John Makransky has practiced Buddhism since 1978. He combines an academic career as a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College with his role as a lama in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Makransky is a close student and colleague of Lama Surya Das who recommends in the foreword the love, compassion, and awareness teachings in this paperback. Makransky states:
"The path to embodying unconditional love and wisdom is not some overwhelmingly difficult struggle to make ourselves into something alien to our nature. Quite the opposite. Unconditional love and wisdom dawn as we come home to what we most deeply are. Our deepest wish is already impartial love; our deepest knowing already intuitive wisdom beyond self-clinging. We just need to relax our grip on ourselves enough to allow these capacities to awaken within us and shine forth."
Unconditional love and compassion, supported by sympathetic joy and equanimity, are essential Buddhist practices. Makransky believes that love is the motive force for genuine help, that it lies behind social service and animates relationships that last. Impartial love is the antidote to violence in a time when anger, greed, and selfishness are on the march.
In seven chapters Makransky delivers a solid and substantive map of ways to unleash the power of love. Here are the themes he covers with accompanying guided meditations:
• Receiving Love: Key to Life, Key to the Spiritual Path
• Letting Be: Relaxing into Natural Wisdom
• Letting It Out: Unleashing Love's Power
• Loving Beyond Boundaries
• Pure Perception and Profound Equanimity
• Compassion as a Liberating Power
• Living Life Anew and Embodying Deep Goodness
The last chapter contains mediation suggestions that can be used throughout the day. For instance, Makransky suggests using red stoplights on the morning drive as a signal to rest for that brief interlude in natural awareness and love. When attending a meeting at work, drop to the heart level and commune with other participants in reverence and radiant compassion. As you lie down at night to sleep imagine that you are resting your head in the lap of the Buddha or your own spiritual benefactor and feel his unconditional love cover your body. Awakening through love comes with practice, and Makransky gives us plenty to work with in this helpful book.
