Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness

271 Pages·2007·34.638 MB·English

by  John Makransky, Lama Surya Das, Philip Osgood

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AWAKENING THROUGH LOVE
"Y Oll 're in good hands with John; he has discovered how
love his way all the way to enlightemnem."
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- Lama Surya Das, author of
Awakcllillg thc Buddha With
ill
"Written fi·om the heart, Awakcl/ing Throllgfl Lwc is bound
affect the hearts of all who read it. .. Practical, profound,
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Jnd deeply moving."
- Jose Ignacio Cabez6n, XIVth Dalai Lama Professor of
TibetJn Buddhism, UC Sama Barbara
"AllIakcllitlg ~nlrollgh L lVC presents a message of compas
sionate wisdom that is greatly needed in coday's world. In
this book Dr. John Makransky offers readers of all f.1iths
and persuasions a profound guide to experience the deep
and limitless love that has inspired and awakened Buddhist
practitioners throughout the ages. Being both a learned
scholar and an experienced practitioner, Dr. Makransky is
well positioned to presem the deep meaning of the
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Awak Publi ulibr
ohn (Author). USA: Wisdom ary.com/lib/ny
Makransky, J Boston, MA, http://site.ebr
"John Makransky communicates a deep sense of Tibetan wisdom
in an eminently accessible and engaging styk. The book itself per
fomls an act of attention, awareness, meditation, and therapy.
Reading becomes a transformative event. The writing is deft,
compassionate, and highly compelling."
- Richard Keamey, Charles B. Seelig Professor of
Philosophy at Boston College
"Awakellillg Throllgh LOlJe is that fafC combination offine Buddhist
scholarship and deep meditative understanding. John Makransky
has done us all a great service."
- :Joseph Goldstein, author of
Glle Dharma and A Heart Full of Peace
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AWAKENING
THROUGH
L O VE
Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness
John Makransky
Foreword by Lama Surya Das
Edited by Philip Osgood
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Awak Publi ulibr
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ohn (A USA: ary.co
Makransky, J Boston, MA, http://site.ebr
Wisdom Public:niollS
199 Elm Street
Somerville MA 02144 USA
www.wisdolllpubs.org
o
2007 John Makransky
All rights reserved.
No pari of this book may be reproduced ill allY form or by ~ny means, dectronic
or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any illform~tion storage
and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without
permission ill writing from the publisher.
Library of COII.i!rm CIIIII/ogillg-ill-PllbIiCiltioll Dlltll
J.
Makransky,John
Awakening through love : unveiling your deepest goodness I John Makransky ;
fore\vord by Lama Surya Das ; edited by Philip Osgood.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical refeTences and index,
ISDN 0-86171-537-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Spiritual lifc-lluddhism. 2. Love-Religious aspects-Iluddhism. 3.
Compassion- Religious aspects-Uuddhism. 4. Uuddhism- DoctrinC'S. L D:ls,
Surya. lI. Osgood, Philip. III.Titie.
DQ4302.M35 2007
294.3'5677-dc22
2007014697
II 10 09 08 07
5 4 3 2
s. Cover design by Emily Mahon. Interior design by Tony Luick. Set in Ikmbo 11.5
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Contents
Foreword by Lama Surya Das VII
Acknowledgments Xl
Introduction: Unleashing the Power of Love
I. Receiving Love: Key to Life, Key [0 the Spiritual Path 15
Meditatioll: Receivillg the Healillg, Tralliforlllillg
~-if~- ~
2. Lcuing Be: Relaxing into Natural Wisdom 33
tWeditatioll: Lettillg Be ill Nawrot Awareness 51
3. Lcning It Out: Unleashing Love's Power 69
tWeditatioll: Extelldillg ti,e Lwe Hie Receive 80
4. Loving Beyond Boundaries 9S
Meditatioll: Self-TrallsceI1dillg Love 98
5. Pure Perception and Profound Equanimity 131
lWcdilatioll: Awoken/lIg PHre Perceptioll 137
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st Medilflfioll: Realizillg Wise COlllpassioll 165
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ening Thro cations, 20 ary/Doc?id AAbuodlilot Rtheec Aorudtihnogrs of Guided Meditations 226635
Awak Publi ulibr Abollt Dzogchen Center 265
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Makransky, J Boston, MA, http://site.ebr
Foreword
JOHN MAKRANSKY IS A MENSCH. You're in good hands with
Lama John. And I should know that, having observed him
closely over the last dozen years. He is my DhannJ heir in the 11011-
sectJ.rian lineage of OUf Dzogchen master Nyoshul Khen R.inpoche.
Every true teacher wishes to have students and prorcgt's with the
pmcntiai to surpass him or her. As my protege,John is such a per
son, one who has discovered how to love his way all rhe way to
enlightenment. Whether he achieved this more from (he three
decades he spent learning from Tibetan lamas in Nepal, India, and
America, or from his long work as a professor and Buddhist scholar
practitioner, or from his life as a family man, it is hard to say.
Undoubtedly his beautiful £lll1ily-rwo sons and wife, Barbara
are implicated in making him the beloved teacher, esteemed col
league, and good spiritual friend he is on two continents, in both the
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Awak Publi ulibr
ohn (Author). USA: Wisdom ary.com/lib/ny
Makransky, J Boston, MA, http://site.ebr
VIII ."¥- Awakel/i/lg Throllg" Love
of spiritual practice, we all saw the practices oflove and compassion
rea11y come alive in John through the Dzogchen view of innate
wisdom-practices that take natural expression in the meditations
transmitted here.
After Nyoshul Khen R..inpoche's demise in 1999,John and I trav
eled together on pilgrimage to Nepal and Bhutan. Upon meeting
John at the Kagyu-Nyingma monastery near Kathnundll, its learned
a.bbot, myoid friend Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, seemed immedi
ately to recognize John's sterling qualities as a scholar-practitioner
and asked him to teach annually at his monastery within Kathmandu
University's new Center for Buddhist Studies. John is now senior
f.1ClIlry advisor to the Center and has been instrumental in it becom
ing partnered with Boston College, where John is a professor of
Buddhism and comparative theology.
John has been teaching the love, compassion, and awareness prac
tices in this book for years at our Dzogchcn Center retreats. We are
reminded through these practices and his example that love is not
found olltside of ourselves; love is found through loving. Drawing
from his immersion in the mind-training teachings of compassion
and the Dzogchen teachings of innate wisdom- using plain, prac
tical instruction- he helps readers uncover the unity oflove and
wisdom in the very nature of their minds. Then he shows us how
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ne to actualize those qualities in each aspect of our lives-in f.ll11ily,
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FarelllQ((1 ::J IX
Many readers who are not Buddhist wiU find these nonsectarian
practices accessible and applicable to theif fundamental beliefs and
concerns. John urges all people of faith to explore how their own
spirirual paths may be informed and empowered by the practices of
love, compassion, and self-transcending wisdom transmitted here.
As he tcaches, and as the peace master Shantideva says in his classic
Way (if II,e Bodftisflllva: selfishness is the real demon, egotism is the
true enemy, and joy comes naturally from loving and caring for oth
ers. We need each other to become enlightened, as His Holiness
the Dalai Lama often says, because we need to develop deep com
passion in order to fulfill the journey of awakening. Here in these
practical, useful teachings by a contemporary lama, we find the
modern means to fulfill that promise.
Lama Surya Das
Dzogchen Center, Austin, Texas
October 2006
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Acknowledgments
l AM GRATEFUL TO MY SPIRITUAL TEACHERS and mentors for
their profound guidance and continual blessing: Nyoshul
Khen R.inpoche, Lama Surya Das, Chokyi Nyinu Rinpochc, !-I.H.
Drukchen Rinpoche, H.H. the Dalai LamJ, Khcnpo Sonam Tob
gyal Rinpoche, T 1I1kll Thondllp Rinpoche, Geshe Lhllndllb Sopa,
Lama Thubtcn Yeshe, Lama Zopa Itinpoche, Geshe NgawJng
Dhargyey, Geshe Thubrcn Tsering, Geshc LobsJng Namgyal.
Charles Genoud, Lama Yeshe Gyanuso, Tscnzhab Serkong Rin
poche, Geshe Sonam Rinchen, Cyume Khensur Rinpoche, and
Father Michael Himes of Boston College.
I thank my friend and editor, Philip Osgood, for helping me
develop this manuscript from Dharma teachings I've presented at
Dzogchcn Center meditation retreats the past few years. It was
because of Philip's deep knowledge of the creative writing process
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ohn (Author). USA: Wisdom ary.com/lib/ny
Makransky, J Boston, MA, http://site.ebr