John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

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Thomas Amundsen
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John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

Hi all,

Is anyone here familiar with John Maransky? Or read his book Awakening Through Love?

He was apparently a student of Lama Surya Das and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Chokyi Nyima wrote a praise for his book, too, which seems promising.

Any thoughts on his teachings? Any idea if it warrants being associated with the Dzogchen tradition?
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heart
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by heart »

tomamundsen wrote:Hi all,

Is anyone here familiar with John Maransky? Or read his book Awakening Through Love?

He was apparently a student of Lama Surya Das and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Chokyi Nyima wrote a praise for his book, too, which seems promising.

Any thoughts on his teachings? Any idea if it warrants being associated with the Dzogchen tradition?
I heard good things about him, but I don't know him. He is a professor so he have been teaching at Chökyi Nyima Rinpoches shedra in Kathmandu.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
tingdzin
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by tingdzin »

Dr. Makransky (not Maransky) is primarily a professor. He was made a lama, I believe, by Surya Das -- the two seem to be good friends. I could be completely wrong, but I don't think he's done a three year retreat. Also, IMO this query should have gone in the Tibetan Buddhism section instead of the Dzogchen section. I don't think he claims to be a Dzogchen teacher, and certainly his book doesn't seem to have to do much with Dzogchen.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by philji »

I have never heard of Dr John being addressed as Lama so not sure where that comes from. His book awakening to love is very good and gives an interesting take on practices of loving kindness. I believe that he has meditation groups in,using an online one advertised on his website. I think he also studied with Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche.
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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

tingdzin wrote:Dr. Makransky (not Maransky) is primarily a professor. He was made a lama, I believe, by Surya Das -- the two seem to be good friends. I could be completely wrong, but I don't think he's done a three year retreat. Also, IMO this query should have gone in the Tibetan Buddhism section instead of the Dzogchen section. I don't think he claims to be a Dzogchen teacher, and certainly his book doesn't seem to have to do much with Dzogchen.
It says it in the first paragraph of the summary:
Drawing from the natural ease tradition of Tibet (dzogchen), he uses plain, practical instructions to help readers uncover the unity of wisdom and love in the very nature of our minds.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Wayfarer »

Very beautiful, thankyou. We are lucky to encounter such teachings.

:namaste:
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
tingdzin
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by tingdzin »

It says it in the first paragraph of the summary:
Drawing from the natural ease tradition of Tibet (dzogchen), he uses plain, practical instructions to help readers uncover the unity of wisdom and love in the very nature of our minds.
[/quote]

Yeah, well, I guess you pretty much have to put Dzogchen in your ads these days if you want to sell your books.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by DGA »

philji wrote:I have never heard of Dr John being addressed as Lama so not sure where that comes from. His book awakening to love is very good and gives an interesting take on practices of loving kindness. I believe that he has meditation groups in,using an online one advertised on his website. I think he also studied with Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche.
Those who learn to embody an indomitable love become virtually unstoppable in their activity for others.
~ Lama John Makransky
http://foundationforactivecompassion.or ... -makransky
fckw
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by fckw »

tingdzin wrote:I could be completely wrong, but I don't think he's done a three year retreat.
Not sure, what this is supposed to imply.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Lobsang Chojor »

fckw wrote:
tingdzin wrote:I could be completely wrong, but I don't think he's done a three year retreat.
Not sure, what this is supposed to imply.
You traditionally only call someone a Lama after they have completed a three year retreat.
"Morality does not become pure unless darkness is dispelled by the light of wisdom"
  • Aryasura, Paramitasamasa 6.5
ༀ་ཨ་ར་པ་ཙ་ན་དྷཱི༔ Oṃ A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhīḥ
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by DGA »

Lobsang Chojor wrote:
fckw wrote:
tingdzin wrote:I could be completely wrong, but I don't think he's done a three year retreat.
Not sure, what this is supposed to imply.
You traditionally only call someone a Lama after they have completed a three year retreat.
It's not so simple.

I don't know Makransky but I have met people who regard him as their teacher. :shrug:
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Lobsang Chojor »

DGA wrote:It's not so simple.

I don't know Makransky but I have met people who regard him as their teacher. :shrug:
Thank you DGA, I wasn't aware of this.
"Morality does not become pure unless darkness is dispelled by the light of wisdom"
  • Aryasura, Paramitasamasa 6.5
ༀ་ཨ་ར་པ་ཙ་ན་དྷཱི༔ Oṃ A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhīḥ
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Tsultrim T.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by Tsultrim T. »

I met him many years back and traveled to India with him and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche for about 10 days. Nice enough man and very learned he was definitely more in the role of scholar then rather than Lama. I have not read his book(s)? or attended his classes, but one on one he was able to answer some Dharma questions and was very pleasant and quite humble.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by fckw »

Lobsang Chojor wrote: You traditionally only call someone a Lama after they have completed a three year retreat.
Hm, I thought there's quite a bit more required to actually be rightfully called lama than simply attend to a 3-years retreat. Then again, there are some guys called Tulku because their father was called that way. I personally don't care really. Either he's a good teacher, or he is not. I have actually rather little respect for titles, and those Western Buddhist teachers I have studied with were all quite exceptional people in comparison to all the regular folks out there.
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Re: John Maransky :: Awakening Through Love

Post by pemachophel »

I've read his book. If I remember correctly, he tells the story of how Lama Surya eventually came to give him the title Lama. It was a good story. I won't retell it here so as not to spoil the read. It seems, however, that since the book's publication, he has backed away from using this title.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
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