Karuna Training is an education program of Upaya Limited, a German non-profit company in Cologne.
We are a provider of contemplative trainings in mindfulness and compassion that are designed for people in therapeutic and social professions. The trainings consist of meditative components and have been developed on the basis of the connection of Buddhist tradition and western therapeutic perspective.
Upaya is a word from Sanskrit and means skillful means. In Buddhist psychology it says that from wisdom (the understanding of the nature of mind) grows the knowledge about the skillful means with the world. The Upaya gGmbH is based on the notion, to combine the wisdom of the meditative Buddhist tradition—like mindfulness and meditation—with the methods of western medicine and psychology. Upaya offers trainings in contemplative psychology (Karuna) and contemplative healing (menla), that are designed for people in order to learn about those Buddhist methods and integrate them into their professional practice. The trainings take place in an open set up made for western people.
The content of the trainings are derived from the master studies at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
International
Karuna Training is being offered internationally:
Karuna Training in Germany since 1998
Karuna Training in the Netherlands since 2005
Karuna Training in France since 2006
Karuna Training in Austria since 2010
Karuna Training in Poland since 2013
Karuna Training in Spain since 2014
Karuna Training in North America since 2015
Karuna Training in Sweden since 2016