Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness [Paperback]

John Makransky (Author), Lama Surya Das (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2007

Drawing from the author's life as a father, professor, Buddhist, and Buddhist teacher — as well as on pop culture references from Bob Dylan to Harry Potter — Awakening Through Love is a welcoming guide to achieving the deepest well-being and joy. Rooted in Buddhism’s Dzogchen tradition, the book teaches strategies for realizing a life imbued with love through Buddhist methods for fostering genuine caring and appreciation for others. To help readers achieve this state, the author presents practices and meditations for gradual cultivation and direct insight. He also provides a moving presentation of the role of a teacher, or “benefactor,” in deepening one’s spiritual path. Part of the book’s effectiveness is that it uncovers universal elements in Buddhist ideas and practices and renders them usable for a general audience, with many references to the adaptability of these methods for use in conjunction with the traditions of other religions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Makransky is a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College and a teacher in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. A practitioner of Tibetan meditations of compassion and wisdom for thirty years, he has pioneered new ways of making these accessible to people of all backgrounds and faiths. He lives outside Boston with his wife, two sons, and dog --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0861715373
• ISBN-13: 978-0861715374
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have, August 10, 2007

By 

LW "naturaldharma" (cambridge, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Paperback)

Lama John Makransky's book is an invaluable guide to becoming a better, more loving person. His advice--based on many years of teaching and personal research-- is direct, profound and practical. He teaches that love, patience and compassion are not inborn-traits...rather, the ability to love is a skill-- and he gives the reader specific meditation practices to do at home to become more skillful with love. I recommend this book for anyone--Buddhist or non-Buddhist--who wants to love more fully.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lightning in a Bottle, August 8, 2007

By 

Constant reader (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Paperback)

I've had the good fortune of learning these heart-opening, life-changing techniques directly from Lama John on retreats over the last several years. Now he has distilled the essence of the teachings in book form so that anyone, anywhere can put them into practice. That's great news for his readers and great news for the world. Many people make the serious error of thinking that human love is somehow antithetical to a life of meditation and enlightenment. Lama John shows how to use human love to open wide into meditation and enlightenment, and vice versa.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ~A gem~, August 13, 2007

By 

A. Hristic - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Paperback)

This book is essentially a manual for love - receiving it, giving it, seeing it all around you, and bringing it out in all beings and situations. You could spend as little or as much time on each chapter, as each section reveals more and more every time you read it. Awakening through Love could be a great companion to the many other books on your shelf, or it could be a first concise introduction to Tibetan Buddhism and some of its practices. Either way, it is A GEM!