KRIYALIFE

Critical Thinking: A Workshop for Students

Most of us are taught what to think long before we are taught how to think. This short, focused workshop from Kriyalife is for students who want to close that gap. It runs alongside your current studies and does not compete with them. Using ideas from philosophy, we practise the habits that make thinking sharper and fairer: separating a claim from the reasons offered for it, noticing assumptions that go unquestioned, testing arguments before accepting them, and staying open to being wrong. You leave with a clearer way to read, write, argue and decide, which helps in your coursework and beyond it.

Ethics: A Workshop for Students

Ethics is not only for philosophy classrooms. It comes up whenever we choose between two things we care about, and in everyday questions of fairness, honesty, duty and responsibility. This short workshop from Kriyalife brings those questions into focus for students, alongside their regular studies. We look at how thinkers from different traditions, Indian and otherwise, have approached the question of how to live and act well. We then use real situations, not abstract puzzles, to practise reasoning about right and wrong with care and without easy answers. The aim is to leave you better able to explain your own choices, to understand people who see things differently, and to act with more thought.

Design Thinking with the Heart

Design thinking is usually taught as a toolkit of empathy maps, brainstorming rounds, prototypes and tests. This two-day workshop of 12 hours from Kriyalife asks what is missing from that picture, and finds part of the answer in Indian thought. It draws on the Sanskrit idea of pratibhā, the spark of creative insight, along with the traditions of kārayitrī (the capacity to make) and bhāvayitrī (the capacity to receive and feel what others experience). Together they treat design as an act of attention and care, as well as problem-solving. The aim is practical. Participants work on real problems from their own campus or community, and they learn to listen more closely, to build with intention, and to judge their work by who it serves. The workshop is built for schools, colleges and institutions that want to bring it to their own students and staff.