In Karuna Training we study the tantric mandala of the Five Buddha Families. Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means “circle” and “fringe”. It presents a way of viewing the many elements of the world as being interdependent and in continual relationship with one another. The Five Buddha Families offer a tool for understanding and working with the emotional energies that arise in ourselves and others. Each Family relates to a different color, an element (earth, water, fire, air and space), a conflicted emotion and the wisdom potential of transmuted emotional energies. Like the facets of a crystal, the Buddha Families and the elements are working together to comprise the brilliant sanity we naturally possess and experience in the world.

Maitri Space Awareness (MSA) is a practice that corresponds to the mandala of the Five Buddha Families and deeply engages the physical, emotional, and invisible energies as a transformational tool. Maitri space awareness helps to reveal the habitual tendencies that obscure our brilliant sanity and intrinsic health by refining our relationship with the world and its energies. MSA broadens our perspective by introducing the magic ingredient of space. Ever-present, both in and around us, relating with space in MSA practice, points us toward the Buddhist concept of nonduality and brings us into the potency of the present moment.

Karuna Training offers several methods for opening and strengthening our hearts and minds. We mainly apply our methods to social action and society's woes, which include discrimination against race, sexual orientation, disability, and other areas, like our implicit biases, where we may not see the more profound implications of our cultural conditioning. Body, Speech, and Mind is a group mindfulness-based practice that deepens our understanding of the patterns that replicate in our relationships, personally and intergenerationally. Speaking from the Heart is another group practice that helps us grow deep listening skills and expand our capacity for profound awareness of ourselves in relationship to others. The Four-Step Practice is a method for investigating, befriending, and transmuting difficult emotions into innate wisdom.