Sustainable Compassion Training

Accessing the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-12-04 - 2025-12-07 | Potash Hill, 2582 South Road, Marlboro, VT, 05344, United States
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:
https://jessicamorey.org/events/makransky-dec-retreat/
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.

Being Harmonized with the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-11-15 - 2025-11-16 | Online
Teacher: John Makransky
Event Type: Weekend on-line retreat
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2025-being-harmonized-with-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/

Being Harmonized With the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-10-19 - 2025-10-21 | Holy Wisdom Monastery, 4200 Co Hwy M, Middleton, WI, 53562, United States
Teacher: John Makransky
Event Type: In-person three day retreat
Organization: Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI
Information and registration:
https://holywisdommonastery.org/event/being-harmonized-with-unconditional-love/
Registration will begin in June, 2025
From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, our buddha nature is the basic space of our being that is undivided from vast capacities of awareness, warmth, love, compassion and wisdom. These capacities are always available below our surface consciousness, but often hidden by our conditioned habits of thought and reaction. In this retreat, we will learn three modes of practice derived from Tibetan Buddhism that empower each other as they harmonize us with those innate capacities. The receptive mode generates a field of care that helps us find immediate access to unconditional qualities of love and wisdom from the depth of our awareness (our buddha nature). In the deepening mode, we let those qualities help the mind settle into their source—the non-conceptual openness, simplicity, clarity, and compassionate warmth of our buddha nature. In the inclusive mode we come from that depth of being to recognize others in their depth, and to include them in those unconditional qualities of openness and compassion. This contemplative process also empowers our ability to discern the empty, constructed nature of our experiences, freeing the mind for further access to its innate awakening capacities.
In this retreat, we will adapt this pattern of practice from Tibetan Buddhism, with some assistance from modern psychology, to make it accessible both for Buddhist practitioners and for people of all faiths who have contemplative practice experience and seek not just an intellectual dialogue with Buddhism but a deep experiential encounter with it that might freshly illumine analogous depths of their own tradition.
Guided meditations, Q&A and discussion. Prerequisites: At least two previous years of regular contemplative practice (meditation, ritual or prayer). Before the retreat, please read John’s book Awakening through Love (Wisdom, 2007) or How Compassion Works (co-authored with Paul Condon, Shambhala, 2025), or as much of it as possible.

Tonglen Sunday
2025-10-05 09:30 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid: In-Person and Online
Teachers: Paul Condon and Lama Yeshe
Event type: Hybrid, morning teaching (9am-11:30am pacific time)
Organization: Kagyu Sukha Choling, Ashland, OR.
Information and registration: https://www.kscashland.org/events-/2023/11/19/tonglen-sunday

How Compassion Works: Bringing Out Our Innate Powers of Care and Wisdom
2025-06-26 12:00 - 13:15 (America/New_York) | Online
Teachers: John Makransky and Paul Condon
Event type: Interview on John and Paul’s new book, with a guided meditation
Organization: Global Compassion Coalition
Information and registration:
How Compassion Works

Buddhist Philosophy and Practice: Buddha Nature, Compassion and Wisdom
2025-06-16 - 2025-06-20 | Samye Institute New York, 412 Glimmerglen Road, Cooperstown, NY, 13326, United States
Teachers: John Makransky, Tulku Migmar Tsering, Hilary Herdman
Event type: Samye Institute summer immersion course in Buddhist Arts and Sciences (this course continues with further teachers, including Phakchok Rinpoche, until July 26 ).
Organization: Samye Institute New York
Information and registration:
https://www.samyenewyork.org/programs/377/sustainable-compassion-and-wisdom-training/

Harmonizing with the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2025-06-03 - 2025-06-08 | Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA, 01005, United States
Event type: Week-long in-person retreat
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2025-harmonizing-with-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/

Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-05-17 - 2025-05-18 | Online
Teachers: John Makransky and Rachel Cronin
Event type: Online weekend retreat
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2025-accessing-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/

Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-05-02 - 2025-05-04 | Hybrid: In-Person and Online
Teacher: John Makransky
Event type: Hybrid in-person and on-line weekend retreat.
Organization: Gomde California (Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s U.S. Center).
Information and registration:
https://gomdeca.org/program-description/1057/on-site-harmonizing-with-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature-with-lama-john-makransky/

Drawing on the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2025-03-07 - 2025-03-12 | CA
Event type: Barre Path Program with 3 retreats: May 24-29, 2024; Nov. 8-13, 2024; Mar 7-12, 2025.
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/buddha-nature-jm/

The Essence of Compassion
2025-01-25 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hybrid: In-Person and Online
Teachers: Paul Condon
Event type: Hybrid in-person and on-line. 10:00am-12:00pm & 2:00-4:00pm PT.
Organization: Kagyu Sukha Choling, Ashland, OR.
Information and registration: forthcoming.

Being harmonized with the unconditional love and wisdom of our Buddha nature
2025-01-11 - 2025-01-12 | The Boston Center for Contemplative Practice, 796 Beacon St, Newton, MA, 02459, United States
Event type: On-line weekend retreat
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Boston Center for Contemplative Practice
For information and registration: https://www.thebccp.com/noelcoakleytherapygmailcom/loving-kindness-gathering-3ax36-fxnrx-axn7m

Drawing on the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2024-11-08 - 2024-11-13 | CA
Event type: Barre Path Program with 3 retreats: May 24-29, 2024; Nov. 8-13, 2024; Mar 7-12, 2025.
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2024-generating-sustainable-compassion-as-an-expression-of-love-and-wisdom-class/

Opening to the Primordial Goodness of our Being
2024-09-20 - 2024-09-22 | Online
Event type: On-line weekend retreat for those who have practiced previously with John Makransky or Paul Condon
Teachers: John Makransky and Paul Condon
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration: https://bit.ly/3xHJUVT

Uncovering the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2024-07-14 | Online
Event type: Online daylong retreat
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Boston Center for Contemplative Practice
For Information and Registration: https://www.thebccp.com/events/uncovering-unconditonal-love

Drawing on the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2024-05-24 - 2024-05-29 | Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA, 01005, United States

Accessing the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2024-05-04 - 2024-05-05 | Online
Event type: On-line weekend retreat.
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Gomde CA (Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s U.S. retreat center)
For information and registration:
https://gomdeca.org/program-description/963/accessing-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature-with-lama-john-makransky/

Uncovering the unconditional love and wisdom of our Buddha nature
2024-02-23 - 2024-02-25 | Online
Event type: On-line weekend retreat open to all
Teachers: John Makransky and Paul Condon
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/course/uncovering-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature-3/

Meditation Training for all levels (beginners and advanced)
2023-12-13 19:00 - 20:30, 2023-11-08 19:00 - 20:30, 2023-10-11 19:00 - 20:30, 2023-09-13 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Teachers: Paul Condon
Dates: Sept 13, October 11, November 8, December 13
Event type: Hybrid
Organization: Dharma Refuge
For information and registration: https://www.dharmarefuge.com/meditation-training.html
This 8 month series will will explore Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Buddha Nature, which refers to the underlying nature of all of our minds. Buddha Nature is our source of healing, well-being, joy, compassion, and wisdom. This exploration will be supported by practices of sustainable compassion and wisdom, a series of meditations that help us experience ourselves within a field of love and care, which helps open the mind to advanced meditative practices of deep relaxation, calm, insight, and non-dual awareness. These inner resources can support our efforts to care for others and the world.
The sessions will complement Dharma Refuge’s new series Bodhisattva Training: Becoming Beings of Wisdom and Love, which will include live teachings with Sue Kochan and pre-recorded teachings from Anam Thubten Rinpoche. Paul’s sessions will explore how the SCT training complements the Bodhisattva training through practical instruction, guided meditation and Q&A.

Drawing on the unconditional love and wisdom of our Buddha nature
2023-11-04 - 2023-11-05 | Online
Teacher: John Makransky
Event: Weekend on-line retreat
Organization: Boston Center for Contemplative Practice
For information and registration, go to:
https://www.thebccp.com/events/https/the-boston-center-for-contemplative-practiceheymarvelouscom/event/details/672655-l3maw

The Power of our Original Goodness
2023-10-15 09:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | CA
Teacher: John Makransky
Event: Day-long hybrid retreat (in-person and on-line)
Organization: Insight Western Massachusetts
For information and registration:
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/event_step2/MTg0OTc3/218968

Love and Spaciousness 5 of 5
2023-10-03 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | CA
Teachers: Paul Condon
Dates: September 5, 12, 19, 26, & October 3 (4-5:30pm PT / 7-8:30pm ET)
Event type: Hybrid 5-week series
Organization: Kagyu Sukha Choling
For information and registration: coming soon
In this 5-week series, we will explore Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Buddha Nature, which refers to the underlying nature of our mind, and is a source of healing, wellbeing, joy, wisdom, and compassion. We will explore a series of meditation practices adapted from Tibetan Buddhist rituals for experiencing ourselves within a field of love and care, which helps open the mind for advanced meditative practices of deep relaxation, calm, insight, and non-dual awareness. The deepening experience of calm and insight can then inform our efforts to engage in care and compassion for our world in need. Throughout the course, principles from areas of developmental psychology, social psychology, and cognitive science will be drawn upon in dialogue with Buddhist perspectives to inform our engagement with practice. The course is appropriate for new and seasoned practitioners.

Love and Spaciousness 4 of 5
2023-09-26 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | CA

Love and Spaciousness 3 of 5
2023-09-19 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | CA

Love and Spaciousness 2 of 5
2023-09-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | CA

Love and Spaciousness
2023-09-05 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | CA
Teachers: Paul Condon
Dates: September 5, 12, 19, 26, & October 3 (4-5:30pm PT / 7-8:30pm ET)
Event type: Hybrid 5-week series
Organization: Kagyu Sukha Choling
For information and registration: https://www.kscashland.org/love-and-spaciousness
In this 5-week series, we will explore Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Buddha Nature, which refers to the underlying nature of our mind, and is a source of healing, wellbeing, joy, wisdom, and compassion. We will explore a series of meditation practices adapted from Tibetan Buddhist rituals for experiencing ourselves within a field of love and care, which helps open the mind for advanced meditative practices of deep relaxation, calm, insight, and non-dual awareness. The deepening experience of calm and insight can then inform our efforts to engage in care and compassion for our world in need. Throughout the course, principles from areas of developmental psychology, social psychology, and cognitive science will be drawn upon in dialogue with Buddhist perspectives to inform our engagement with practice. The course is appropriate for new and seasoned practitioners.

Uncovering the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Natrue
2023-07-28 - 2023-08-01 | Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA, 01005, United States
Teachers: John Makransky
Event: five day residential retreat on-site, July 28 to August 1, 2023
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
For information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/course/uncovering-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/
