Wholehearted Living: An Introduction to the Heart Practices
With Joyrce Curnan
What does it mean to practice kindness, compassion, joy and balance as a way of life?
A 5-Week Course on the Four Immeasurables
Every day, our hearts respond to the world — with tenderness or tension, openness or resistance. These responses shape our lives more than we realize. The Buddhist tradition offers a powerful set of practices, called the Brahma Viharas, to help us work skillfully with emotions and cultivate kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity- qualities of heart that are both innate and trainable.
During this five-week course we’ll explore the Brahma Viharas as meditation practices, daily life attitudes, and practical tools. Each session will focus on one of the four qualities (with the last class for integration), exploring how to bring them more fully into our relationships with ourselves, with others — even with those we find difficult — and with the world as a whole.
Together, we will:
Practice brahmavihāra meditations that awaken and stabilize the heart.
Explore how these qualities can support wisdom, not just kindness.
Reflect on what holds us back from meeting the world with love and balance.
The classes will offer meditations, talks, journaling prompts, and inquiry, with optional reflections and readings between sessions.
Here’s an overview of the classes:
Week 1: Loving-Kindness (Metta) — The Heart’s Willingness to Include
We begin with Metta, the foundational heart quality in Buddhist practice. Loving-kindness is a warm friendliness toward ourselves and others, not based on liking or agreement, but simply on the shared human wish to be well.
Week 2: Compassion (Karuna) — Meeting Suffering With Tenderness
Compassion arises when loving-kindness meets suffering. It’s the deep wish that ourselves and others be free from pain — and the courage to stay present with what hurts.
Week 3: Empathetic Joy (Mudita) — Delight in the Joy of Others
In a world often steeped in comparison, competition, and scarcity, Mudita offers an antidote: the ability to rejoice in others' happiness as if it were our own
This week we’ll be leaning into gladness, noticing beauty in ordinary moments, and making a habit of celebrating life — your own and others'.
Week 4: Equanimity (Upekkha) — The Still Heart in the Storm
Equanimity is not indifference. It’s the ability to stay steady, clear, and spacious — to meet the joys and sorrows of life with balance and perspective.
Week 5: Integration
In our final week, we weave these qualities together and look at their deeper implications for life and further practice
Who This Course Is For
This course is for anyone curious about living life with more kindness, presence, and connection — whether you're brand new to meditation or have been practicing for years.
Date: Five Thursdays from 13 November until 11 December 2025
Time: 19.00-21.00
Location: Studio HOT Shala 2 | Jan van Scorelstraat 41 | Utrecht
Price (incl. VAT):
€139 Early Bird until 1 October
€159 Regular
Meditation Unveiled: discover the power of meditation in our 5-week courses
Discover the transformative power of meditation in a series of 5-week courses, offered throughout the year from different perspectives. Each session explores the practice of meditation, the technique, and the deeper "why" behind it. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to deepen your practice, this course offers practical tools, guided meditations, and reflections to help you find clarity, balance, and a renewed sense of purpose in your daily life. Embark on a journey inward and uncover what meditation can truly bring to your world.
When you complete a course, you will have the tools you need to support your meditation practice. An environment of openness and genuine community will be nourished in order to discuss and clarify the foundation of meditation, and how it can be a part of your everyday life. See all our 5-week Meditation Unveiled courses:
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