
A Secure Core of
Compassion and Awareness
for Insecure Times
An Online Program with
Lama John Makransky, PhD
Co-sponsored by Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and
the Foundation for Active Compassion

During this pandemic, we are called to care for ourselves and others. Yet many of us—and those around us — are experiencing feelings of anxiety, fear and unease. Many of us seek a healing way to process those feelings, so we can become a stable and healing presence for others, without getting depleted or overwhelmed. This seven-week on-line program with Lama John Makransky will teach us how to establish a core of inner safety, compassion, and awareness that we can return to as needed for replenishment and empowerment. This stable core of compassionate awareness can convert our painful feelings into a source of compassionate energy and care for others. It can also help us find rest in the depth of our being, from which to respond to others with reverence and care in the depth of their being.
This practice, called Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), was adapted from Tibetan Buddhism by John Makransky into a form that is fully accessible to people of all backgrounds and world views. SCT has three modes of meditation that will be introduced in this on-line program:
- The receptive mode helps us find new access to hidden qualities of love, compassion, inner safety, and wisdom.
- The deepening mode helps us settle into the source of those qualities in the depth of our awareness—with deepening relaxation, inner peace, and spaciousness that is healing and freeing in mind and body.
- The inclusive mode helps us come from that depth to respond to others in their deep dignity and potential, with replenishing and expansive powers of care, compassion, and wisdom for action.
Recordings of the 1-hour Zoom sessions may be accessed below.
In recognition of the crisis we are in and the difficulty some people will have in paying for this urgently needed program, it is offered freely by Lama John, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS), and the Foundation for Active Compassion (FAC). Our hope is that those who are able will make a significant donation to the support of the missions of BCBS and the FAC, who will share all donations equally.
Co-sponsored by Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Foundation for Active Compassion
Recorded Sessions
Thursday April 9 Teaching and Meditation
Thursday April 16 Teaching and Meditation
Friday April 17 Meditation and Q&A
Thursday April 23 Teaching and Meditation
Friday April 24 Meditation and Q&A
Thursday April 30 Meditation and Teaching
Friday May 1 Meditation and Q&A
Thursday May 7 Meditation and Teaching
Friday May 8 Meditation and Q&A
Thursday May 14 Meditation and Teaching
Friday May 15 Meditation and Q&A
Thursday May 21 Meditation and Teaching
Friday May 22 Meditation and Q&A

Lama 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, former president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies, and co-founder of the Foundation for Active Compassion and Courage of Care Coalition. In 2000, John was ordained as a Lama, a meditation teacher of innate compassion and wisdom, within the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Foundation For Active Compassion
Mission Statement: To empower people with profound contemplative practices that support their aspirations to become better people and to make a better world.
To do this by providing powerfully transformative practices of innate compassion and wisdom from Tibetan Buddhism, adapted into forms that are accessible to people of all backgrounds and faiths.
Course Materials from John
Please click the links below to view course material from John.
Meditation Handout: Sustainable Compassion and Wisdom Training (SCT)
Background article: The Relational Starting Point for Compassion Training
For online SCT meditation groups, go to: foundationforactivecompassion.org/online-groups/
For further teaching events with Lama John, videos, audio meditations or to subscribe to receive updates,
please visit foundationforactivecompassion.org