Embodying Wise Love in Relationships and Action:
Sustainable Compassion Training
June 4, 2016 John Makransky, PhD
To be a healing presence for others, we need to heal deep within. For that, we need to connect to a more open, unconditional part of our being, a basic kindness and compassion available in the background of our experience, in our basic awareness. In this presentation, meditation practices from Tibet are adapted for fresh access to Westerners, with special focus on innate capacities of loving compassion and wisdom. To receive love deeply and extend it impartially can help the mind release into its most natural state—the wisdom of openness, simplicity and presence beyond self-clinging. By resting in its natural state, the mind can deeply relax, heal, and further unleash its innate capacity of loving compassion. When this unity of love and wisdom is embodied in relationships, service and action, it can become a deeply healing power for our world. The ancient path of awakening from the Buddha is rediscovered by paying new attention to the particulars of our lives.
Biography : John Makransky, PhD John Makransky is Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior academic advisor for Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies in Nepal and President of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies. John is the developer of the Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT) model, and co-founder and guiding teacher of the Courage of Care Coalition and the Foundation for Active Compassion, organizations that train people in stable care and sustainable compassion. John’s academic writings have focused on connections between doctrine and practice in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist contemplative practices to address contemporary issue and needs, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. For the past fifteen years, John has taught ways to cultivate sustainable care and compassion, adapted from Buddhism in newly accessible ways, to teachers, healthcare givers, social workers, psychotherapists, and those who work with prisoners, at-risk youth, the hungry, and the dying. He has offered meditation workshops at Kathmandu University, Harvard Divinity and Medical Schools, Brown University, Emory University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Virginia, Boston College and many other institutions. Information on his work can be found at these websites: http://courageofcare.org; http://foundationforactivecompassion.org; and http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/theology/faculty/jmakransky.html
