of engaged compassion in personal and professional contexts. Based in the Contemplative Psychology tradition that arose from the Vajrayana Buddhist Tradition, Karuna Training brings together ancient teachings with modern applications. Our time-tested methodologies for finding more openness, compassion and bravery have been honed for over 25 years, in 7 different countries.
Upon completion of the program, participants will become a Certified Practitioner in Compassionate Exchange, one of Karuna’s primary methodologies in working skillfully with others. In compassionate exchange work, we develop the ability to offer ourselves as a resource of intrinsic health to other people. Rather than fixing problems, giving advice or analyzing psychological states, compassionate exchange practice is about learning to provide an open, curious, compassionate and protected space for people to access their own wisdom and truth. Join our training cycle and let us support you in creating the space necessary for a life-changing process. With mindfulness, open heartedness and bravery, we can bring more genuineness into every moment of our lives. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Karuna Training’s teachings are based on the Abhidharma - sometimes referred to as Buddhist Psychology, and there are many different modern methodologies for discovering these time tested teachings during the training, including:
1. Trust in Intrinsic Health
At the core of Karuna Training lies the notion of intrinsic health, the idea that we all have intrinsic health, compassion and clarity that we can access at any moment, especially when going through personal challenges. Throughout the program we utilize direct experience to learn to resource ourselves and develop a genuine trust in our own and other’s intrinsic health.
2. Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation practice is foundational to our practice of Contemplative Psychology. Meditation is fundamental in this work because meditation practice allows the mind space to relax and settle. Undertaken as a steady practice, meditation allows our inherent qualities of stability, clarity and mental strength to emerge. This provides the support and grounding we need to become more available to others.
3. Compassion and Compassionate Exchange
We learn that we are all hard wired for compassion; and compassionate exchange is one of Karuna Training’s main methodologies in working with others. Participants have the opportunity to develop this skill through practice first with one another in the cohort, and then in a mentored project of 5 hours with someone outside the training. In compassionate exchange, we develop the ability to offer ourselves as a resource to other people. Rather than fixing problems, giving advice or analyzing psychological states, compassionate exchange practice is about learning to provide a compassionate and protected space for people to access their own wisdom and experience. By cultivating compassion and curiosity, participants learn how to be present, open and genuine with others in all their personal and professional relationships.
4. Maitri Space Awareness for Working with Emotions
One of the greatest challenges in supporting others, is being able to meet the intensity of another’s emotion. In Karuna Training we learn that intense emotions have wisdom and lessons to teach, but we need to work contemplatively with the energy of sadness, anger, and fear on the spot. In Karua Training, through the practice of Maitri Space Awareness, participants examine their own emotional energy and learn to recognize both the healthy and confused aspects of that energy in their life. They practice working with the intensity of emotions in a contemplative way, no matter what emotions are arising. Participants are given the tools to:
Communicate more genuinely, honestly and skillfully with others �
Work with emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them �
Develop habits of self-care and self-compassion �
Draw on internal resources needed for supporting ourselves and others when either is suffering
Live more genuinely from a place of compassion and wisdom
�Live a life of engaged compassion in personal and professional contexts
WHO IS THIS FOR? The Karuna Training program is for you if you are interested in:
Mindfulness and meditation
Personal growth and transformation
Heart-centered compassion practices
Community-based learning
Embodied study of Buddhist psychology
Deeply transformative spiritual development that strengthens your innate skills in working with others
Practical tools for meeting the challenges of everyday life both personally and professionally
05/08/2026
Join us June 26–29 in the high desert of Corrales, New Mexico, for From Posture to Page, a rare retreat blending meditation, Maitri Space Awareness, and contemplative writing into one spacious, grounded container.
Led by Miriam Hall & Melissa Moore, this retreat welcomes beginners and seasoned practitioners alike.
💛 MAY SPECIAL: Save $100 — Register for $250. Limited spots available at this price. Offer ends May 31.
If you've been feeling the weight of these times, join Melissa Moore on May 30th at the Berkeley Shambhala Center for a full day of meditation, embodied practice, and genuine community rooted in the Karuna Training lineage. You'll leave with real tools for coming back to clarity, warmth, and presence.
📅 Saturday, May 30 | 9 AM–5 PM PST
📍 Berkeley Shambhala Center, Berkeley, CA
💛 Free registration required (suggested donation $25)
What does it mean to stay human when the world feels like it's unraveling? Melissa Moore reflects on embodiment, community, and the small daily acts that keep us connected in our most recent Karuna article.
We're so excited to announce From Posture to Page, a brand-new retreat we've never offered before, and one we can't wait to share with you.
Join Miriam Hall and Melissa Moore June 26–29 in the beautiful high desert of Corrales, New Mexico, for an intimate immersion where body, mind, space, and language meet.
This retreat weaves together meditation, Maitri Space Awareness (a Dzogchen posture practice with roots in the Five Buddha Families), and contemplative writing for the very first time. You'll lie outdoors in elemental postures, wear colored glasses, wander aimlessly, and let language arise from sensation, mood, and space. No craft. No performance. No fixing. Just listening.
This is for you, whether you call yourself a writer or not. If you're craving connection with your own elemental muse, this retreat will feed you.
🗓️ June 26–29, 2026
📍 Red Mountain Manor, Corrales, NM
💛 $350 | No prerequisites, all are welcome
Ancestral Ground: A Maitri Retreat in the Body of the Earth with Melissa Moore and Luchy López. A six-day retreat held at Ari Bhöd, exploring Maitri posture practice, ancestral inquiry, and elemental ritual. Meet the Five Buddha Families as living currents carried in body and land.
This retreat invites you to experience ancestry not as a burden, but as a life force—sustaining, nourishing, and full of wisdom.
📅 September 20-26, 2026
📍 Ari Bhöd, Tehachapi, CA
💰 Early bird pricing ends tomorrow, March 15th: $850-$1,260
✨ Prerequisite: At least one prior Maitri Space Awareness Program or familiarity with the Five Buddha Families
Only four early bird tickets left, available through March 15th!
Join Melissa Moore and Luchy López for six days of outdoor Maitri posture practice, ancestral inquiry, and elemental ritual at Ari Bhöd in Tehachapi, California.
This retreat invites you to explore ancestry as an opening, an inspiration, and a source of wisdom for what comes next.
📅 September 20-26, 2026
📍 Ari Bhöd, Tehachapi, CA
💰 $850-$1,260
✨ Prerequisite: At least one prior Maitri Space Awareness Program or familiarity with the Five Buddha Families
Join Melissa Moore and Luchy López for an intimate talk and meditation exploring Ancestral Ground: A Maitri Retreat in the Body of the Earth.
In this conversation, they discuss how Maitri posture work and ancestral inquiry come together outdoors on the high desert land of Ari Bhöd—meeting the Five Buddha Families as living currents in both body and earth.
The video closes with a guided meditation inviting ancestors of wisdom and blessing into the space of our tender hearts. ✨
Ancestral Ground Retreat
📅 September 20-26, 2026
📍 Ari Bhöd, Tehachapi, California
🐦 Only 4 early bird tickets left! Early bird pricing through March 15th
This retreat is for practitioners with at least one prior Maitri Space Awareness Program or familiarity with the Vajrayana Buddhist teaching on the Five Buddha Families.
Ancestral Ground is a deep, earth-rooted Maitri Space Awareness retreat that invites participants into an embodied encounter with lineage, psyche, and place.
Drawing on Maitri Space Awareness as articulated by Chögyam Trungpa and developed at Naropa University, this retreat weaves contemplative posture practice with ancestral inquiry and elemental ritual.
Held as much as possible outdoors at Ari Bhöd, this six-day immersion brings the Maitri postures into direct relationship with earth, sky, wind, fire, and water—meeting the psychological energies of the Five Buddha Families as living, ancestral currents carried in the body and the land itself. We will open to that lineage together.
📅 September 20-26, 2026
📍 Ari Bhöd |16175 Paradise Valley Rd. Tehachapi, CA 93561, United States
👥 Led by Melissa Moore & Luchy López
💰 Early bird pricing for first 6 registrants through March 15th | $850-$1,260
✨ Prerequisite: At least one prior Maitri Space Awareness Program or familiarity with the Five Buddha Families
As we enter the Year of the Fire Horse, we're invited into a time of swift movement, passionate intensity, and profound release. This is a year that won't wait—it gallops forward with clarity and courage.
But how do we ride these powerful energies without being thrown?
In our new article, Melissa Moore explores what it means to hold our seat with stability and intention during times of rapid change. The Fire Horse asks us essential questions:
🔥What is ready to be released?
🔥What direction truly calls to us?
🐴How do we cultivate the steadiness needed to transform speed into skillful power?
🐴Most importantly: we don't ride alone. Community isn't optional—it's essential.
Read the full article to discover how contemplative practice helps us become conscious riders of this dynamic year: https://tinyurl.com/bdevy3mz
May we all ride with stability, clarity, and compassion. 🙏
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