A course in developing love and compassion through practice, study, and evidence-based insight.
This course offers practical training in meditation techniques designed to cultivate love and compassion — toward yourself and others. Drawing from classical Buddhist sources and modern science, it’s an opportunity to develop emotional resilience, mental clarity, and a more grounded sense of inner and outer connection in daily life.
You’ll be introduced to time-tested practices from the Theravāda and Tibetan traditions, while also learning how these techniques are supported by contemporary research in neuroscience, psychology, and physiology. You will thus be able to explain, connect to and teach the practices both from a spiritual, and scientific perspective.
You will receive an e-book with weekly readings – both from traditional texts and excerpts of scientific studies, in addition to a practical workbook wherein you can journal your practice and reflect upon your own interpretations and progress.
What the course includes:
- Loving-kindness and compassion meditations, based on the Metta Sutta, that help reduce self-judgment and foster goodwill toward others
- Detailed meditation training from the Visuddhimagga, a classical manual outlining step-by-step methods for developing concentration and emotional clarity
- The Seven Point Mind Training (Lojong) from the Tibetan tradition, offering practical tools for transforming difficulty and working skillfully with everyday experience.
- Tonglen practice, a method of breathing in pain and breathing out compassion — cultivating strength, openness, and empathy
The science behind the practice:
Over the past two decades, scientific studies have consistently shown that compassion-based meditation practices are linked to a range of mental and physiological benefits:
- Lowered stress levels and reduced activity in the brain’s threat-response systems
- Increased activation in areas associated with empathy, self-awareness, and emotion regulation
- Improved heart rate variability and vagal tone — markers of nervous system resilience
- Enhanced immune response, better sleep, and greater overall well-being
- A measurable increase in self-compassion, emotional balance, and connection to others
These are not vague benefits — they’re results being observed in clinical trials, therapeutic contexts, and neuroscience labs around the world. In this course, we will examine and discuss these studies in order to understand the biological and neurological effects of cultivating compassion.
A meeting point between tradition and science:
This course brings together rigorous spiritual training and contemporary insight. Participants will study foundational texts — including the Metta Sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and the Seven Point Mind Training — not as distant relics, but as practical frameworks for working with the mind and heart here and now – backed by the research that is included in the study material.
This course brings together rigorous spiritual training and contemporary insight. Participants will study foundational texts — including the Metta Sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and the Seven Point Mind Training — not as distant relics, but as practical frameworks for working with the mind and heart here and now – backed by the research that is included in the study material.
Whether you’re new to meditation or experienced in practice, this course offers a structured approach to cultivating love and compassion with clarity and depth.
Certification Path:
For those interested in sharing these practices with others, completion of this course can serve as a foundation for certification. Participants who complete all course requirements — including practice hours, study components, and peer engagement — will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion and begin guiding others in compassion-based meditation.
For those interested in sharing these practices with others, completion of this course can serve as a foundation for certification. Participants who complete all course requirements — including practice hours, study components, and peer engagement — will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion and begin guiding others in compassion-based meditation.
This track is ideal for yoga teachers, therapists, coaches, educators, and anyone looking to integrate compassion practices into their professional or community work. Further mentorship and advanced training options will also be available for those wishing to deepen their teaching.
Format and structure:
- Weekly online sessions
- Guided meditations, group discussion, and lectures
- Study material, at-home practices, and optional journaling prompts
- Certification track with clear practice and study benchmarks
If you’re looking for a serious, grounded training in compassion — rooted in both ancient wisdom and modern science — this course is for you.
Upon signing up for this course, you will receive an e-book with the different core texts, practices and studies we will employ as the foundation for this program.
The classes will be given online, via zoom. All recordings will be made available for participants to revisit at any time.
Course contents:
Week 1 – Foundations: Why Compassion?
- Theme: The need for compassion in today’s world
- Practice: Introduction to mindfulness and grounding practices
- Study: Overview of the course, historical and scientific context
Content:
- What is compassion? Why cultivate it?
- Introduction to the scientific research on compassion meditation
- The physiology of stress and the heart-mind connection
- Overview of the Metta Sutta, Visuddhimagga, and Seven Point Mind Training
Week 2 – Loving-Kindness Toward Self
- Theme: Building a foundation of care inwardly
- Practice: Metta bhāvanā – loving-kindness meditation for oneself
- Study: Metta Sutta – key verses and interpretation
Content:
- The challenge of self-judgment
- Neural pathways of self-compassion
- How self-kindness shifts emotional resilience and reduces reactivity
Week 3 – Loving-Kindness for Others
- Theme: Expanding the circle of care
- Practice: Loving-kindness for a benefactor, friend, neutral person, and difficult person
- Study: Visuddhimagga – the development of the four Brahmavihāras
- Content:
- Cultivating equanimity and connection
- The role of attention and visualization
- Empathy fatigue vs. compassion resilience (science)
Week 4 – Working with Suffering: Introduction to Tonglen
- Theme: Meeting pain with compassion
- Practice: Basic Tonglen (giving and receiving) practice
- Study: Introduction to Lojong / Seven Point Mind
- Training
- Content:
- The psychology of avoidance and aversion
- Neurobiological models of compassion response
- First look at Lojong slogans: “Drive all blames into one,” “When the world is filled with evil, transform adversity into the path of awakening”
Week 5 – Deepening Compassion: Self and Others
- Theme: Tonglen and compassion under pressure
- Practice: Expanded Tonglen practice for self and others
- Study: More Lojong slogans, application to daily life
- Content:
- Emotional regulation and the vagus nerve
- Case studies from clinical practice and trauma-informed approaches
- Working with resistance, numbness, and overwhelm
Week 6 – The Path of Transformation
- Theme: Using life’s difficulties as fuel for practice
- Practice: Contemplative reflection on impermanence, reactivity, and emotional triggers
- Study: Key Lojong slogans: “Be grateful to everyone,” “Don’t expect applause”
- Content:
- Neuroscience of emotional re-patterning
The concept of “mental training” from both Buddhist and modern views - How compassion increases cognitive flexibility and behavioral change
Week 7 – Integrating Practice and Science
- Theme: Compassion as embodied understanding
- Practice: Combined metta + Tonglen session; journaling
- Study: Integration review — Metta Sutta, Visuddhimagga, Lojong
- Content:
- Overview of scientific findings: summary and application
- Q&A on meditation challenges
- Designing a sustainable home practice
- Peer sharing and discussion
Week 8 – Teaching and Moving Forward
- Theme: Sustaining the path and sharing it
- Practice: Leading a short session in small groups
- Study: Ethical foundations of teaching meditation
- Content:
- What makes someone ready to guide others?
- Reflections on compassion in leadership and service
- Review of certification requirements and next steps
- Closing practice and ceremony
