Education for Compassionate Living
Empower yourself with skills & wisdom to make a difference
How can we live in harmony — with the earth and its inhabitants, and with ourselves? How can we decrease our harm footprint and increase our help footprint? How can each of us contribute to the greater good, while leading a balanced life?
These are some of the greatest questions of our time — and it is these questions that Dharmalaya Institute’s programmes are designed to help us explore.
WHAT IS COMPASSIONATE LIVING?
Com•pas•sion | kəmˈpaSHən | : A state of being in which one’s heart is open to feel empathy and caring for all beings.
Compassionate living: A mode of living in which one’s heart is open to feel empathy and caring for all beings, one’s mind is open to understand the experience of others and the interconnectedness we all share, and one’s choices and actions come from that place of informed caring.
› IN DEPTH: Read more about compassionate living
Living with compassion means caring enough to be sensitive to the impacts (both positive and negative) that our choices and actions have upon ourselves, our planet and all the beings we share it with, and striving to do the least harm and the best good possible.
WHY STUDY COMPASSIONATE LIVING?
Compassion is in our nature, so why would we want or need to study it? Well, for starters, because so many other forces in modern society have trained us to believe that ‘success’ and ‘development’ come from contorting ourselves to become the opposite of compassionate: competitive rather than cooperative; tough rather than sensitive; forceful rather than gentle; gluttonous rather than moderate; taking rather than giving; consumerist rather than sustainable; distracted and racing rather than slow and present; and thinking shallowly rather than feeling deeply — right? So we all have a lot to unlearn, relearn, and learn from scratch.
‘Education needs not only to develop our intelligence, but also to support the basic human values of warm-heartedness and compassion.’
— H.H. the Dalai Lama
The global climate crisis and the many injustices and inequities in our society demand that we look urgently at our own lives, to understand the impacts of our choices and actions. The good news is that there’s so much we can do to make a difference, and it’s so rewarding to be part of the solution!
Programmes for Compassionate Living: The Whole Picture
Dharmalaya Institute's programmes for compassionate living explore several interconnected areas of life.
Through meditation and mindfulness, cultivate a clearer, calmer mind that helps you focus productively.
Sustainable shelter solutions: nature-sensitive architectural design, earthen building, renewable energy, etc.
Sustainable shelter solutions: nature-sensitive architectural design, earthen building, renewable energy, etc.
High-yield organic agriculture, natural landscape architecture and permaculture design, plant-based nutrition and healthy cooking
Personal & Professional Development
Hands-on education and training in personal growth and professional skill development, including creativity, communication and leadership skills, etc.
We explore many topic that weave these areas together, such as permaculture, compassionate lifestyle design, voluntary simplicity, conscious consumption and waste management, DIY products, reuse and upcycling, and more.
Live more sustainably
Discover new solutions for sustainable thriving, so you can flourish while also helping nature flourish.
Deepen your understanding
Examine issues through new lenses to see their causes and possible solutions with holistic perspective.
Empower yourself
Develop your capacities for creativity, communication, collaboration and manifestation to clarify an inspiring vision and translate it into reality.
Our immersive courses & internships
Our long-term residential courses and internships offer the most in-depth learning opportunities for compassionate living. Holistic training programmes include:
Natural design and Contemplative Architecture
Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture
Internship in Permaculture & Organic Garden Design
Internship in Sustainable Project Development
Compassion in Action volunteer programme
See our Immersive Residential Courses page and Internships page for more information.
LEARN: COMPASSIONATE LIVING | DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE | NATURAL BUILDING | ORGANIC FOOD GROWING | MEDITATION & YOGA | PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
We have some big news to share with you about the future of Dharmalaya Institute, and the headline is that we want to invite you to be a part of it!