Becoming an Expression of our Buddha Nature with Sustainable Compassion Training is an eleven-month BCBS Path Program designed for intermediate and experienced practitioners who wish to deepen their contemplative practice and embody the qualities of awakening in daily life.
Rooted in Tibetan Buddhism and informed by modern psychology, this program offers Sustainable Compassion Training to help us realign with our innate buddha nature, dissolving reactive patterns and allowing love and wisdom to flow more freely.
Together, we learn to extend these qualities to ourselves and others, becoming a source of compassion and clarity in a world that deeply needs it.
From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, our buddha nature is the boundless space of awareness, warmth, and wisdom that is always present beneath our conditioned patterns of thought and reaction. This eleven-month program introduces three modes of practice of Sustainable Compassion Training—receptive, deepening, and inclusive—drawn from Tibetan Buddhism and supported by insights from modern psychology. These practices are designed to help us realign with our innate buddha qualities, making us into a profoundly healing environment for all parts of ourselves and others, from which to hold all in a sustaining power of compassion and wisdom.
To be truly seen in our deep worth and held in unconditional acceptance and love awakens our capacity to see and hold others in the same way. In receptive mode, we open to this field of care, allowing us to experience the love and wisdom that arise naturally from the depth of our awareness. In deepening mode, we let these qualities guide the mind into their source: the vast openness, clarity, and compassionate warmth at the heart of our being. From this depth, we enter inclusive mode, recognizing others in their deep worth and extending those unconditional qualities outward. This process helps dissolve reactive patterns that obscure our natural compassion, allowing love and wisdom to flow more fully and freely into our lives and world.
Program Starts: December 1, 2026
Program Ends: November 14, 2027
Applications Open: May 4, 2026
Applications Due: June 15, 2026
11 Months
This program requires a daily meditation practice and attendance at all retreats and Zoom sessions.
This program is intended for intermediate and experienced practitioners. Please see the additional prerequisites below.
Retreat I: December 1-6, 2026
Retreat II: April 6-11, 2027
Retreat III: November 9-14, 2027
Second Wednesday of Each Month
(7:30 - 9:00 PM ET)
Please note that CEUs are not available for this program.
This Path program includes three residential retreats and monthly online group sessions with John via Zoom.
During the retreats, teaching sessions led by John will include explanations of key principles, guided meditations, Q and A, and group discussion.
While some contemplative exercises will involve mindful speaking and listening, noble silence will be observed at all other times.
This program is intended for intermediate and experienced practitioners.
To participate, you must meet the following requirements:
Please read one of the following books before the first retreat:
Please read one of the following books:
Time Commitment Outside of Retreat:
Participants will develop a daily meditation practice based on what is learned in the retreats, in a way that fits into their lives.
Attendance:
Full attendance at retreats and monthly online discussion sessions is expected. Showing up in these ways is crucially important, for we support each other in the process of learning and deepening together.
CEUs:
Please note that CEUs are not available for this program.
In each 90-minute session, John will transmit an SCT meditation and then open the space for group discussion, shaped by participants’ reflections and questions based on their experiences with SCT practices in their daily lives.
2027 Zoom Session Dates:
January 13, February 10, March 10, May 12, June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, October 13
In the first retreat, we deepen into the three modes of meditation of sustainable compassion training (SCT). The receptive mode helps us find access to unconditional qualities of love and wisdom from the ground of our experience—our buddha nature. In the deepening mode, we let those unconditional qualities help the mind settle into the source of the qualities—the non-conceptual openness, simplicity, clarity, peace, and compassionate capacity 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, love, and warmth. This contemplative process also empowers our ability to discern the empty, constructed nature of our perceptions of self and other, a wisdom that frees the mind for further access to its awakening capacities. Throughout this process, we draw on all three modes to create an unconditional, deeply healing environment for all parts of ourselves, from which we can become a more unconditional and healing presence for others.
The three SCT modes of practice that we learned in the first retreat provide a foundation in this second retreat for generating a power of compassion that can embrace all sufferings of ourselves and others in a deeply healing way, without getting overwhelmed by empathic distress or compassion fatigue. We explore meditations designed to cultivate empathy and compassion, generating a healing power of compassion for all parts of ourselves and for all other beings in a sustainable and inclusive way. This is supported by learning how to let unconditional love, compassion, and wisdom increasingly empower each other.
The third retreat offers an opportunity to deepen together in our understanding and practice together the practices introduced in the prior two retreats. We explore how the unconditional qualities accessed in the receptive and inclusive modes of practice can help the mind (in deepening mode) settle more fully into the ground of our experience, the buddha nature of non-conceptual openness, clarity, peace, and vast capacity. We’ll explore how settling more fully into that deep nature can, in turn, free up its capacities of unconditional love and wisdom, making us a more healing environment for all parts of ourselves and others. And we’ll explore how all three of these modes of practice provide a secure foundation to generate an increasing energy and attitude of compassion that can embrace all sufferings of self and others with healing powers of openness and warmth. We will also explore how ongoing familiarization with all these practices can inform our lives and ways of being with others in family, work, relationship, and action.
Includes lodging and meals at BCBS during the in-person programs. Click the Pricing Notes tab to learn about Tier Pricing and Financial Assistance.
| Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Benefactor |
| $3,435 | $2,835 | $2,235 | $4,635 |
Includes meals without lodging during the in-person programs.
| Standard |
| $1,425 |
Program Fees: Program fees include both residential and online components of the program. The first half is due upon registration, and the second half is due three weeks before the first retreat.
Accessibility: BCBS keeps prices as affordable as possible and offers Tier Pricing and Financial Assistance options to keep programs accessible:
Tier Pricing: You may choose a tier and pay according to your means. Tier 1 covers the actual cost of the program. Tiers 2 and 3 are subsidized rates made possible through the generosity of donors. The Benefactor rate enables you to offer additional, tax-deductible support to BCBS and fellow program participants. Please select the highest tier that fits your budget to help keep BCBS programs accessible.
Financial Assistance: If needed, you may request additional financial assistance on the registration page.
Teacher Dāna/Generosity: Program fees do not include payments to teachers. Please consider supporting John with dāna (generosity) during your program.
Cancellation Policy: We understand that personal circumstances may require you to cancel your registration. In these cases, please contact us right away. If you cancel more than eight weeks before the program starts, you are eligible for a full refund minus a $100 administrative fee. If you cancel between three and eight weeks before the program starts, you are eligible for a 50% refund of the deposit. Registration fees are nonrefundable less than three weeks before the program starts.
Applications Open: May 4, 2026 (10:00 AM ET)
Applications Close: June 15, 2026 (5:00 PM ET)
Initial Accepted Applicants Notified: June 13, 2026
Payment Due: The first half of the course fee is due within two weeks of the date of acceptance. The second half is due three weeks before the first retreat.
Program Starts: December 1, 2026
John Makransky, PhD, is a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior advisor for Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Centre of Buddhist Studies in Nepal, a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, and developer of the Sustainable Compassion Training model for accessing innate capacities of compassion and awareness. John’s scholarly writings have focused on connections between practices of devotion, compassion, and non-dual wisdom in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. In 2000, John was ordained as a Lama, a meditation teacher of innate compassion and wisdom, within the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. As a meditation teacher, John is known for guiding participants in their discovery of the underlying powers of unconditional love and wisdom. For the past twenty-five 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.
Deepening Practice,
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