Lama Tsultrim Allione

Lama Tsultrim Allione is the bestselling author of Women of Wisdom (1984), Feeding Your Demons (2008), and Wisdom Rising Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine (2018). Lama Tsultrim is the founder of Tara Mandala, a 700-acre retreat center with a three-story temple and library dedicated to the divine feminine in the Buddhist tradition, located near Pagosa Springs in southwest Colorado. She leads a vibrant international community with over forty groups around the world. Born in New England, she traveled to Asia in her late teens, and in 1970, at the age of 22 in Bodhgaya, India, she became the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She later disrobed, married and became the mother of three and now is a grandmother of six. In 2007, she was recognized in Tibet and Nepal as the reincarnation of a renowned 11th-century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön, and she is one of the few women Lamas in the world today. In 2012, she received the Machig Labdron Empowerment from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. She was awarded international recognition as an “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” in 2009 by a panel of distinguished scholars and practitioners in Bangkok, Thailand.

Photo: © Katrin Röder

 

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Upcoming Programs by Lama Tsultrim Allione

Feeding Your Demons® - Online Program

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen

Open Dates
Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) is a profoundly effective method for recognizing and transforming the deep-seated patterns, triggers, and neuroses that undermine the quality and enjoyment of our lives. Learn more about the whole program here.

Lama Live!

Open Dates
Lama Live! is a livestream event where we can gather together as a community for meditation, prayer, and teachings from Lama Tsultrim Allione and other guest teachers on Sundays at 9am PT.

Zhitro Self Paced Program

Open Dates
The simple and accessible practice of Zhitro offers a real way for a practitioner to help the deceased. This practice also helps individuals become familiar with the visions and experiences that may occur during the 49 days following one's own passing.

Riwo Sangcho Self Paced Program

Also with Anna Raithel

Open Dates
A practice to heal the suffering of samsara, through the practice of boundless compassion and abundant offering. Learn the widespread and traditional practice of Riwo Sangchö – “a mountainside smoke offering.”

Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine Self Paced Program

Open Dates
Be guided through the development of the feminine in Buddhism, and understand how each of the five Dakini’s key ‘encumbered’ emotions and wisdom qualities are within each of us. By being introduced to the mandala principle and its importance to western and eastern psychology, you will understand the fierce feminine qualities found within the five Dakini buddha families.

Green Tara Self Paced Program

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam

Open Dates
A great introductory course for understanding ‘deity’ practice in Buddhism. Green Tara sits with one foot in the meditative posture and one foot in the world, thus embodying active compassion and serving as a model for modern day contemplative life.

Chod of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche Self Paced Program

Also with Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton

Open Dates
Cut through fear, fixation and clinging, by nurturing not fighting, what disturbs our mind. This Chod practice is empowered through the lineage of the Tibetan Dzogchen master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.

Machig Labdron and the Nature of Mind Self Paced Program

Open Dates
Engage with the powerful teachings of the great Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön, on the ‘nature of mind’ as taught by her direct emanation, Lama Tsultrim Allione. Connect to Machig’s pith instructions, the essence of her teaching.

Opening the Heart Sutra Self Paced Program

Open Dates
Engage with the concise teaching of Prajnaparamita, in this profound conversation between Shariputra and Avalokiteshvara. Through guiding participants line-by-line through the Heart Sutra, you will receive a functional overview of Mahayana philosophy and gain deeper insight into the world of this treasured text.

Introduction to Feeding Your Demons® for Mental Health Professionals

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen

Open Dates
Discover the life-changing potential of Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) in this online course. Learn the five-step process to transform your inner demons into allies and cultivate resilience. Created by Lama Tsultrim Allione, FYD blends ancient Tibetan wisdom with modern psychology to support personal and professional growth. Join a global community dedicated to inner transformation.

Oral Transmission Event

Open Dates
A Lung is an oral transmission of a practice, and will be offered for our Self-Paced Green Tara, Chöd, Zhitro, Riwo Sangchö courses. Anyone is welcome to receive a Lung as a blessing and connection to a certain practice. If you have already received the Lung, you are welcome to receive it again as a blessing. 

Embodying the Innate Wisdom and Compassion of the Twenty One Taras

Also with Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton, Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS, Nina Rao, Spring Washam and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

October 11, 2025 - December 11, 2027

This program began October 11, 2025, with open enrollment until October 2026. Recordings of past sessions are available on the course content page.  Explore the symbolic meaning, power, and purpose of the 21 Taras through teachings, embodied meditation, mantra, and journeys with Tara. In this immersive and transformative program, Dorje Lopön Chandra will offer us […]

Feeding Your Demons Level I Buddhist Track Kapala I

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen

March 21 - May 16, 2026
In Feeding Your Demons® Level I, you will learn this potent, life-changing method, creating meaningful transformation in a world that is ripe for profound healing.

Feeding Your Demons Level I Secular Track

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen

March 21 - May 16, 2026
In Feeding Your Demons® Level I, you will learn this potent, life-changing method, creating meaningful transformation in a world that is ripe for profound healing.

DHARMA FRIENDS Dharma Art with Special Guest Lama Tsultrim Allione

Also with Megan Mook, Kevin Townley and Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS

May 7, 2026

This Spring, join DHARMA FRIENDS and special guest Lama Tsultrim Allione  for an inspiring and interactive evening about Dharma Art. Artist Robert Henri once said, “The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” How can Vajrayana practices help us enter this state? What does a tradition […]

Chod of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

Also with Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS

May 29 - 31, 2026

We invite you to join us for a profound opportunity to learn the Chöd of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with Lama Tsultrim Allione and Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer, M.S. For the first time Lama Tsultrim will also teach the accompanying Tsog practice that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu taught in 2012. Chöd is a unique blend of Buddhist tradition […]

The Dakini Retreat

Also with Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Ellen Booth Church

June 13 - 21, 2026

Lama Tsultrim will offer this celebrated and unique retreat which she developed to bring transformational personal work into the container of spiritual practice. This deeply experiential retreat involves meditation practice, art, mask making, sound, and movement. We will work with Simhamukha, the Lion-headed Dakini, with an introduction to the practice and transmission. This will be […]

White Dakini Drubcho

Also with Tulku Ösel Dorje, Lama Gyurme Rabgye and Lopön Beth Lee-Herbert

June 25 - July 1, 2026

For five intense days, Tara Mandala becomes a crucible of focused energy, where you will engage in precise tantric arts to purify obstacles and generate an ocean of merit. The true magic of this gathering lies in its radical generosity; the accumulated blessings are poured out freely for the entire community. To witness or participate […]