EBOOK
How Compassion Works
A Step-by-step Guide To Cultivating Well-being, Love, And Wisdom
John Makransky(0)
About
Uncover your innate capacity for love, presence, and wisdom with compassion training adapted from Tibetan Buddhism and contemporary psychology.
Everything we care about-our mental and physical well-being, our relationships, our spiritual life, our ability to be useful to others-depends on our ability to access love and compassion within ourselves first. This clear, step-by-step guide offers a way to cultivate this power through an evidence-based meditation method called Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT).
With practices drawn from Tibetan traditions, attachment theory, and cognitive science, How Compassion Works uses a progressive series of meditations to gradually build our capacity for mindfulness and presence-and to help us avoid empathic distress, compassion fatigue, or burnout. Organized into three categories-receptive mode, deepening mode, and inclusive mode-these practices help us cultivate unconditional care and discernment from within.
With a flexible framework that allows practitioners to integrate their own religious or spiritual beliefs, this book offers practices suitable for people of all faiths and those seeking a purely secular path. "How Compassion Works is a balm for these times of division and uncertainty. Makransky and Condon have achieved a masterful synthesis of modern psychology and cognitive science with traditional Buddhist wisdom, offering insights and practices that are truly life changing. Not to be missed."
-Wendy Hasenkamp, science director of the Mind & Life Institute and host of the Mind & Life podcast
"Universal care and loving-kindness for all beings illuminate the bodhisattva path of complete awakening. In this book, Makransky and Condon offer accessible yet profound meditations that help us discover our ultimately unconditioned capacity for love and compassionate action. Their skillful integration of contemporary psychology and cognitive science with classical Buddhist wisdom creates a bridge between current scientific understanding and timeless spiritual insights. May this work help and inspire readers to awaken the inherent wisdom that lies at the heart of all."
-Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, author of Sadness, Love, Openness
"While we all wish to be good people, How Compassion Works actually shows us how. Grounded in ancient contemplative techniques and modern psychological research, Makransky and Condon demonstrate that emotional evolution is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of training. By directing attention mindfully, and developing a regular practice, anyone can open their heart without losing their balance. How Compassion Works is not only a handbook for the heart: it provides tools of emotional alchemy capable of changing your life forever. Indispensable for caregivers, lovers, and the human race."
-Willa B. Baker, PhD, author of The Wakeful Body
"Befriending one's mind through formal meditation practice can be thought of as a radical act of love, sanity, wisdom, and healing. How Compassion Works is a high-resolution guide to both the instrumental and non-instrumental dimensions of meditation practice based predominantly on Tibetan teachings yet explicitly inviting a broader inclusivity. It is also a welcome and timely compendium of scientific evidence supporting the value of this relational approach and its liberative non-dual essence."
-Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Coming to Our Senses
"How Compassion Works is a clear, carefully researched, accessible, and practical guide on how to develop and deepen love and compassion both within ourselves and over time as we mature, to all those we meet. We learn, step-by-step, how not only to open our hearts and wisdom mind but apply these powerful discoveries to the challenges of the world."
-Tsoknyi Rinpoche, author of Why We Meditate
"How Compassion W
Everything we care about-our mental and physical well-being, our relationships, our spiritual life, our ability to be useful to others-depends on our ability to access love and compassion within ourselves first. This clear, step-by-step guide offers a way to cultivate this power through an evidence-based meditation method called Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT).
With practices drawn from Tibetan traditions, attachment theory, and cognitive science, How Compassion Works uses a progressive series of meditations to gradually build our capacity for mindfulness and presence-and to help us avoid empathic distress, compassion fatigue, or burnout. Organized into three categories-receptive mode, deepening mode, and inclusive mode-these practices help us cultivate unconditional care and discernment from within.
With a flexible framework that allows practitioners to integrate their own religious or spiritual beliefs, this book offers practices suitable for people of all faiths and those seeking a purely secular path. "How Compassion Works is a balm for these times of division and uncertainty. Makransky and Condon have achieved a masterful synthesis of modern psychology and cognitive science with traditional Buddhist wisdom, offering insights and practices that are truly life changing. Not to be missed."
-Wendy Hasenkamp, science director of the Mind & Life Institute and host of the Mind & Life podcast
"Universal care and loving-kindness for all beings illuminate the bodhisattva path of complete awakening. In this book, Makransky and Condon offer accessible yet profound meditations that help us discover our ultimately unconditioned capacity for love and compassionate action. Their skillful integration of contemporary psychology and cognitive science with classical Buddhist wisdom creates a bridge between current scientific understanding and timeless spiritual insights. May this work help and inspire readers to awaken the inherent wisdom that lies at the heart of all."
-Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, author of Sadness, Love, Openness
"While we all wish to be good people, How Compassion Works actually shows us how. Grounded in ancient contemplative techniques and modern psychological research, Makransky and Condon demonstrate that emotional evolution is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of training. By directing attention mindfully, and developing a regular practice, anyone can open their heart without losing their balance. How Compassion Works is not only a handbook for the heart: it provides tools of emotional alchemy capable of changing your life forever. Indispensable for caregivers, lovers, and the human race."
-Willa B. Baker, PhD, author of The Wakeful Body
"Befriending one's mind through formal meditation practice can be thought of as a radical act of love, sanity, wisdom, and healing. How Compassion Works is a high-resolution guide to both the instrumental and non-instrumental dimensions of meditation practice based predominantly on Tibetan teachings yet explicitly inviting a broader inclusivity. It is also a welcome and timely compendium of scientific evidence supporting the value of this relational approach and its liberative non-dual essence."
-Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Coming to Our Senses
"How Compassion Works is a clear, carefully researched, accessible, and practical guide on how to develop and deepen love and compassion both within ourselves and over time as we mature, to all those we meet. We learn, step-by-step, how not only to open our hearts and wisdom mind but apply these powerful discoveries to the challenges of the world."
-Tsoknyi Rinpoche, author of Why We Meditate
"How Compassion W