John Makransky, PhD, is Associate Professor of Buddhism  and Comparative Theology at Boston  College, senior academic advisor for Chokyi  Nyima Rinpoche’s Centre for Buddhist  Studies in Nepal, co-founder of the  Foundation for Active Compassion (a socially  engaged contemplative organization), and  author of the popular meditation manual  ”Awakening through Love.” His academic  writings have focused on connections  between doctrine and practice in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism,  on adapting Buddhist contemplative practices for contemporary  application, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning.  Beginning in 1978, he studied with lamas of three Tibetan  lineages, and in 2000 was ordained a lama in the lineage of  Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. Since then he has taught meditations  of compassion and wisdom adapted from Buddhism in newly  accessible ways to teachers, health-care givers, social workers,  psychotherapists and those who work with prisoners, the hungry  and the dying. He has offered contemplative workshops at  Kathmandu University, Harvard Divinity and Medical Schools,  Brown University, Emory University, University of Wisconsin–  Madison, University of Virginia, Rhode Island and Bradley  Hospitals’ Psychiatry Departments, and other institutions. He  has published several books and many articles on Buddhist  practices, their adaptation in current contexts, and Buddhist  contemplative resources for service, social change and inter-religious  learning.