Live online Compassion Cultivation Training
Wednesdays January 5 – February 23 from 5:30 – 7:30pm PT
With Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi and Greg Morris
This class takes place online via Zoom. A link will be emailed to you before the class starts (Please check your spam folder before contacting us). The SAME Zoom link is RE-USED EACH WEEK. Keep it to re-use for the following weeks.
Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) is an 8-week educational program designed to help you improve your resilience and feel more connected to others—ultimately providing an overall sense of well-being. This course is designed to develop the qualities of compassion, empathy, and kindness for oneself and for others by integrating traditional contemplative practices with contemporary psychology and scientific research on compassion.
The Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) was developed at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) in 2008 by a team of contemplative scholars, clinical psychologists and researchers.
Why Cultivate Compassion?
Cultivating compassion goes beyond feeling more empathy and concern for others. The program helps to develop skills in relating to ourselves and others with compassion. It strengthens our ability to choose thoughts, attitudes and perspectives that lead to positive changes in the way we respond to our own suffering and that of others. It develops the strength to be with suffering, the courage to take compassionate action, and the resilience to prevent compassion fatigue.
These qualities support a wide range of goals, from improving personal relationships to making a positive difference in the world. Compassion cultivation can also support one’s own health, happiness, and well-being. Preliminary research suggests that CCT and similar programs can increase self-compassion and self-care, reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, while also increasing compassion for oneself and for others.
This 8-week training includes:
- 2 hours per week of meditation instruction & practice, lectures, skill-building exercises and group discussions
- Access to audio tracks to facilitate home-based practice
- Suggestions for “on the go” compassion in action exercises to help integrate class material in daily life
Who Can Benefit from CCT:
- Parents and caregivers
- Activists
- Educators
- Mental health and healthcare professionals
- Anyone interested in developing more compassion for themselves and others
- Meditation practitioners who want to refresh, expand or deepen their practice
A commitment to attend each session is required. If you know you will need to miss more than one session, please consider attending the training at a future time when you can attend all the sessions. While no previous meditation experience is required, we ask that participants practice a guided daily meditation as a key component of the training.
A working camera and microphone on your computer is required for this class, as there are interactive exercises that will require your real-time participation. We also recommend you using a laptop rather than an iPad or telephone, so that you can access all the features and see the entire class.
Class length: 8 consecutive Wednesdays, January 5 – February 23 from 5:30 – 7:30pm PT
Instructors
Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi (she/her) first became interested in meditation and Buddhism after reading Be Here Now and early translations of Buddhist sutras in the early 1970s, and then in early 1991 she became a student of Tibetan Buddhism. From 1992 to 2000, Venerable Tenzin was Director of Vajrapani Institute, Co-director the FPMT International Office, and Coordinator of FPMT Center Services. She also completed several long meditation retreats over a six-year period.
Venerable Tenzin took novice ordination in 2004 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 2006 she became a touring teacher in the FPMT, and began teaching in prisons on behalf of the Liberation Prison Project.
Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi is a certified teacher of the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) program, is authorized by the FPMT to teach at both the foundational and in-depth levels, and is also a teacher of Cultivating Emotional Balance (a secular program developed by Alan Wallace and Paul Ekman).
Greg Morris (they/them) is a student and practitioner of bhakti yoga and Advaita Vedanta, as well as a student and devotee of the Tao Te Ching and the four gospels of the New Testament. A lifelong peace advocate and bridge-builder with childhood grounding in Unitarianism, Greg offers their spiritual practice as the foundation of their work as a management consultant specializing in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
In addition, they are the recipient and beneficiary of several healing modalities, most notably Rosen Method (Marion Rosen, Robert Harry Rovin), Transformational Bodywork (Stephen Allario, Fred Mitouer), Holistic Sexuality (Marina Romero), Interpersonal Dynamics (David Bradford), and psychotherapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
- I want to register for a class but will need to miss a class or two. Is that okay?
It is strongly recommended that students attend all classes. If you plan on missing more than one class, it is advised to wait and register for a course at a time when you’ll likely be able to attend all sessions. If you’ve already registered and know you will miss a class in advance, please contact the instructor. Each class builds on the previous one, so missing a class can impact your ability to engage in exercises and activities and get the full benefit of the course.
- How much meditation experience is required?
No previous meditation experience is required, although willingness to practice daily meditation is a key component of the training.
