Sustainable Compassion Training

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

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

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.

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/

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.

Harmonizing With the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2026-01-25 | Online
Teacher: John Makransky
Event Type: On-line daylong retreat
Organization: Boston Center for Contemplative Practice
Information and registration:
https://the-boston-center-for-contemplative-practice.heymarvelous.com/product/84591/about

Discovering happiness within chaos
2026-01-28 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Southern Oregon University, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR, 97520, United States
Teacher: Dr. Paul Condon and Lama Yeshe Parke
Event type: hybrid event at Southern Oregon University, in Ashland OR, with online streaming, evening presentation, 7:00-8:00pm PT
Zoom link: https://sou.zoom.us/j/83546557619
Additional description: Is it possible to experience joy within a world that is in turmoil? In this presentation, a teacher (i.e., lama) from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and a scientist will discuss the potential for people to uncover inner resources for happiness, including underlying positive qualities of creativity, agency, joy, and compassion. Convergence of contemplative and scientific perspectives suggest that inner resourcing can empower people to hold the turmoil of the world in care, without being overwhelmed by it, and thus show up with more presence and efficacy.

Harmonizing With the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2026-02-10 - 2026-02-15 | Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA, 01005, United States
Teacher: John Makransky
Event type: In-person six day retreat
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2026-harmonizing-with-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/

Compassionately holding the world
2026-02-15 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Teacher: Paul Condon
Event type: online, evening presentation, 7:00-8:30pm ET
Information and registration:
https://www.eomega.org/workshops/compassionately-holding-world

Becoming Transparent to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2026-03-14 - 2026-03-15 | Online
Teacher: John Makransky & Rachel Cronin
Event Type: On-line weekend retreat
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2026-becoming-transparent-to-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature/

Sustainable Compassion Training: Opening to the Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2026-04-18 - 2026-04-21 | Big Bear Retreat Center, 1000 Sugarpine Rd, Big Bear, CA, 92314, United States
Teachers: John Makransky, Radhule Weininger
Event type: In-person 4 day retreat
Organization: Big Bear Retreat Center, Big Bear City, CA
For information and registration:
https://bigbearretreatcenter.org/retreats/2062/opening-to-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature-sustainable-compassion-training/

Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2026-04-25 09:30 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Santa Barbara Middle School, 1321 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, CA, 93103, United States
Teacher: Lama John Makransky
Type: Daylong in-person retreat at Santa Barbara CA Middle School
Organization: Mindful Heart Programs
For information and registration: https://www.mindfulheartprograms.org/special-events

Opening to the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of our Buddha Nature
2026-05-08 - 2026-05-10 | Hybrid: In-Person and Online
Teacher: Lama John Makransky
Event type: In-person and on-line weekend retreat
Organization: Gomde USA (Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s center in North America)
For information and registration, go to:
https://gomdeca.org/program-description/1214/opening-to-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-budda-naturewith-lama-john-makransky-2026/
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, including them in those unconditional qualities of openness and compassion.This contemplative process also empowers our ability to discern the empty, constructed nature of all reactions to others that impede our compassion, freeing the mind for further access to its innate awakening capacities.
In this weekend retreat, we 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.
Format:
Teachings that introduce the meditations, guided meditations, silent meditation, Q&A, 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 Condon, Shambhala, 2025), or as much of it as possible.
Session times:
Fri, May 8 – Registration 3–5 pm; first session 7–8:30 pm
Sat, May 9– 9 am–12 pm PT; 2–5 pm PT; 7–8:30 pm PT
Sun, May 10 – 9 am–12 pm PT; 1:30–3:30 pm PT
Each teaching-practice session includes a break halfway through.

Deep Training in Sustainable Compassion and Wisdom
2026-06-01 - 2026-06-07 | Samye Hermitage, Cooperstown NY
Teacher: Lama John Makransky
Event type: In-person weeklong retreat
Organization: Samye Hermitage, Cooperstown NY (Phakchok Rinpoche’s center in North America)
For information and registration, go to:
https://www.samyenewyork.org/programs/492/harmonizing-with-the-unconditional-love-and-wisdom-of-our-buddha-nature
From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, our buddha nature (the source of our profound dignity) is the basic space of our being that is undivided from vast capacities of awareness, warmth, love, compassion and wisdom. These innate capacities are always available below our surface consciousness, but often hidden by our habits of thought and reaction. In this week-long program of study and retreat, we will learn three modes of practice drawn from Tibetan Buddhism that harmonize us with those innate capacities. The receptive mode generates a field of care that helps us find direct access to unconditional qualities of love and wisdom from the depth of our awareness (our buddha nature), making us into a profoundly healing environment for all parts of ourselves and others. In the deepening mode, we let those loving 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. Those three modes of practice provide a foundation for meditations of compassion that convert our own painful experiences into compassion for others and that extend compassion in increasingly all-inclusive and unconditional ways (beyond “compassion fatigue”). This contemplative process also empowers deepening wisdom–the ability to discern the empty, constructed nature of all our reactions that impede compassion for others.
In this retreat, we adapt this pattern of practice from Tibetan Buddhism, with assistance from relevant areas of modern psychology, to make it accessible both for Buddhist practitioners and for people of all faiths and backgrounds who have previous contemplative experience and seek an accessible way to cultivate unconditional love and wisdom.
Sessions:
Daily 9am to 12noon, 2 to 5pm with a half hour break within each teaching-practice session.
Format:
Talks introducing guided meditations, silent meditation, large group Q&A, small group discussions.
Prerequisites:
Please read How Compassion Works:A Step by Step Guide (Shambhala, 2025) by John Makransky and Paul Condon before attending this retreat, or as much of it as possible. If you wish more background reading, read Awakening through Love (Wisdom 2007), also by John.

Innate Wholeness as a Profound Power of Healing for Self and Others
2026-09-26 - 2026-09-27 | Online
Teacher: John Makransky and Rachel Cronin
Event Type: Weekend on-line retreat
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Information and registration:
https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2026-innate-wholeness-as-a-profound-power-of-healing-for-self-and-others/

Barre Center 11-month Path Program with John Makransky
2026-12-01 - 2027-11-21 | Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA, 01005, United States
Teacher: John Makransky
Organization: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Description: This program includes three in-person 6 day retreats at Barre Center of Buddhist Studies and monthly Zoom sessions over 11 months. Retreat dates are:

December 1-6, 2026
April 6-11, 2027
November 16-21, 2027

This program is by application. For info and to apply: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/buddha-nature-path/
