Featured Courses

The range of courses offered in the Featured Courses section of the Charter Education Institute stem from assisting individuals, teams and organizations around the world on understanding the mind and heart of a compassionate community and explore processes that create paths to design sustainable action plans to meet local, national and international challenges.  In addition, just as many of us engage in different circles of culture and society, so does the Charter for Compassion.  The Charter supports work in twelve sectors: art, business, education, environment, healthcare, interfaith (religion and spirituality), peace, science and research, social justice, social services, restorative justice, and women and girls.  Consequently, course work is being desired and implemented in each of these sectors.  

Vist this page periodically to see current listing of courses which usually change monthly or bi-monthly.

Emotional Intelligence for a Compassionate World 2021

Starting Date:  May 17, 2021
Duration: 6 weeks

Cost: $60 US
Zoom: One zoom session will be included.
Registration: Now Open

Maybe you’ve thought about how empowering it could be to join with others who are willing to take action for a more compassionate world.

And maybe you’ve recognized that building Emotional Intelligence skills could be helpful to you in your relationships as well as in building a more compassionate community where you live.

Emotional Intelligence skills and competencies can become the fertile ground for a more compassionate world. The skills that contribute to Emotional Intelligence can lead to the development of empathy and compassion--in individuals, in families, in the workplace, in communities, and among the interconnected societies of people throughout the world.

During this course, you will discover your own Emotional Intelligence strengths, learn ways to add to your Emotional Intelligence competencies, and consider practical ways to apply your skills to build a more compassionate world.

Learn more about the course and register.

Compassionate Integrity Training - Spring 2021

Start Date: Thursday April 29, 2021
End Date: July 1, 2021
Time: 2 hours starting at 9 a.m. E.T./6 a.m. P.T./2 p.m. GMT/6:30 p.m. IST/11 p.m. AEST.
Duration: 10 weeks

Registration: Now Open
Registration will be limited to 75 participants

Cost: The full price for Compassionate Integrity Training is $250.00. Life University’s guiding principle of "Lasting Purpose: To Give, To Do, To Love, To Serve – Out of a Sense of Abundance" allows us to offer this course based on what you can afford. If $250 exceeds your financial means, then pay what you can based on the options provided during Registration.

Have you ever wondered how you could cultivate the compassion called for in the Charter or help others cultivate that compassion? Compassionate Integrity Training () is a great place to start!

CIT is a resiliency-informed program that cultivates human values as skills, so we can thrive as individuals, and a society, within a healthy environment.  By learning skills to calm our bodies and mind, becoming more emotionally aware, learning to practice compassion for ourselves and others, as well as engaging with compassion in complex systems, we can build towards compassionate integrity: the ability to live one’s life in accordance with one’s values with a recognition of common humanity, our basic orientation to kindness and reciprocity. 

Click here to learn more about the course and register.

Poetry for Inspiration and Wellbeing

Growing Whole, Not Old
 -- Aging in the Pandemic Age

Start Date: June 7, 2021
Duration: 4 weeks
Price: $30
Zoom: Wednesdays, June 16th & June 30th, 8 a.m. PDT
Use this date/time converter to calculate your local time.

Registration: Opening May

Beginning with the 20th Century, people approaching elderhood could expect to live another 20 or 30 years.  However, the worldwide impact of the Coronavirus, has presented us all with new constraints, increased isolation, and amplified fears. Ironically, the bright side is that this pandemic has shed light on how important it is to find our purpose and plan for the future with clarity. Now, more than ever - comes the question - "How do you want to live these years?"

Sage-ing® (also known as Spiritual Eldering or Conscious Aging) offers a new and viable approach to growing older.  It is a model for aging more deliberately, more joyfully, and more compassionately.

Click here to learn more about the course. Registration Opening soon.

 
How to Build Resilience in a Polarized World
-- Practical tools to reduce stress and increase balance

Start Date: 28 June 2021
Duration: 4 weeks
Registration: Now Open
Price: $30.00

Zoom: 30 June and 22 July 2020 09.00PDT - 2 hours in length
Use this date/time converter to calculate your local time.

How do you feel when watching the news? The daily round of protest, accusation, dispute and suffering can be exhausting. It can sometimes seem as if the whole world is in turmoil and people have forgotten the importance of dialogue and resolution.

The world seems sharply polarized along lines of race, gender, equality, prosperity, climate change and many more.  The Corona crisis—and now the vaccine rollout—has only served to intensify the divisions between countries, communities and individuals.

This is profoundly worrying and stressful. We can be left feeling powerless and bereft of solutions. We worry that it’s all too much to cope with.

This online course offers a way through....

Click here to learn more about the course.  Registration will open Late May/Early June

Our Sense-Able Nature
-- Mindfully Reconnecting with the Natural World

Start Date: July 19, 2021
Duration: 4 weeks
Cost: $30 U.S.
Facilitator: Kate Trnka

Zoom: July 20, July 27, August 3, August 10; 6 am PDT
Use this date/time converter to calculate your local time.

Registration: Opening late June

There are many wonderful health benefits when we mindfully engage with nature. More and more, science is telling us that it is imperative to our health and well-being that we have an intimate relationship with the natural world. And, with the pandemic wreaking havoc on our health in so many ways, it’s more important than ever to really “be” with nature. This course is designed to introduce you to simple ways to re-member yourself with the natural world - resulting in amazing mental, emotional, physical and spiritual benefits along the way.

You will be guided through a variety of ways you can commune with the natural world. We will learn about natural attractions and begin the process of engaging with our 54 natural senses/sensitivities - yes, 54.

I’ve chosen to feature a variety of different activities than those in the previous version of this course. So, whether you’re taking this for the first time, or are a returning participant, you will be able to participate in a variety of connecting-with-nature activities and still be provided with the necessary groundwork to get us all started on the same foot.

Click here to learn more about the course. Registration Opening soon.

Pathway to Awareness, Acceptance and Compassion
-- Introducing 25 meditation practices

Start Date: August 30, 2021
Cost: $50 US
Duration: 6 weeks
Facilitator: Rakhee Sharma

Registration: Coming late July

Do you struggle with striving for “more” despite having accomplished much in your life, and having your basic needs—and more—met?

Do you find yourself submerged in habits and patterns with people and circumstances, where you believe that others need to change, rather than looking inward?

We are so often attracted to finding the quickest and easiest path to happiness and fulfilment. But is that path the most effective and compassionate?

This course will help you to recognise your suffering and its causes, and to transform suffering into mindfulness, compassion, peace, joy and inner freedom.

It includes learning 25 contemplative practices through reflective exercises, videos, audio meditations, stories and more, through our online platform, as well as deepening our practice with live Zoom sessions, and sharing in small breakout groups.

“Most people are afraid of suffering, but suffering is a kind of mud to help the lotus flower of happiness grow. There can be no lotus flower without the mud.”

 – Thich Nhat Hanh

Click here to learn more about the course. Registration Opening soon.

Fostering Compassionate Civic Culture
-- A Community Builder's Guide to Human Flourishing

Start Date: October 4, 2021
Duration: 4 weeks
Cost: $30 U.S.
Facilitator: Diane Kalen-Sukra

Zoom Live-Chats with the Instructor:
October 11 and 25, 2021 at 7PM CST

Our capacity to collaborate and innovate together has been undermined by the increase in incivility, toxic behaviour and divisiveness in our homes, schools, workplaces, and the public square. This erodes our sense of belonging, community, and well-being. 

We need each other to address the complex challenges facing our communities and our cities – from aging infrastructure to climate change, homelessness, mental health and addiction issues among many others.

To thrive, our communities depend on our ability to revive the art of living and working well together. In this thought-provoking and inspiring course, you’ll be taken on a journey from “Bullyville”, a broken, toxic and divided community to “Sustainaville”, a safe, inclusive, thriving and resilient community.

The successful journey includes a renewal of pro-social human values and practices rooted in compassion, secular ethics, civic education and systemic culture transformation. 

Compassionate cities are made up of compassionate people. This course orients you and then provides you with practical tools to be the change.

Click here to learn more about the course. Registration Opening this Fall.

An Ongoing Course

Compassion Integrity Training (CIT) for Educators