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…
Dorje Gyaltsab Tulku Ösel Dorje
From his own personal retreat practice, Dorje Gyaltsab Tulku Ösel Dorje has gained a strong appreciation for the importance of developing a deep understanding of the philosophical side of Buddhist study, while bringing it to life through meditation experience. Inspired by stories of realized masters of the past, Ösel Dorje has spent time…
Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton
Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton, Buddhist teacher and translator, studied Buddhism and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala, India, founded by H.H. Dalai Lama. She later received her degree from UCSB’s religious studies department at which time she co-translated Sublime Dharma, A Compilation of Two…
Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam
Dorje Lopön Charlotte Z. Rotterdam has studied Tibetan Buddhism since the mid 1990’s, and was authorized to teach by Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2006. She received the title of Magyu Lopön, lead teacher of Magyu: The Mother Lineage at Tara Mandala, from Lama Tsultrim in 2016, and Dorje Lopön, Vajra Teacher, in 2023.
Dorje Gyaltsab & Lopöns
Tulku Ösel Dorje is the Dorje Gyaltsab of Tara Mandala. He has completed four years of retreat and holds a Master’s Degree in Buddhist Studies.
Lama Tsultrim Allione has recognized two Lopöns in the Tara Mandala lineage to hold a direct role in the continuation and spreading of teachings as well as providing direction and guidance on all programs and paths offered.
Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton is the Dorje Lopön (Vajra Teacher) of Tara Mandala. She is the Lead Senior Teacher under Lama Tsultrim.
Dorje Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam is the Magyu Dorje Lopön of Tara Mandala. She oversees the entire Magyu Lineage path.
Lopön is a Tibetan title that means “Teacher” and is a spiritual degree given in Tibetan Buddhism that is equal to a Masters of Arts (M.A.). It is equivalent to the Sanskrit term Acharya, which means a senior teacher in Buddhism, as well as in other Indian traditions such as Hinduism and Jainism.
Tara Mandala Senior Teachers
Lopön Ellen Booth Church
Lopön Ellen Booth Church (Yeshe Choepel) has been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 35 years. She is a Buddhist teacher, meditation coach, former member on the Tara Mandala Board of Trustees, and an accomplished educator and author of many educational books and articles for parents and teachers. Formerly a professor of…
Lopön Robin Gayle
Lopön Robin Gayle, PhD, MDiv, MFT has undergraduate and graduate degrees/publications in theology, psychology, and east-west studies. She is a Tara Mandala authorized Feeding Your Demons® psychotherapist in private practice in California and Colorado. She is a former Dean, Chair, and tenured Professor of Counseling Psychology at Dominican University of…
Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer MS
Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer, M.S. has been practicing Chöd for over three decades and has assisted Lama Tsultrim on many Chöd retreats. She has co-taught Chöd since 2013 with Lama Tsultrim and Löpon Chandra Easton. She continues to teach and lead Chöd Practices for the NYC Tara Mandala Sangha which she…
Lopön Beth Lee-Herbert
Lopön Beth Lee-Herbert M.A., began her practice of Tibetan Buddhism under Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2003. Additionally, she has studied extensively with Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche and A.dzom Paylo Rinpoche. In 2012, she completed three-year retreat on the Dzinpa Rangdröl cycle in a solitary retreat cabin at Tara Mandala. In 2013,…
Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen
Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen is a Senior Teacher in Lama Tsultrim Allione’s lineage, Director of The Feeding Your Demons Institute, and co-author of Skymind: The Radical Path of Open Awareness. His journey arcs from the wild edges of apartheid-era Johannesburg to the heart of contemplative practice. As a boy, he roamed the…
Lopön Polly Ryan MA MFT
Lopön Polly Ryan (Rangdröl Shemo) has been a devoted student of Tibetan Buddhism for almost four decades. She has degrees in music and psychology and has been a licensed trauma and dharma informed mental health therapist for over 40 years. She has studied with Lama Tsultrim Allione in the lineage…
Lopön Barbara Staemmler
Lopön Barbara Staemmler studied medicine and specialized in psychotherapy. For over thirty years, she has worked as a Gestalt therapist and supervisor in private practice, and has also led Gestalt therapy training programs. In addition, she has completed further training in psychoanalytic therapy, music therapy, and bodywork. She began meditating…
Chögé Bridget Bailey
Bridget Bailey’s training is rooted in 17 years of Buddhist meditation practice and study. She holds an MBA from Duke University, a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is a licensed therapist in Washington State. She studied as an Apprentice Teacher with Lama Tsultrim…
Chögé Lisa Erickson
Lisa Erickson is a Chögé, meaning ‘virtuous teacher of dharma’, in Tara Mandala’s Teacher’s program. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons facilitator and teacher, and offers frequent Feeding Your Demons daylong workshops, as well as incorporating it into her private session work as an energy worker. Lisa has been…
Chögé Susan Glumac
Chögè Susan has called the beaches, waves, and breezes of Encinitas home for almost 50 years and is where she began her spiritual journey with Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga and Buckminister Fuller’s philosophy in her twenties. She first discovered the dharma and spent four years studying with Thich Nhat Hanh prior…
Chögé Susan Lorraine
Chögé Susan Lorraine has been a student of Buddhism for almost 50 years. She lived, practiced and navigated through the brilliance and tragedies of the Shambhala community, soaking in the stages of the Kagyü and Shambhala paths as presented by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and also the vibrancy of Naropa University,…
Chögé Jenny Terbell
Jenny Terbell is a Vajrayana Buddhist Practitioner, Chögé for Tara Mandala, and founder of Meditate Like A Mother. She began studying Tibetan Buddhism 14 years with her teacher Lama Tsultrim Allione and is a Kapala 5 graduate of the Magyu: The Mother Lineage. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons…
Feeding Your Demons® Teachers
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 the three-story temple and library dedicated to the divine…
Dorje Lopön Charlotte Z. Rotterdam has studied Tibetan Buddhism for the last 20 years, was authorized to teach by Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2006, and received the title of Magyu Lopön, lead teacher of Magyu: The Mother Lineage at Tara Mandala from Lama Tsultrim in 2016. Lopön Charlotte teaches in…
Lopön Pieter Oosthuizen is a teacher and a long-time student of Tibetan Buddhism. He has been teaching various practices and retreats in Lama Tsultrim’s lineage in the US and abroad since 2006, offering a blend of incisive insight and genuine compassion. He co-leads the Boulder Tara Mandala Sangha with Lopön Charlotte…
Dorje Lopön Chandra is a teacher, author, and translator of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the lead senior teacher at Tara Mandala Retreat Center, founded by Lama Tsultrim Allione. She serves on the Tara Mandala Board of Trustees, the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Council, develops programs and curricula for Tara Mandala,…
Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer, M.S., Tara Mandala Senior Teacher, has been practicing Chöd for over three decades and has assisted Lama Tsultrim on many Chöd retreats. She has co-taught Chöd since 2013 with Lama Tsultrim and Löpon Chandra Easton. She has also taught and led Chöd Practices for the NYC Tara Mandala…
Lopön Polly Ryan, MA, MFT, is a Tara Mandala Senior Teacher and has been a devoted student of Lama Tsultrim Allione since 1992. She has also studied with Lama Alan Wallace for over three decades. Under the tutelage of Lama Alan Wallace, she has studied Shamatha, The Four Applications of…
Yamuna Kerstin Becker (Pema Garmo Dechen Khandro) is a German-English translator, spiritual dancer and professional astrologer in Neuss, Germany. She discovered Buddhism in Thailand in 1982, took refuge with Tenga Rinpoche in 1998, and met Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2000. She has been deeply inspired by Lama Tsultrim Allione and…
Gudrun Binder studied psychology and philosophy at Vienna University focusing on the question of “I, self and reality.” Brain research, constructivism and system theory became her Western background leading to her study of the all-integrating philosophy and psychology of Buddhism. Integrating the wisdom of Buddhism in psychological work became her main focus…
Regina Bommer, born in 1963, works as an organizer and has been on the move internally and externally for as long as she can remember. She learned various therapy methods such as breathing and body work, NLP and talk therapy. For a while she also studied numerology, astrology and tarot. She has…
Sudakini Davies has been a practicing buddhist for more that 20 years and a student of Lama Tsultrim since 2008. She is an experienced Movement Psychotherapist and Couples Counsellor with a background in professional dance performance and teaching. Her work as a dancer and therapist has been deeply informed by…
Jetthe Fabioola, Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, meditation teacher, mentor and supervisor MA. Longtime student of Lama Tsultrim, teaching Feeding Your Demons, Prajna Paramita and The Mandala in Scandinavia, Europe and Africa. Certified FYD therapist. Jethhe has a passion for Lama Tsultrim’s practices as uniquely creative ways of bringing personal work into the spiritual…
Florian Fath is an occupational therapist and systemic therapist in private practice. He works as a psychotherapist with individuals, couples and families and accompanies as a supervisor institutions and clinics that care for mentally ill people. He specializes in the treatment of early and developmental trauma and has completed additional…
Lopön Robin Gayle, PhD, MDiv, MFT has undergraduate and graduate degrees/publications in theology, psychology, and east-west studies. She is a Tara Mandala Senior Feeding Your Demons® psychotherapist in private practice in Marin County, CA, and currently serves as Professor and Chair of Counseling Psychology at Dominican University of California, and Research…
Roberta Godbe-Tipp, Ph.D. is a Transpersonal Psychotherapist with over 40 years of meditative experience. Her private practice integrates Western Psychology with Eastern Meditative Traditions and incorporates Lama Tsultrim Alione’s Feeding Your Demons® process. She brings a Dzogchen perspective to her work and teaching, derived from her root male and females…
MacAndrew Jack is a psychologist in Boulder, Colorado and a leading clinician, educator, and writer in the integration of Buddhist psychology and meditation with psychotherapy. He has been a Buddhist practitioner for more than twenty years, and has been a student of Lama Tsultrim since 2003. He is a past…
Dagmar Loewenkamp has been on the Buddhist path and worked as a psychotherapist and supervisor in Analytic Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Breath and Bodywork since 1989. She has been a student of several different Buddhist schools and studied with Sogyal Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche for many years. Through her Buddhist practice,…
Heike Andrea Müller is a gestalt therapist and certified Feeding Your Demons® therapist in her private practice in Würzburg, Germany. She started meditation in 1989 and encountered Buddhism in 2005. For several years, she studied Buddhist foundations and Green Tara practice, mainly with Sylvia Wetzel. After spending three months on her solo…
Regina Reeb-Faller studied medicine and specialized in internal medicine, psychosomatics and psychotherapy. She works in her own practice and in an acute hospital for psychosomatic health development and self-organized and holistic concept development as medical director. She is trained in analytic psychology, hypno-systemic and trauma therapy, also working with nature rituals…
Vajralila has been a practicing Buddhist for over 25 years and a student of Lama Tsultrim in 2008. She subsequently went on to train in teaching the Feeding Your Demons practice and she and Sudakini have been teaching group workshops in the UK each year for both private groups and…
Drs. Paula van Lammeren is a psychologist (MSc), living in the Netherlands. She worked as a scientific researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction and taught at the Utrecht University on preventive mental health care. She is trained in Transpersonal Psychology, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychosynthesis and yoga. For…
Drs. Rianne van Rijsewijk is a psychologist (MSc) living in the Netherlands. She worked in the mental health care and wrote a book about women and grieve. For 15 years she was executive director and teacher at the school of ‘Being-orientation’ a modern approach on the integration of psychotherapy, bodywork…
Lopön Barbara Staemmler has studied medicine and specialized in psychotherapy. For more than thirty years she has been working as gestalt therapist and supervisor in private practice; she is also conducting gestalt therapy training programs. She has had additional trainings in psychoanalytic therapy, in musical therapy, and in body work. She…
Lisa Svensson, Sangye Chödrön, is a student of Lama Tsultrim Allione since 2012. Swedish by nationality she lives with her husband and three children in Munich, Germany. She is a gestalt therapist and works in her own practice in Munich with single clients and with couples. She leads meditation groups…
Tara Mandala Visiting Teachers
Amelia Hall PhD
Dr. Amelia Hall is an Associate Professor of Buddhism and Dean of Graduate Programs at Naropa University. She gained her PhD. in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies from the University of Oxford in 2012. She has taught and developed courses on Buddhism at Central Michigan University and Antioch University’s Buddhist Studies…
Dr. Tenzin Yangdon
Dr. Tenzin Yangdon graduated in 1992 from Men-Tsee-Khang Tibetan Medical College in Dharamsala, India, where she studied traditional herbal medicine, acupuncture, and holistic healing. She practiced for many years under the guidance of the esteemed Dr. Kunga Gyurmey Nyerongsha, personal physician of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama; and in…
Dungse Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche
Dungse Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche (ལྕགས་ཁུང་འཇིགས་མེད་དབང་དྲག) was born in the Golok region of Eastern Tibet as the fourth descendant of the great Tibetan master Dudjom Lingpa – one of the foremost spiritual masters of 19th Century Tibet. At the age of 15 he was recognized as the reincarnation of Rigzin Longsal…
Erik Pema Kunsang
Erik Pema Kunsang is a Danish dharma teacher and translator. He has been trained by many masters including the Dzogchen master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche Rinpoche, whom he stayed with for 16 years as an attendant and interpreter. Erik has translated and published over 60 volumes, especially focusing on the teachings…
Gena McCarthy RN, MFT
Gena McCarthy RN, MFT is an EMDR certified perinatal psychotherapist. She is the founder and developer of the Birth Spirituality and Healing Network, the Contra Costa County Perinatal Depression to Wellness Network and developed two local HMO Perinatal Integrative Health Programs. She co-founded the East Bay/ SF Peer Perinatal Professional…
H.E. Chung Tulku Rinpoche
H.E. Chung Tulku Rinpoche comes from an unusual yak-herding family with 7 sons, 5 of which have been recognized as tulkus. He is the third son, and second tulku of the family. He was born in Bhamarpo in Bhutan, very close to the sacred three-peaked mountain of Gangkharpunsum, which represents…
Jake Nagasawa
Jake Nagasawa is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. He has been studying classical Tibetan and Sanskrit formally for ten years. Jake’s research focuses on Tantric Buddhism in ancient and medieval Tibet. He is particularly interested in the tantras and the oral tradition (bka’ ma) of the Nyingma School. Jake also…
JoAnna Hardy
JoAnna Hardy an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; founding member of the Meditation Coalition, www.meditationcoalition.com a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center and a collaborator on many online meditation programs. She was born into a Catholic family…
Khandro Kunzang Dechen Chodron
Khandro Kunzang has been a devoted student and follower of the Dharma for most of her life. In the early 1990’s, she left behind a promising career, family, home and friends, to pursue her practice of the Dharma and became a novice nun in the Drikung Kagyu lineage, studying under…
Lama Namgyal Dorje
Lama Namgyal Dorje (Harvey B. Aronson, PhD, MSW) is a psychotherapist in private practice and a Buddhist meditation teacher. He is founder and teacher-in-residence at the Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple, Community Center, and Research Institute in Houston, Texas. He travels and lectures on Buddhist philosophy and psychology at universities and…
Lama Rod Owens
Lama Rod Owens is an author, activist, and authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Rod is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Lama Rod is also a teacher with the Daishin Zen Buddhist Temple, the Urban Yoga Foundation, Inward…
Lama Willa Blythe Baker
Lama Willa Blythe Baker has studied and practiced in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for the last thirty years in the non-sectarian Kagyu, Nyingma and Shangpa lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. She completed two three-year retreats in the nineties, and teaches Tibetan Buddhist practice, meditation and yoga in the Northeast. Her teaching…
Mark Coleman
Mark is an inner and outer explorer, who has devotedly studied mindfulness meditation practices for three decades. He is passionate about sharing the power of meditation and has taught Insight meditation retreats in five continents for the past twenty years. Mark is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation…
Megan Mook
Megan Mook holds a Master’s in Buddhist Studies and is a long-term student of both Tibetan Buddhism and yoga. Megan has lived and studied in traditional monastic environments all over the world, thoroughly immersing herself in the practice of Buddhism, yoga, and natural healing. A member of the Tibetan Translators…
Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Mushim Patricia Ikeda is a writer, Buddhist and mindfulness teacher, and justice activist based in Oakland, California. She is one of several core teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, an urban Buddhist-and-justice-based community center founded to serve historically excluded communities. She has taught meditation retreats nationally for Black, Indigenous and People of…
Netanel Miles-Yépez
Netanel Miles-Yépez is an artist, philosopher, religion scholar, and spiritual teacher. Considered a leading thinker in the interspirituality and new monastic movements, Miles-Yépez is also the head of the Inayati-Maimuni Order of Sufism. His books include The End of Religion and Other Writings (2023), In the Teahouse of Experience: Nine…
Nina Rao
Nina Rao learned traditional chants from her grandfather in a village in south India when she was a young girl. The chants quietly stayed with her until she rediscovered chanting with Krishna Das in New York City in 1996. Nina moved often as a child and spent time living in…
Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, born to parents who migrated from rural Louisiana at the start of WWII, has walked through many different doors spiritually and academically. She was ordained in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. She has a PhD and she’s also a poet and author. Essentially, she’s a Seer in…
Rhonda LoPresti
RHONDA LOPRESTI – END OF LIFE COACH, HOME FUNERAL GUIDE As an End of Life Coach, Rhonda is passionate in holding and creating sacred space, personal ritual, spiritual practice and creative choices through dying and deathcare. She believes we can learn to die and in learning to die we actually…
Robert Thurman PhD
Robert Thurman held the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West, the Jey Tsong Khapa Chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, before retiring in June of 2019. Educated at Philips Exeter and Harvard, he then studied Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, and Asian languages and histories for fifty years with many…
Sangye Khandro
Sangye Khandro became a Buddhist in 1971 when she traveled to Asia, finally arriving in Dharamsala, India, where she began six-months of study at the newly opened Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Throughout the next seven years, she continued her studies of Buddhist teachings and the Tibetan language. She…
Spring Washam
Considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices to diverse communities; Spring Washam is a well-known teacher, healer, and visionary leader based in Oakland, California. Spring is one of the founding teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, an organization that offers Buddhist teachings with attention to social action and…
Vanessa Kubota
Vanessa Kubota is a translator/interpreter of Tibetan language and a lawyer. She has authored over 200 translations of endangered Tibetan literature, and has studied Sanskrit, philology, and hermeneutics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed a Fulbright scholarship at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies University in…
Ven. Dr. Myodo Jabo
Venerable Dr. Myodo Jabo is a Buddhist Priest and Zen Master in the Five Mountain Zen Order. A meditator since 1998, she has been teaching the Buddhadharma and meditation since 2008 and was ordained as a Priest in 2013. She founded Single Flower Zen Center in Claremont, California in 2014.…
Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche is a revered Tibetan Buddhist master and scholar, recognized for his deep realization, scholarly excellence, and dedication to preserving the teachings of the Nyingma lineage. Born on June 10, 1950, in the Dhoshul region of Kham, eastern Tibet, his birth was marked by miraculous signs,…
Venerable Sogan Rinpoche
Ven. Sogan Rinpoche (Tulku Pema Lodoe) was born in 1964 in the Golok region of Amdo, in eastern Tibet. At the age of seventeen he went to Bayan Monastery to start his formal spiritual training. Later, he was recognized by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama as the 6th Sogan Rinpoche…
Victress Hitchcock
A long time Buddhist and filmmaker, Victress’ works include – Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet and When the Iron Bird Flies: Tibetan Buddhism Arrives in the West. In 2013 she was authorized as a Buddhist teacher by Anam Thubten. Since retiring from production in 2017, she has become…
Wendy Garling
Wendy has a BA from Wellesley College and an MA specializing in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a vajrayana practitioner and dharma teacher in the Lam Rim tradition; her root teacher was Venerable Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden. In 1976, she took refuge with…
Erik Jampa Andersson MA
Erik Jampa Andersson, MA, is an Environmental Historian, author, and scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Medicine. He is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine, where he received a comprehensive education in the Four Tantras (rGyud bZhi), and holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths College, University…
Fabio Andrico
Fabio Andrico was born and raised in Italy and is an internationally recognized expert on the unique tradition of Tibetan Yoga, known as Yantra Yoga, from the lineage of the renowned Tibetan translator and Dzogchen master, Vairocana. Fabio studied directly under the great Tibetan Dzog Chen master, Chögyal Namkhai…
Jonathan Barfield
Jonathan Barfield, PhD began his personal practice in 1997, with two years of intensive shamatha practice. Continuing his practice, in 1999, he moved from Chicago and into the deserts and mountains of the southwest where he studied ecology, earned a PhD in psychology, and lived in a tipi on the…
Scott Blossom
Scott Blossom is a Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner, Shadow Yoga teacher and Ayurvedic Consultant. He has been studying yoga since 1989 and teaching since 1997. His primary teachers are Zhander Remete, founder of Shadow Yoga, and Dr. Robert Svoboda, Ayurvedic physician and scholar. In 2011 he founded DoctorBlossom.com, a site…
Kunze Chimed
Kunze Chimed, a native of Mongolia, began her study and practice of Buddhism at the age of seventeen under the tutelage of old Mongolian Buddhist masters who survived the Communist regime. She joined the Jamyang Choeling Buddhist Nunnery in Dharamsala, India for three years, and pursued further study of Buddhist…
Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön is a leading exponent of teachings on meditation and how they apply to everyday life. She is widely known for her charming and down-to-earth interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism for Western audiences. An American Buddhist nun, Pema studied under the meditation master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and currently studies with…
Adriana Dal Borgo
Adriana Dal Borgo is a Psychologist and psychotherapist. She met the great Dzogchen Master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in Italy in 1986 and has been his student ever since. Adriana learned Chögyal Namkai Norbu’s Vajra Dance from him directly and in 1994 was authorized to teach this method and further authorize…
Krishna Das
Layering traditional Hindu kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das – known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD – has taken…
Khandro Tsering Drolkar
Khandro Tsering Drolkar was born in Bumthang, Bhutan in 1963. In 1984 she began an eleven year retreat under the guidance of her consort Lama Naljorpa at the Phurpaling Retreat Center in Tashiyangtse. During Lama Naljorpa’s lifelong retreat there, she received many teachings and experiential trainings directly from him. She…
Ranjini George MA MFA PhD
Ranjini George, MA, MFA, PhD Ranjini George holds a PhD in English (Northern Illinois University, USA), an MA in English (St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, India) and an MFA in Creative Writing (University of British Columbia, Canada). She was a Georges and Anne Bochardt Fiction Scholar (Sewannee Writers’ Conference) and…
Lama Sarah Harding
Sarah Harding has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1974, and has been teaching and translating since completing a three-year retreat in 1980 under the guidance of Kyabjé Kalu Rinpoché. She was associate professor at Naropa University for twenty-five years in Boulder, Colorado, where she currently resides, and has been…
Drubpön Lama Karma
Venerable retreat master (Drubpön) Lama Karma was born in eastern Bhutan and joined the Long-Nying Chöling Monastery at a young age. His root teacher was Lama Naljorpa, the great yogi of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, from whom he received numerous vows, empowerments, instructions and oral transmissions, including the Chöd Rinchen Trengwa…
Chagdud Khadro
Chagdud Khadro has taught the meditation of P’howa, transference of consciousness at the moment of death, since 1986. Like many Buddhist practitioners, especially in the Tibetan tradition, her teaching is informed by the writings and oral transmissions of such great masters as Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, the Dzogchen Ponlop…
Chöying Khandro MA
Chöying Khandro, M.A., holds the complete transmissions of two lineages, the Ganden Ensa Ear-Whispered Lineage and the Machik Dakini Ear-Whispered Lineage, from her teacher, the late Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa (1932-2012). She brings more than three decades of intense study and practice to her teachings and has completed a number…
Traleg Khandro
Traleg Khandro, long-time student and wife of the late Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX, is the Director of E-Vam Buddhist Institute America and Nyima Centre Online Learning in Australia. Khandro studied Buddhism under Traleg Rinpoche’s guidance for 30 years and has undertaken numerous long meditation retreats. At Rinpoche’s request Khandro received…
Lama Rigzin Drolma
Lama Rigzin Drolma (Anne C. Klein) is a Professor and former Chair of Religious Studies at Rice University. She is also the founding director and Resident Lama at Dawn Mountain Tibetan Buddhist Temple, founded in 1996 (www.dawnmountain.org). Her scholarly dharma training includes close textual study with Geshe Wangyal, Lati Rinpoche,…
Yungchen Lhamo
Yungchen Lhamo born in Tibet she escaped to India overland in 1989. Lhamo’s name means “Goddess of Song” – a name given to her by a Lama soon after she was born near Lhasa. She has made pilgrimage to Dharamsala, to receive the blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama . She reaches out to the world…
Eve Ekman
Eve Ekman, Ph.D., MSW, is the Director of Training at the Greater Good Science Center, Eve is an experienced speaker, researcher, and group facilitator with a unique background ideally suited to training individuals and organizations in the science of happiness, resilience, compassion, mindfulness, and emotional awareness. Eve creates dynamic trainings adapted…
Joanna Macy PhD
Joanna Macy’s wide-ranging work addresses psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary science. The many dimensions of this work are explored in her books Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (New Society Publishers,…
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel has studied and practiced the Buddhadharma for over 35 years under the guidance of her root teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is the author of two books, The Power of an Open Question and The Logic of Faith. She edited two books by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, It’s…
R. Carlos Nakai
Of Navajo-Ute heritage, R. Carlos Nakai is the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute. He began his musical studies on the trumpet, but a car accident ruined his embouchure. His musical interests took a turn when he was given a traditional cedar flute as a gift and challenged…
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu was born in Derghe, eastern Tibet in 1938. As a child he was recognized as the reincarnation of the great Dzogchen Master, Adzom Drugpa (1842-1924), and later by the 16th Karmapa as a reincarnation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651), the first Dharmaraja of Bhutan. As a teenager…
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo was born in England in 1943 and named Diane Perry. She and her older brother were raised by her mother in the Bethnal Green area of London after her father’s death when Diane was 2 years old. Mrs Perry was a spiritualist who held séances in the…
Phakchok Rinpoche
Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche was born in 1981 and is a lineage holder of the Profound Treasures of Chokgyur Lingpa from the Nyingma School of Early Translations and one of the throne-holders of the Riwoche Taklung Kagyu Lineage. Phakchok Rinpoche’s primary root gurus are his grandfather, the late Kyabje Tulku Urgyen…
Lama Gyurme Rabgye
Master painter and craftsman Lama Gyurme was born in Dranang, Tibet in 1969. His family sent him to the Mindroling monastery upon the invitation of the head monk to study painting and traditional arts when he was 15. Lama Gyurme’s first teacher was from Kham (Guangzhou) located in Eastern Tibet.…
Anna Raithel
Anna Raithel completed her B.A. in Religion and then lived at Tara Mandala for six years, working as Lama Tsultrim’s Executive Assistant and the Temple Manager. She studied Tibetan language and gyaling, coordinated the annual Drubchens, and was the lead umdze (chant leader) and chöpön (ritual arts leader). She recently finished…
Shiva Rea
Shiva Rea bows to the master teachers, elders and grandmothers from around the world from Africa to Asia who have expanded and deepened her integration of yoga and movement meditation. With a M.A. in World Arts and Cultures, Shiva is the founder of Global School of Living Yoga, Prana Vinyasa,…
Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche
Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche is the reincarnation of Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, who was the son of Adzom Drukpa Pawo Dorje. He was born in the year of the Iron-monkey (1980) in Bumthang, a region of central Bhutan, which was blessed as a hidden, sacred land by Guru Padmasambhava. He is…
Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche
Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche was born in 1939 in the Langkor Valley in West Tingri, Tibet. The region was the Tibetan home of Padampa Sangye, the founder of the Shije and Machik Labdron, the founder of Chod. Lama Wangdu Rinpoche began studying with his root lama, Naptra Rinpoche, at age…
Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi Rinpoche III was recognized by His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the reincarnation of Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche II. He is a renowned master of the Drukpa Kagyu and Nyingma traditions and also holds the Tsoknyi lineage, which is based on Ratna Lingpa’s termas. Since 1991, Tsoknyi Rinpoche has been teaching students worldwide in the Dzogchen…
Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche
Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of Ewam International Centers around the world. Born in 1952 into one of the oldest families in Tibet, which eventually came to be known under the name Namchak, or “sky iron,” in an area called Chamdo in the Kham region…
Miranda Shaw PhD
Miranda Shaw, Ph.D., Harvard University, is a Buddhist scholar known for her inspiring and groundbreaking work on women in Vajrayana Buddhism, chronicled in her renowned book Passionate Enlightenment, which has been translated into seven languages. She is also the author of Buddhist Goddesses of India, a thorough and fascinating historic and iconographical…
Alexis Slutzky
Alexis Slutzky, MFT is a mentor, educator, guide and facilitator whose work supports cultural restoration through listening and mindfulness practices, nature connection, grief tending, dream work, rites of passage and community ritual. Alexis holds a Master’s Degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute in depth psychology, is Adjunct Faculty at Antioch University,…
Michelle Stransky
Michelle Stransky, Founder of WisdomWomen, believes that it is time for women to bring their deep wisdom forward into co-creating the life-affirming world we know is possible. Michelle was the conference director at Wisdom 2.0, where she launched WisdomWomen in 2013. A former management consultant and executive coach, she is…
Anam Thubten
Anam Thubten grew up in Tibet and at an early age began to practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Among his many teachers, his most formative guides were Lama Tsurlo, Khenpo Chopel, and Lama Garwang. He is the founder and spiritual advisor of Dharmata Foundation, teaching widely in…
Khenpo Ugyen Wangchuk
Khenpo Ugyen Wangchuk is one of the rare advanced level Bhutanese monastics that is willing to teach full-time in the West. Khenpo has studied and practiced Buddhism since the age of 7, and in 2001 completed a nine-year course in Buddhist studies, receiving a Master’s degree (MA) in Buddhist Philosophy from…
Jennifer Warren
Jennifer Warren spent her formative years in Norway, playing in primordial forests. She’s taught elementary school for over 20 years, including 7 in Waldorf schools. Jen is a Certified Master Gardener and Wilderness First Responder. She first became a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner when she lived in Nepal in the 1980’s. Jen is thrilled to be…