Teachers: John Makransky and Jessie Morey
Event Type: In-person retreat
Dates: December 4 to December 7 (arrive on 12.4 from 3-5 pm; depart after lunch 12.7 at 1:30pm).
Location: Potash Hill, 2582 South Road, Marlboro, VT 05344
https://www.potashhill.org/

For information and registration, contact jessiemorey@gmail.com.

Description:

From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, our buddha nature is the boundless space of awareness, warmth, and wisdom that is always present beneath our conditioned patterns of thought and reaction. This retreat introduces three modes of meditation—receptive, deepening, and inclusive—drawn from Tibetan Buddhism and supported by insights from modern psychology. These meditations are designed to help us realign with our innate buddha qualities, making us into a profoundly healing environment for all parts of ourselves and others, from which to hold all in a sustaining power of compassion and wisdom.

This retreat is both for Buddhist practitioners and for people of all faiths who have previous contemplative experience and seek an accessible way to cultivate unconditional love and wisdom. The weekend will include explanation of the principles of the practice, guided meditations, Q&A, and discussion. Noble silence will be practiced.

Prerequisites:

At least two years of daily contemplative practice (meditation or prayer). And before the retreat, please read How Compassion Works or as much of it as possible. Meditation handouts will be provided.

Bios:

John Makransky, PhD, has been Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, Senior Academic Advisor for Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Center for Buddhist Studies in Nepal, Contemplative Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, and President of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies. John has published books and articles that focus on connections between devotion, compassion, and wisdom in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning, including Buddhahood Embodied (1997), Buddhist Theology (2000), Awakening through Love (2007), and How Compassion Works (2025). In 2000 John was ordained as a Lama in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and since then has taught meditations of innate compassion and wisdom to modern Buddhists, people of diverse faiths, and those in caring professions to empower their spiritual paths, lives and work. For that, John developed the Sustainable Compassion Training model (https://sustainablecompassion.org/).

Jessica Morey is a Buddhist meditation teacher with over three decades of practice. Rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and trained in Burmese Vipassana (Mahasi style), she also draws from Tibetan Vajrayana lineages through study with John Makransky, Dr. Dan Brown, and Reggie Ray. Her teaching integrates deep Dharma practice with psychological and somatic healing modalities—including Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, and attachment-based approaches. Jess brings a warm, grounded approach to helping people weave Dharma into the fabric of their work and relationships. Before teaching full-time, she worked in clean energy and climate finance, and later founded Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and the Contemplative Semester.