Awakening Through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Paperback)

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

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

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: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,853 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 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

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.

7 of 8 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

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	A. Hristic - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!