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

Category: Lama Tsultrim

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.

The Heart of Buddhism A Year Long Buddhist Studies Program

Also With Amelia Hall PhD, Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS, Robert Thurman PhD, Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam, Miranda Shaw PhD, Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton, Tulku Ösel Dorje, Wendy Garling and Erik Pema Kunsang

January 31 - November 21, 2025

Welcome to The Heart of Buddhism: A Year Long Buddhist Studies Program. Throughout 2025, we'll explore the history, core teachings, and practices that guide Buddhist practitioners in the Tibetan tradition in waking up to their true nature of innate compassion and wisdom. The Buddhist path offers profound guidance for working with the individual and collective […]

Embodying the Innate Wisdom and Compassion of the Twenty One Taras

Also With Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton, Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS, Nina Rao and Spring Washam

October 11, 2025 - December 11, 2027

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 a lens through which we can understand and integrate the contemporary context of the Taras through inspiring stories about historic and modern Buddhist […]

Mandala Method Journey into the Mandala of the Sacred Masculine

Also With Lopön Ellen Booth Church and Chögé Bridget Bailey

October 17 - November 15, 2025

“The mandala is a template or blueprint of wholeness. It has a center and four directions. Associated with each direction is a color, an element, an obstructed pattern and a wisdom. It is a way to understand yourself and also your world.” – Lama Tsultrim Allione The Mandala of the Five Buddhas is for all […]

The Great Perfection

Also With Tulku Ösel Dorje, Erik Pema Kunsang and Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche

October 24 - November 21, 2025

Course Five of the five-course series, The Heart of Buddhism: A Year Long Buddhist Studies Program with Lama Tsultrim Allione and guest teachers. The Buddhist Path The Buddhist path offers profound guidance for working with the individual and collective challenges we face — and transforming suffering into liberation. These teachings show us how we can each […]

Simhamukha The Lion Headed Dakini

Also With Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam, Lopön Ellen Booth Church and Miranda Shaw PhD

November 7 - 23, 2025

Join us for two retreat weekends as we take an immersive journey through the transmission, teachings, and practice of Simhamukha: The Lion-Headed Dakini This online program offers transmission and teachings on the Simhamukha practice and Lama Tsultrim’s personal transformation work within the mandala. Simhamukha is known as a powerful remover of obstacles and as Queen […]

Feeding Your Demons Collective Demon Feeding Workshop

Also With Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam and Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen

December 13 - 14, 2025

Collective Demon Feeding Workshop December 13-14, 2025 | Online As we navigate ongoing global challenges—wars, political divisions, and rising violence and prejudice—this intensive workshop offers a powerful opportunity to transform personal practice into collective healing through Lama Tsultrim Allione's Feeding Your Demons® method. Workshop Overview Join Lama Tsultrim Allione, Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam, and Lopön […]

Feeding Your Demons Collective Demon Feeding Practice

December 14, 2025

Collective Demon Feeding Practice with Lama Tsultrim Allione December 14, 2025 | 11am - 12pm MT| Online As we navigate ongoing global challenges—wars, political divisions, and rising violence and prejudice—this rare gathering offers a powerful opportunity to join practitioners worldwide in transformative collective practice. Experience firsthand how Feeding Your Demons® moves beyond personal healing to […]

Song of the Vajra

February 21 - 22, 2026

Mandala Method Journey into the Union of the Sacred Feminine and Masculine

Also With Lopön Ellen Booth Church, Chögé Lisa Erickson and Chögé Bridget Bailey

March 20 - April 11, 2026

“In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the pinnacle spiritual experience is described as the union of the feminine, symbolizing wisdom, with the masculine, symbolizing skillful means.” ~ Lama Tsultrim Allione Venture into the Yab Yum Mandala to explore divine union beyond gender identifications, experiencing and integrating the feminine and masculine we each hold within ourselves. The Yab […]