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Strategies for Supporting Our Compassionate Action
Certificate of Accomplishment offered at the conclusion of the Program
Taught By Tenzin Chogkyi
Beginning Saturday March 8, 2025
Lion’s Roar Dharma Center
3240 B Street, Sacramento, CA
When we see suffering we all want to do something about it, and many of us are called to the path of service in our communities. This calling is often a long journey; it is easy to get lost or tired. Joy and inspiration can give way to frustration and depletion, and the overwhelm that comes when we feel that there’s so much at stake.
We all need support to shore up our commitment and strengths, to persevere and sustain our compassionate action in the world, which includes service in our jobs, as family members, as volunteers as well to our friends and our community. The goal of this course is to provide tools for your path of compassionate service in the world. We will explore strategies, including meditations and other practices, that will support you.
The Program has eight topics presented in individual modules, and these modules will be offered in quarterly day-longs over the coming year. For each training date, one module will be offered in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each half-day module stands on its own while it contributes to the overall theme of Sustainable Service. You may attend either the morning or afternoon session, or the entire day. The Program includes lecture, interactive discussion and meditation.
At the end of the Program in March 2026, Lama Jinpa and Tenzin Chogkyi will present a certificate in recognition of the successful completion of the Program’s eight modules to those who have attended each session.
Topics and Course Outline
Part 1 – March 8, 2025
Module One: Clarifying Our Intentions
Morning session
In our life and spiritual practice, we emphasize being clear about our intentions and motivations as a way of staying focused and achieving our desired personal and spiritual goals. But sometimes our aspirations can be unclear or not in alignment with our highest ideals – how can we get in touch with intentions that are authentic and lead to benefit for both ourselves and others?
An exploration of our core values can support our highest aspirations and also affirm what is most meaningful for us. In this module, we will clarify our own core values and motivations for spiritual practice and service.
Module Two: Building Resilience by Balancing Empathy
Afternoon session
Our lives can sometimes feel overwhelming as we face global and national crises, in addition to difficulties in our work and family lives. And sometimes in the face of others’ distress and suffering, we can feel overwhelmed or shut down. How do we generate a compassionate response in the face of others’ suffering and our own? How do we increase our own resilience and ability to meet these challenges?
The answer is balanced empathy, which helps us build a way of relating to others that doesn’t burn us out, but draws forth our best ability to help ourselves and others. In this module we will explore empathy and emotional resilience. You will learn techniques empowering you to relate to yourself and others in healthy and more balanced ways.
Part 2 – July 12, 2025
Module One: What’s Holding You Back?
Morning session
We might feel called to a path of service with a clear intention and an empathic connection to others, but still feel that there is something holding us back. We might aspire to establish a more regular spiritual practice, but find despite our best intentions, our habits don’t change. What’s holding us back?
These obstacles might be our own limiting beliefs, organizational and structural limitations, and our own fears and biases. In this module, we will explore the obstacles to our spiritual path and the path of service, and how we might be able to apply awareness and compassion to overcome them.
Module Two: Compassionate Boundaries
Afternoon session
How do we help others while taking care of ourselves? How can we say “no” and set limits with compassion? How do we set limits while staying connected in our relationships?
It’s easy to think that being kind and compassionate means that we have to be available to everyone, 24/7, and do whatever it is they ask of us. We feel guilty about saying “no” or valuing our own needs. As a result, instead of feeling open and compassionate, we end up feeling resentful, stressed, and burned out. Is this really the meaning of compassion? How can we set boundaries compassionately so that we can hold ourselves with care while helping others?
Join us for this exploration of this important question – real compassion training for real life. Participants will gain insights and skills that will allow them to show up with compassion and altruistic action sustainably, thus avoiding burn-out.
Part 3 – November 8, 2025
Module One: Managing Conflict Compassionately
Morning session
In this module, we will gain insight into how conflict works, why it happens, and practical skills and steps we can use to address conflict using an informative, interactive, and fun process. The aim is to improve our capacity to listen without defensiveness, speak without offending, find common ground, and reach mutually satisfying solutions.
Participants will find that the skills learned in this training also greatly benefit their interactions at work, at home, and in the community.’
Module Two: Self-compassion: What it is, what it’s not and how it can make you happier
Afternoon session
Self-compassion is simply treating yourself with the same kindness, concern, and support you’d show a good friend. Why is it so difficult? What are some of the obstacles to self-compassion? Is there a way we can train ourselves in self-compassion?
In this module, we will explore some of the current research showing that increasing our self-compassion resources us, and motivates us to reach out in connection and service to others. We will learn simple self-compassion practices to support our development of this fundamental skill.
Part 4 – March, 2026
Module One: Managing Emotions Mindfully
Morning session
Our emotions can lead us to our greatest joys and most painful sorrows. In their most creative capacity, they are guides pointing us towards who we truly are and what is most meaningful in our lives. However, most of us struggle with disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, jealousy, resentment, etc. At their most destructive, we are caught by them: lost in the grip of anger, sadness, fear, or overwhelm. This suffering is something we have all felt, but we can create more space, choice, and ease in the face of it.
In this module, we will explore approaches to dealing with disturbing emotions, including understanding the function of emotions, recognizing and working with emotional triggers and cultivating constructive emotional responses.
Module Two: Reclaiming Joy
Afternoon session
What is the role of joy on the spiritual path? The bodhisattva path and the path of compassion require us to have an awareness of the suffering of beings – are joy and compassion contradictory? Or can joy be used to sustain our spiritual path and practice?
Join us for an exploration of the theme of joy on the spiritual path. To support our exploration of joy, we will draw from sources as diverse as 8th Century Indian master Shantideva, research psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and poet Ross Gay.
How to Attend
Click here to register. We encourage pre-registration to help us plan, but you may also register at the door on the day of the training. Individual sessions registration is $25.00 and the complete date is $50.00. On-site Teacher Dana recommended.
Lunch will be on your own with water and coffee supplied at the temple. Parking available in the adjacent parking lot and on the street.
For questions, please contact Susan Farrar at info@lionsroardharmacenter.org.
About Tenzin Chogkyi
Tenzin Chogkyi (she/her/hers) is a teacher of workshops and programs that bridge the worlds of Buddhist thought, contemplative practice, mental and emotional cultivation, and the latest research in the field of positive psychology. Tenzin first became interested in meditation in the early 1970s and then started practicing Tibetan Buddhism in early 1991 during a year she spent studying in India and Nepal. She completed several long meditation retreats over a six-year period and took monastic ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, practicing as a monastic for nearly 20 years. Since 2006 she has been teaching in Buddhist centers around the world and taught in prisons for 15 years. .
She is also a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training and the Cultivating Emotional Balance program. Tenzin is especially interested in bringing the wisdom of Buddhism into modern culture and into alignment with modern cultural values such as racial and gender justice and environmental awareness. She feels strongly that a genuine and meaningful spiritual path includes not only personal transformation, but social and cultural transformation as well.
She is currently based in Santa Cruz, California. You can find her current teaching schedule as well as an archive of podcasts, audio, and video teachings at unlockingtruehappiness.org.