Workshop on Developing Genuine Love and Compassion-a Buddhist Approach

Love and Compassion: Exploring What We Think We Know
Most of us believe we know what love is — until we try to define it.

This workshop explores love and compassion from both everyday experience and the Buddhist tradition, bringing these perspectives into conversation with each other. Along the way we will examine some genuinely challenging questions: Is romantic love actually love? What distinguishes love from unhealthy attachment? And how might we test whether what we feel is the real thing?

The session will move through four connected stages:

We begin with small-group exploration of your own definitions of love and compassion, before opening into whole-group discussion. These personal reflections are then brought into dialogue with how Buddhism understands these qualities — often in surprising and illuminating ways.

We then turn to the obstacles. What makes it so difficult to generate genuine love and compassion? Drawing on Buddhist psychology, we will inquire together into the inner conditions that keep these qualities at a distance.

From there, we explore practical methods for working with and transforming these obstacles — not as abstract techniques but as tools that can make a real difference in how we live and relate.

Finally, a guided meditation will give you a direct experience of these methods in action — an opportunity to feel, rather than simply understand, how the obstacles can soften and genuine love and compassion begin to arise naturally.

The time will be divided into two sessions of approximately one hour, with a short break between them.
Come with an open and curious mind. Nothing presented here needs to be accepted or believed. The aim is simply to offer perspectives and practices that may enrich your understanding and, in some way, support your life.

Afterwards, we warmly invite you to join us at a local café for further conversation.
The Presenter-Alan Carter
Alan has trained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for over 32 years. He completed and graduated from a 8 years of an extensive study program in Buddhist philosophy. He has run numerous workshops and classes on applied Buddhism. He has spent over 1.5 years in retreat(not continuously) including a 3 month solitary retreat.

***