Day-long retreat via Zoom
Sunday January 25, 2026 || 10am-5pm ET
Tiered pricing options available below.
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 daylong 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 previous contemplative experience and seek an accessible way to cultivate unconditional love and wisdom. Guided meditations, Q&A and discussion. Prerequisites: At least two previous years of regular contemplative practice (meditation or prayer). And before the retreat, please read John’s book, Awakening through Love (Wisdom, 2007), or as much of it as possible.
OUR TIERED PRICING
-
Reflects the lower end of the average Boston market rate. It is intended for those who are able to support our studio at the true cost of our offering.
Priced at Market value this tier is suited for people with a stable income and access to food, housing and healthcare, the ability to build savings and afford leisure activities
-
Provides a 15% discount as a more comfortable option for anyone who cannot afford the standard rate.
USE PROMO CODE: Supported
This tier is suited for people with unstable/reduced/low income that creates some stress about meeting basic needs.
-
Provides a 25% discount for those in need of greater financial assistance.
USE PROMO CODE: SupportedPlus
This tier is suited for people with unstable or inadequate income that sometimes prevents access to food, housing and healthcare.
-
Provides a 50% to practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
USE THE PROMO CODE: WellnessEquity
We don’t assume that all who identify as BIPOC require or want financial support to access courses. For those who do, we see this as a step we can take towards offering reparations within a healthcare system that has predominantly failed communities of color.
We ask that this code is not used by white allies.
******
Bio: John Makransky, PhD, has been a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior advisor for Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Centre of Buddhist Studies in Nepal, a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, past president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and developer of the Sustainable Compassion Training model for accessing innate capacities of compassion and awareness. John’s scholarly writings have focused on connections between practices of devotion, compassion and non-dual wisdom in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. In 2000, John was ordained as a Lama, a meditation teacher of innate compassion and wisdom, within the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. As a meditation teacher, John is known for guiding participants in their discovery of underlying powers of unconditional love and wisdom. For the past 24 years, John has taught meditations of innate compassion and wisdom, adapted from Tibetan Buddhism, for modern Buddhists, those in other spiritual traditions, and for people in caring roles and professions.