JOHN J. MAKRANSKY Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology Department of Theology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 EDUCATION University of Wisconsin-Madison Ph.D. October, 1990 Major: Buddhist Studies. Minor: South Asian Languages and Literature Dissertation: "Controversy Over Dharmakāya in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Historical-critical Analysis of Abhisamayālaṃkāra Chapter 8 and Its Commentaries in Relation to the Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and the Yogācāra Tradition." U.S. Advisor: Prof. Geshe Lhundup Sopa (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Advisors in India: Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche (Director: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, India), Khenpo Migmar Tsering (Sakya Abbot at Tibetan Institute, Sarnath, India), Geshe Thubten Tsering (Gelug Abbot at Tibetan Institute, Sarnath, India). Yale University B.A., Cum Laude 1975 Major: Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics LANGUAGES Literary Tibetan, Sanskrit, Modern Spoken Tibetan, Hindi, French for reading. TEACHING AREAS: Buddhist Seminars: Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophical schools; Buddhist philosophy and praxis in India, Tibet, China, and Japan; Buddhist modernism and engaged Buddhism; Buddhist meditation, psychology and neuroscience; Contemporary Applications of Buddhist Contemplative Practices. Comparative Theology topics: Christian and Buddhist theological anthropologies, ecclesiologies, and spiritualities; theological bases of ethics and altruism; what Buddhism and Christian liberation theologies can learn from each other; Contemplative Practice, Social Service, and Interfaith Learning. PUBLICATIONS BOOKS: A Call to Care: Teachers’ Development Guide, version 2.5, co-authored with Brooke Dodson-Lavelle and Pamela Siegle (Amherst, MA: Mind and Life Institute, 2015). A manual created for school teachers within Mind and Life Institute's global initiative in education. The manual relates findings in neuroscience, psychology and social-emotional learning with methods for contemplative training in stable care and sustainable compassion for teachers. Awakening Through Love -- Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness. (Boston: Wisdom Publications 2007). Provides new theoretical and experiential access to Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practices of love, compassion and wisdom for scholars of comparative theology, the interested public, and Buddhists East and West. 1 Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (Routledge-Curzon: Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2000), co-edited with Roger Jackson. Anthology of articles by academic scholars who are trained in Buddhist traditions, to explore what Buddhism can learn from modern academic findings and what the modern world can learn from Buddhism. Co-organized this anthology in support of a new movement in the academic study of religion and theology: non-Christian critical, constructive theology. Wrote introduction and one chapter. Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997). Historical and critical text analysis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Perfection of Wisdom literature as basis for Buddhist theological reflection on the nature of Buddhahood—the kinds of awareness, qualities and activities that constitute enlightenment. PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS: “What Christian Liberation Theology and Buddhism Need to Learn from Each Other,” Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies February 2015. “A Buddhist Critique of, and Learning from, Christian Liberation Theology,” Theological Studies September 2014. “Embodying Care” co-authored with Brooke Dodson-Lavelle, Mind and Life Magazine, Spring 2014 Issue. “How Buddhist Practice Grounds Social Action in a Secular World, Dharma World: Living Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue, Apr-June 2012, Vol. 39. “Compassion in Buddhist Psychology.” Chapter 4 in Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, edited by Christopher K. Germer and Ronald D. Siegel. NY, NY: Guilford Press, February 2012. “Thoughts on Why, How and What Buddhists Can Learn from Christian Theologians,” Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 31, 2011 “Compassion Beyond Fatigue: Contemplative Training for Educators, Activists and other Helping Professionals.” Chapter 8 in Meditation and the Classroom, edited by Judith Simmer-Brown and Fran Grace. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2011. “The Awakening of Hospitality.” Chapter 10 in Hosting the Stranger: Between Religions, ed. by Richard Kearney and James Taylor (New York: Continuum Press, 2011. "Pure Perception and Equanimity of Heart,” chapter in the book Traversing the Heart: Journeys of the Inter-religious Imagination, edited by Richard Kearney and Eileen Rizo-Patron, Leiden, Netherlands: Brill 2010 2 “Buddhist Reflections on Theological Learning and Spiritual Discipline” in Spotlight on Theological Education, Religious Studies News, on-line journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 2010. “Buddhist Perspectives on Truth in Other Religions” in C. Cornille, ed. Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious Dialogue. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2009 “The Emergence of Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection in the Academy as a Resource for Buddhist Communities and for the Contemporary World” by John Makransky, published in Journal of Global Buddhism Volume 9, 2008, pp. 113-154. “Buddhist Inclusivism: Reflections Toward a Contemporary Buddhist Theology of Religions,” by John Makransky, in: P. Schmidt-Leukel (ed.), Buddhist Attitudes to Other Religions, St. Ottilien: EOS-Verlag 2008. “Buddha and Christ as Mediations of Ultimate Reality: A Mahayana Buddhist Perspective,” and “Response to Dr. Schmidt-Leukel’s Theology of Religions,” in P. Schmidt-Leukel (ed.), Buddhism and Christianity in Dialogue, SCM press England, 2005. “Buddhist Analogues of Sin and Grace: A Dialogue with Augustine,” in Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, 2005. “Tathāgata” in Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, Macmillan Reference Co. USA, NY, 2005. “No Real Protection without Love and Compassion,” in Journal of Buddhist Ethics, volume 12, 2005, pp. 25-36. “A Buddhist Response to Richard Kearney on Religious Good and Evil,” in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Crossroads, 2005. “Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies,” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert Buswell, Macmillan Reference 2004. “Buddhist Perspectives on Truth in Other Religions: Past and Present,” Theological Studies Journal, vol. 64 no.2 (2003), 334 – 361. “Contemporary Academic Buddhist Theology: Its Emergence and Rationale” in Buddhist Theology, edited by Roger Jackson and John Makransky, Routledge-Curzon, 2000, 14-24. "Historical Consciousness as an Offering to the Trans-historical Buddha," in Buddhist Theology, edited by Roger Jackson and John Makransky, Routledge-Curzon, 2000, 111-135. 3 "Buddhist Ritual and Ethical Activity in the World,” Buddhist-Christian Studies Journal, 20 (2000), 54-59. "Offering (mChod pa) in Tibetan Ritual Literature." in Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, edited by Roger Jackson and Jose Cabezon, Snow Lion Press, 1995, 312-330. "Proposal of a Modern Solution to an Ancient Problem: Literary-Historical Evidence that the Abhisamayalamkara Teaches Three Buddha Kayas," Journal of Indian Philosophy 20 (1992), 149-190. "Controversy over Dharmakāya in India and Tibet: A Reinterpretation of its Basis, Abhisamayālamkāra Chapter 8," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 12, No.2 (1989), 45-78. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review: “On Parenting” (Summer 2001), “Cartoon as Path” (Fall 2001), “Love is All Around” (Fall 2007). ANNOTATED TRANSLATION: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path by rJe Tsong kha pa (15th century, Tibetan). Annotated translation from Tibetan of the section on the six perfections of the bodhisattva path. Pages 113 to 232 in Volume 2 of The Great Treatise, Snow Lion, 2004. WORKS IN PROGRESS—ARTICLES “Overcoming Common Impediments to Sustainable Compassion by Adopting a Relational Starting Point," for publication in Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal. “Drawing from a Broader Range of Contemplative Practices To Empower Compassion Training for those in Caring Professions ,” for publication in Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal. “Learning to Love as we are Loved: Rediscovering the Relational Starting Point of Compassion Training in Buddhist Cultures for Secular Adaptation,” accepted for publication in the Fall 2016 issue of Tricycle Magazine. “Confronting the Sin Out of Love for the Sinner: Fierce Compassion as a Force for Social Change,” accepted for publication in 2016 issue of Buddhist-Christian Studies Journal. WORKS IN PROGRESS--BOOKS Sustainable Compassion Training: An Introduction. co-authored with Brooke Dodson Lavelle. The Sustainable Compassion Training method I developed has adapted contemplative theory and practice from Buddhism for application in social service and 4 interfaith settings. This method has emerged as one of the leading models of compassion training in the United States, in conversation with alternative models developed at Emory and Stanford Universities. Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT) is being applied to help strengthen care and compassion and prevent empathic distress and burnout among educators, healthcare givers, mental health providers, social workers, counselors, clergy and others. SCT is at the core of an international education initiative that was launched by the Mind and Life Institute in 2014. This Introduction to SCT, co-written with Brooke Dodson-Lavelle, will discuss SCT as a secular application