Awakening Through Love
The Book That Smacks Your Ego Until It Cracks Open Like an Overripe Melon
Let’s get one thing straight—this book isn’t here to sprinkle some feel-good platitudes on your existential crisis and send you off with a warm hug. Awakening Through Love by John Makransky is a spiritual wrecking ball designed to obliterate the biggest roadblock to love in your life: you.
This isn’t about trying to be more loving or forcing compassion out of sheer effort. No, this book takes the Tibetan Buddhist approach, which is way more hardcore:
It dismantles the walls in your mind that keep love out.
It rips apart the illusion that you’re separate from love.
It throws you into the deep end of your own resistance and says, “Swim, coward.”
John Makransky pulls from the Nyingma/Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, which means he’s not playing around with shallow self-help nonsense. The guided meditations in this book are structured, intentional, and—if you actually practice them—they will rewire how you experience love, both receiving and giving.
What the Heavy Hitters Say About It
Daniel Goleman, the guy who wrote Social Intelligence, calls this book a "root text" in social and emotional intelligence. Translation: this isn’t just spiritual fluff—it’s psychologically sound, neurologically backed, and brutally effective.
Sharon Salzberg, the Lovingkindness guru, says it shifts us from “contracted self-centeredness” to a vast, effortless connection. In other words: it teaches you how to stop being a love-hoarding gremlin.
Raphael Cushnir straight-up calls this book a "treasure" that leads us through the darkest parts of ourselves and delivers us into a state of unshakable joy.
Tulku Thondup, another heavyweight in the Tibetan Buddhist world, says it awakens “the awareness of universal peace and ultimate wisdom.” Sounds dramatic, but you get the idea—this book doesn’t just change how you think, it changes how you exist.
Why This Book Matters
Unlike the nonsense motivational drivel flooding social media, Awakening Through Love doesn’t just tell you to “be kind” or “open your heart.” It gives you the precise tools to dissolve the inner blocks that make kindness and love feel unnatural in the first place.
It’s not about adding love—it’s about removing the crap that’s been suffocating it.
It’s not about forcing compassion—it’s about seeing through the illusion that you were ever separate from it.
It’s not about wishful thinking—it’s about practices that fundamentally rewire your being.
Final Verdict
If you’re looking for a step-by-step manual on how to stop being emotionally constipated and actually experience love as a living, breathing force, this is it. It’s practical. It’s transformative. And if you actually do the meditations, it will ruin your excuses for staying closed off forever.
Read this book. Do the work. Stop blocking love.