Being Harmonized with the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature

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.

Sessions include 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, June 24, 2025), or as much of either book as possible. 

Schedule

• Daily session from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
• Daily session from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
• Rest breaks
• Lunch at 12:30 pm
• Dinner at 5:15 pm.
• More details to come

Leader – John Makransky

John Makransky, PhD, has been a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, Senior Academic Advisor at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies and Contemplative Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute. John’s scholarly writings focus on connections between devotion, compassion and wisdom in Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. In 2000, John was ordained as a Lama in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism – a teacher of innate love and wisdom practices. For the past 25 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.  In consultation with participants from those settings, John developed the Sustainable Compassion Training model of contemplative practice (SCT) to help Buddhists, people of diverse faiths and those in caring roles and professions generate a more sustaining and unconditional power of compassion and awareness to support their lives and work (https://sustainablecompassion.org).

Dates/Times

9:30 am, Sunday, October 19 – Dinner following afternoon session, Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Cost

This retreat uses a tiered fee system. Please pay according to your means.

Registration fees do not include payments to teacher. Please consider supporting the teacher with dāna (generosity) at the event.

• $350 – Benefactor
• $300 – Tier 1
• $250 – Tier 2

Scholarships are available. Please contact Carole Kretschman at c.kretschman@icloud.com.

Lodging

Lodging is NOT included in the price of the retreat.

• We have limited lodging at Holy Wisdom Monastery
• $148.50/single (one person for 2 nights)
• $170.10/double (2 people for 2 nights sharing a room)
• Extra nights are available.
• Please email retreats@holywisdommonastery.org to reserve your overnight room at the monastery for the retreat. Rooms will fill up.

Register 

Please register by October 12, 2025.

Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until Oct. 12, 2025. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.