LONG-TERM RESIDENTIAL COURSES
A life-changing experience:
Invest a year in your learning & empowerment
Highlights:
Dedicate yourself to living your passions without distractions
Deeper integration of theory and practice
Research & application projects
Supportive community of kindred spirits
Healthy lifestyle
Learn it by living it!
Transformative and empowering experiences… hands-on learning… nature… sustainability… creativity… meditation… yoga… introspection… community… All the best Dharmalaya Institute has to offer comes together in our immersive long-term residential courses.
Typically a one-year minimum
(most may be completed in a single continuous period or in a modular fashion over a longer period)
If you’re passionate about learning and growth and you’re inspired to take a deep dive into the topics we explore here, you’ll find Dharmalaya Institute’s most profoundly enriching experiences in our long-term residential courses. These unique courses offer the precious opportunity to spend a year (or more) immersing yourself completely in the lived experience of what you’re studying: learning, working, and evolving both personally and professionally — all while practicing compassionate living at Dharmalaya’s beautiful Himalayan campus with a supportive community of kindred spirits.
While all of Dharmalaya Institute’s programmes combine theory and practice, it is our long-term immersive residential courses that foster the strongest integration of the two, offering a learning experience that is both more practical and more profoundly transformative. The yearlong calendar allows time for a more comprehensive syllabus, a greater depth and breadth of hands-on experience, and deeper learning through a sustained rhythm of experience, reflection, and conversation. These long-term courses provide a fertile field in which participants are nurtured to grow toward their greater potential in a healthy and sustainable way, with abundant space and time for learning and empowerment to unfold organically and spaciously.
‘The bridge between knowledge and skill is practice.
The bridge between skill and mastery is time.’— Jim Bouchard
Modular course structure for integration, flexibility and individualization
Our immersive courses are designed with a modular structure, meaning they are comprised of several different types of learning experiences stitched into one coherent stream, e.g. training workshops, study assignments, hands-on practice periods, and special projects. This modular approach has several benefits: it facilitates holistic learning and supports the integration of theory and practice, while also providing time for review and reflection; it allows us to make time for individual projects exploring each individual’s particular interests; and it provides flexibility for those whose time is limited by professional or family duties to complete the course at their own pace.
The modular structure of our long-term immersive residential courses is comprised of the following core elements:
Initial orientation and training workshop (required*)
The initial training workshop (typically 1-3 weeks) provides an orientation to Dharmalaya life and introductory instruction in fundamental skills and concepts related to the course topic. It also serves as a trial period to confirm whether the course is well-suited for the participant, and vice-versa. The initial training workshop can be completed either before the one-year course begins (i.e. first do a short workshop at Dharmalaya Institute and then decide about the long-term course) or right at the start of the long-term course.
(*Note that the prerequisite for the initial training workshop is generally required for all applicants, but may be waived for applicants who have completed a programme at Dharmalaya Institute within the past two years, as if that programme had a similar topic to the long-term course then it might satisfy the requirement for orientation and training, to be determined on a case-by-case basis.)
Main body of the course: a structured rhythm of complementary modules
Intensive workshops: In a one-year residential course, there are at least four intensive workshops (typically 10-21 days each), during which the most substantial parts of the course syllabus are covered, including both theory and practice.
Practicums: Each intensive workshop is followed by a practicum period (typically a few weeks each), which provides time to put what was explored during the workshop into practice, thereby deepening one’s understanding and improving one’s skills. Practicums generally also involve journaling or other documentation.
Special assignments: At various points in the course, there will be research assignments and/or hands-on projects (depending on the course), which may be individual or group projects.
Retreats: Long-term residential courses typically include one or more retreat experiences, which provide time for reflection, rest, contemplation and integration — all of which are vital to the experiential learning process.
Special project: An opportunity for extended focus on a meaningful project (either individually or as part of a group) that challenges participants to apply their learning and stretch into their greater capacities.
Final seminar
Our long-term residential courses conclude with a final seminar, which serves to bring together all of the experiences of the course and explore them as a coherent whole. This involves significant reflection, journaling, and discussion, and may also include thesis presentations. The final seminar also helps participants prepare for the transition toward whatever they might be doing after the course.
Current and upcoming programmes
Natural Design & Contemplative Architecture
TBA: Next intake projected for late 2024 or early 2025
This course is a rare opportunity to conduct a deep and transformative exploration of a contemplative approach natural design, the power of space and form and the creative process. The unique fifteen-month programme will lead us through the birth of a structure, from site study to design to construction, with meaningful participation in each stage of the process.
Nourished by a daily meditation and yoga programme, this is a holistic and embodied course that seeks to engage the whole of us in its enquiry and contemplation of nature and our natural place within it.
Building a Better World Series:
Empowering Changemakers, Educators & Leaders
Timing: Ongoing with multiple intakes each year
Dharmalaya Institute is partnering with Earthville Institute in the USA to bring you this unique long-term programme specifically for caring people like you who want to make a positive impact in the world. This precious opportunity is designed to empower you as an insightful, sensitive, and effective agent of change, and to help you develop your skills for making inspirations into realities.
One year +
May be completed as a continuous year-long residential course or in a modular fashion over a longer period
15 months +
May be completed as a continuous 15-month residential course or in a modular fashion over a longer period, or simply take individual freestanding courses
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