How Compassion Works - by John Makransky & Paul Condon (Paperback)

About the Book

"How Compassion Works presents a method of mindfulness training, adapted from Tibetan Buddhism in dialogue with contemporary psychological schools such as attachment theory, to uncover an innate, healing source of compassion and awareness that is always available"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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 Works has the power to transform individual lives and the very fabric of our world. The practices in this book truly work, offering a profound exploration of compassion as both an innate tendency and a skill we can intentionally cultivate. John Makransky and Paul Condon illuminate how reconnecting with the essence of love at our core is essential for individual healing and societal change. With practices to deepen love, prevent burnout, reduce bias, and bridge divides, this book is an indispensable guide for fostering connection and meaningful transformation in these polarized times."
--Kaira Jewel Lingo, Buddhist teacher, author of We Were Made for These Times and coauthor of Healing Our Way Home

"How Compassion Works offers a truly rich resource, especially from Tibetan Buddhism, to develop and enhance the defining human quality of compassion. I particularly admire how the authors--a Buddhist scholar and a psychologist--engage Buddhist compassion practices from the perspective of 'attachment theory, ' a framework that has brought important insights into human behavior and relationships. This book brings a whole new dimension to our understanding of how Buddhist meditative practices, especially loving-kindness and compassion, can bring about lasting personal transformation."
--Thupten Jinpa, principal English translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and author of A Fearless Heart

"As science begins to take seriously the possibility that the Buddhist view of consciousness as the ground of all being may actually be the true reality, this wonderfully timed book takes readers on a guided tour of two paths to compassion: one called 'relative, ' which is understanding how we can orientate and train our evolved troublesome brains towards compassion, and the other called 'ultimate' is compassion that arises naturally from the non-dual ground of experience. This book from two internationally recognized scholars and practitioners is a delight of insights and wisdoms. It details the way the two paths can be engaged as complementary and mutually empowering. It points the way to the nature of benevolent love as residing in our awareness of non-separateness."
--Paul Gilbert, founder of Compassion Focused Therapy, author of The Compassionate Mind and Mindful Compassion

"Our greatest task as a species is to cultivate the capacity to live from a place of compassion. In this wise and evidence-based guide, we are given the tools to nurture our inner well-being while offering healing and love to the world around us. Practical, profound, and deeply timely, this book has the power to uplift and serve the hearts and spirits of countless beings."
--Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

"A compelling synthesis of traditional Buddhist wisdom and contemporary scientific research, offering both practical guidance and profound insights into compassion's vital role in our lives and its relevance to addressing the main challenges of the twenty-first century."
--Matthieu Ricard, author of Altruism

"How Compassion Works offers a clear and carefully laid out practice path for anyone interested in deepening their experience and expression of compassion and love. This insightful offering is yet another important answer and resource supporting our evolution into a more care-centered collective."
--Lama Rod Owens, author of The New Saints

"For anyone seeking to experience the wisdom of their own heart, Makransky and Condon offer an accessible guide to the boundless love and compassion within us all, regardless of our spiritual background or beliefs."
--Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Life

About the Author

JOHN MAKRANSKY, PhD, has been a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior academic advisor at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies, fellow of the Mind & Life Institute, and senior editor for the Buddhism section of the St. Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology. John's scholarly writings focus on connections between devotion, compassion, and wisdom in Buddhism, adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds, and theoretical issues in interfaith learning. In 2000, John was ordained as a lama in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism--a teacher of innate love and wisdom practices. 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. In consultation with participants from those settings, John developed the Sustainable Compassion Training model of contemplative practice (SCT) to help Western Buddhists, people of diverse faiths, and those in caring roles and professions generate a more sustaining and unconditional power of compassion and awareness to support their lives and work.

PAUL CONDON is an associate professor of psychology at Southern Oregon University and a research fellow at the Mind & Life Institute. He has also served as a visiting lecturer for the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute. His research examines the relational basis for empathy, compassion, wellbeing, and prosocial action and the influence of compassion and mindfulness training on those capacities. His writings and teachings also explore the use of scientific theories in dialogue with contemplative traditions to inform meditation practices of compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom. His research and writings have appeared in leading psychology journals and Buddhist magazines, and his work on meditation has been cited in media outlets such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian Magazine. Paul is codeveloper of the Sustainable Compassion Training model, and he teaches meditation practices adapted from the Tibetan Nyingma and Kagyu traditions for multi-faith and secular application.