John Makransky’s research while affiliated with Boston College and other places

This article addresses two distinct but interrelated aspects of “skillful means” that can inform compassion training: (1) the historical precedent and need for adapting meditation practices to meet new cultural contexts, and (2) the need to express compassion flexibly in ways that creatively meet the specific contexts, mentalities, and needs of particular persons and situations. We first discuss ways that the doctrine of skillful means was employed by Buddhists to rationalize the repeated adaptation of Buddhist teachings to meet the culturally situated mentalities and needs of diverse Asian peoples. Then, in continuity with that history of Buddhist adaptation, we explore how theories from modern psychological science, such as attachment theory, can be newly drawn upon to support adaptation of relational frameworks operative in traditional Buddhist cultures of compassion training for modern contexts. Finally, we draw on theories from cognitive science, namely situated conceptualization, that provide a tractable framework for understanding skillful compassion as embodied emptiness—involving the relaxation of pattern completion mechanisms, which helps open up greater discernment and presence to others, so that care and compassion can be more unrestricted, creative, and directly responsive to the person and situation at hand.

In this article, we address two distinct, but interrelated aspects of “skillful means” that can inform compassion training: 1) the historical precedent and need for adapting meditation practices to meet new cultural contexts, and 2) the need to express compassion flexibly in ways that creatively meet the specific contexts and needs of particular persons and situations. We first discuss ways that the doctrine of skillful means was employed by Buddhists to rationalize the repeated adaptation of Buddhist teachings to meet the culturally situated mentalities and needs of diverse Asian peoples. Then, in continuity with that history of Buddhist adaptation, we explore how theories from modern psychological science, such as attachment theory, can be newly drawn upon to support adaptation of Buddhist compassion training for application in modern cultures. Finally, we draw on theories from cognitive science, namely situated conceptualization, that provide a tractable framework for understanding skillful compassion as embodied emptiness—involving the relaxation of pattern completion mechanisms, which helps open up greater discernment and presence to others, so that care and compassion can be more unrestricted, creative, and directly responsive to the person and situation at hand.

Healthcare providers seek to access a power of sustainable, inclusive, and unconditional care and compassion for self and others beyond empathic distress, secondary trauma, and burnout. To support that goal, in this chapter, we present three compassion meditations that serve two purposes: 1) to empower the ability to be with your own difficult emotions and feelings in a healing way, and 2) to extend empathy and compassion to others with increasing sustainability and inclusivity. Providers can practice these meditations themselves and carry forward that practice into clinical work, both in their embodied presence to their patients and, if appropriate and beneficial, by explicitly sharing these practices with interested patients.

Meditation programs continue to proliferate in the modern world, with increasing participation from scientists and many others who seek to improve physical, mental, relational, and social flourishing. In developing such programs, the meditation practices have been adapted to meet the needs of modern cultures. However, through that adaptation, important contextual factors of traditional contemplative cultures are often dropped or forgotten. This article presents a system of compassion and mindfulness training, Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), which is designed to help people cultivate increasingly unconditional, inclusive, and sustainable care for self and others. SCT aims to recover important contextual factors of meditation that flexibly meet the diverse needs of modern secular and religious participants. SCT draws on Tibetan Buddhism in dialogue with caregivers, other contemplative traditions and relevant scientific theories to inform meditative transformation for secular contexts. We provide an overview of SCT meditations that includes both contemplative and scientific theories that draw out important features of them. Each meditation includes novel hypotheses that are generated from this dialogical process. We also provide links to audio-guided meditations.

The cultivation of compassion through meditation training is of increasing interest to scientists, health-care providers, educators, and policymakers as an approach to help address challenging personal and social issues. Yet people encounter critical inner psychological barriers to compassion that limit the effectiveness of compassion training—including the lack of a secure base, aversion to suffering, feeling alone in suffering, and reductive impressions of others. These barriers emerge, in part, from a lack of relational support and are exacerbated by modernist conceptions that present meditation as an autonomous, self-help practice. This article proposes a solution centered on relationality that is derived from the integration of diverse areas of psychology with contemplative traditions. Theories and findings from social, developmental, and health psychology can inform meditation programs and help recover important relational elements of compassion training from traditional cultures that address common barriers to compassion and thus promote more sustainable and inclusive care. In so doing, this article illustrates the value of psychological theories for translating important contextual elements from contemplative traditions into diverse modern settings.

Meditation programs continue to proliferate in the modern world, with increasing participation from stakeholders throughout science and those who seek to improve physical, mental, relational, and social flourishing. In developing such programs, the meditation practices and contextual factors surrounding them have been adapted to meet the needs of modern cultures. However, in so doing, important contextual factors of traditional cultures are often dropped or forgotten. This article presents a system of compassion and mindfulness training, Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), which is designed to help people cultivate increasingly unconditional, inclusive, and sustainable care for others. SCT aims to recover important contextual factors of meditation that flexibly meet the diverse needs of modern secular and religious participants. SCT draws on Tibetan Buddhism in dialogue with caregivers, other contemplative traditions and relevant scientific theories to inform meditative transformation for secular contexts. We provide an overview of SCT meditations that includes both contemplative and scientific theories that draw out important features of them. Each meditation includes novel hypotheses that are generated from this dialogical process. We also provide links to audio-guided meditations.

Cultivation of compassion through meditation training is of increasing interest to scientists, healthcare providers, educators, and policy makers as an approach to help address challenging social issues. Yet people encounter critical barriers to compassion that limit the effectiveness of compassion training--including the lack of a secure base, aversion to suffering, feeling alone in suffering, and reductive impressions of others. All of these barriers stem from a lack of relational support, which are exacerbated by modernist conceptions that present meditation as an autonomous, self-help practice. This article proposes a solution centered on relationality, derived from the integration of diverse areas of psychology with contemplative traditions. Theories and findings from social, developmental, and health psychology can inform meditation programs and help recover important relational elements of compassion training from traditional cultures that address common barriers to compassion, and thus promote more sustainable and inclusive care. In so doing, this paper serves as an illustration of the value of psychological theories for translating important contextual elements of contemplative traditions into western and secular settings.

This article is an exercise in comparative theology from a Buddhist perspective. Christian liberation theology and engaged Buddhism both seek to empower people by liberating them from causes of suffering that prevent them from realizing their deeper identity and fuller potential. Christian and Buddhist liberation theologies differ in what they identify as the main conditions of suffering, as well as in the epistemologies they use to disclose those suffering conditions and to address them. Through their differences, the author argues, each tradition points out an epistemological weakness in the other that would otherwise have remained unnoticed and, by exposing it, helps correct it.