Lama Tsultrim Allione

Lama Tsultrim Allione, author and international teacher, is the founder and spiritual director of Tara Mandala.

Background

Born in 1947 as Joan Rousmaniere Ewing,  the daughter of a small town New England newspaper publisher, James Ewing and  Ruth Dewing Ewing,  a labor mediator before marriage. Her maternal grandparents  both studied philosophy at Harvard, became professors, and  were influential in her childhood.  On her father’s side, she descended from Oscar Ewing, a lawyer and politician who, as a Health Welfare and Education cabinet member under President Truman, was responsible for the creation of  Medicare. So her family was politically progressiv eand involved in early environmental activities. She grew up in Maine and New Hampshire with an older sister and younger brother. At fifteen she  received her first Buddhist book from her maternal grandmother. This lead to a fascination with Buddhism that blossomed into a strong interest in Tibet. At nineteen, in 1967, having read every book available at the time about Tibet, she traveled to Nepal and India00  with her college friend filmmaker Victress Hitchcock. Finally meeting the Tibetans there, she recognized that she was ‘home’ and after hitch hiking across India to Dharamsala she began a life-long study of Tibetan Buddhism.

Study and Practice

After a six month stay in India and Nepal, she returned home. She departed soon after and, in 1969, landed at the first Tibetan monastery established in the West: Samye Ling in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. There she met Trungpa Rinpoche just before his departure for the U.S.A. From him she received The Sadhana of Mahamudra which she practiced daily while traveling overland London to Kathmandu where she met H.H. 16th Karmapa. Lama Tsultrim was ordained as Karma Tsultrim Chodron in 1970 by the Karmapa in Bodhgaya, India. She was the first American he ordained and he became her Root Lama.

Lama Tsultrim then studied and practiced the Tibetan teachings in Kathmandu, Darjeeling, Sarnath, and Manali, with many of the great masters who had escaped from Tibet including Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa with whom she studied briefly. She received Phowa and Gyalwa Gyamtso from Sapchu Rinpoche and then traveled to Darjeeling where she studied with Kalu Rinpoche and began her first Ngondro (Foundational Practices). There she also met and received teachings and blessings from Drukpa Thugse Rinpoche,  Dudjom Rinpoche, and Chatral Rinpoche. She then went to Sarnath where she met Nyichang Rinpoche, and studied Buddhist philosopht with him. The she traveled to Himachial Pradesh where she met her heart teacher Apho Rinpoche, grandson of  the great yogi Shakya Shri. Here she practiced Ngondro and received Shene Lhakthong (Shamanta/Vipasana) teachings. At the age of 25 she retuerned to America and went directly to Trungpa Rinpoche’s center in Vermont Tail of the Tiger (now Karma Choling) and went into retreat to finish he first ngondro.

After a year in the United States Trungpa Rinpoche sent her back to India to invited His Holiness Karmapa to the United States. During this visit she received the entire Dam Ngag Dzod Empowerments in three months in Tashi Jong from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.  Then she returned to Manali with Apho Rinpoche and  learned the Chod practice of Naro Sang Chodcontinued to practice. At this time she returned her monastic vows and married Paul Kloppenburg from Holland in Dehli. They then soon

returned to America with her first husband and moved to Vashon Island in the Puget sound off the coast of Seattle. There they began to study with the great all knowing Deshung Rinpoche. It was during this period that she gave birth to her two daughters Sherab and Aloka.Apho Rinpoche died in 1974 and Lama Tsultrim decided to move to Boulder to study with Trungpa Rinpoche. She became one of his first few meditation instructors that he trained and she began to teach at Naropa University and work for his organization at that time called Vajradhatu now called Shambhala. Apho Rinpoche died in 1974 and Lama Tsultrim decided to move to Boulder to study with Trungpa Rinpoche. She became one of his first few meditation instructors and she began to teach at Naropa University and work for his organization at that time called Vajradhatu now called Shambhala. She was in the first group to receive the Vajra Varahi Empowerment from him. Lama Tsultrim attended Trungpa Rinpoche’s 1976 seminary and  then he asked her to begin to travel a teach in his centers.

Women of Wisdom

In 1978, at Naropa she met her second husband, Italian documentary filmmaker Costanzo Allione, and moved to Italy where she met Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Rinpoche with whom she studied and practiced Dzogchen teachings for eighteen years. She was authorized to teach under him in 1984. In 1980 she gave birth to twins: a boy, Costanzo, and a girl, Chiara. When they were two and a half months old, Chiara died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

This event triggered a need to find the life stories of women teachers from the Buddhist tradition. She began the research for her first book, Women of Wisdom, a groundbreaking book on the lives of great female Tibetan practitioners published in 1984.  At this time Lama Tsultrim earned her Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies/Women’s Studies from Antioch University. After leaving her Italian husband in 1986, she moved back to the USA and began teaching widely. She met her third husband David Petit in 1988. David taught dance and theater at The Waldorf School in Spring Valley, NY, where her children attended. This marriage proved to be  a true partnership on every level and  until David`s sudden death in 2010 they worked together on many projects, primarily Tara Mandala.

Tara Mandala

In 1993, after Lama Tsultrim’s children had grown up, she and David Petit began to look for land to fulfill a vision she had in 1972 of a Buddhist retreat center. She envisioned a place where meditation could be practiced in the same depth that it was Tibet, and a place that would explore the interface between Western psychology and Buddhism. On Sept 18, 1993, she and her husband David found the beautiful land in Southwest Colorado that would become Tara Mandala. In June 1994 they moved to the land with a group of supporters and began to hold retreats, to build retreat cabins and to host visiting Lamas. The community lived on the land for ten years before any permanent buildings were complete, while retreats were held in large tents and yurts. Between 2005 to 2008, three buildings  were completed at Tara Mandala: the Community Building, which houses the kitchen, dining room, offices, store, and bathing facilities, Prajna Residence Hall, which houses forty people in spacious sunlit rooms, and the extraordinary three-story mandala-shaped Tara Temple.

Adzom Rinpoche

In 1999 the great yogi and Dzogchen master Adzom Paylo Rinpoche came to Tara Mandala for the first time and Lama Tsultrim made a close connection with him. He returned for several years and became a close teacher for Lama Tsultrim and a great support for Tara Mandala. He revealed a Troma Terma in 2002 at Tara Mandala and imprinted his had into a stone at Tara Mandala and has on several occasions made auspicious prophecies about its future.

Machig Labdron’s Lineage

For many years, Lama Tsultrim focused her teachings on the lineage of Machig Labdrön, the 11th century Tibetan yogini who founded the Chöd lineage and her biography appears in Women of Wisdom. She began to practice Chod in 1973 and she began to teach it in 1984 and through that teaching developed her book Feeding Your Demons (Little Brown 2008) . While traveling in Tibet in 2007 Lama Tsultrim was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdrön by the resident Lama of Zangri Khangmar (Machig’s monastery in Tibet). Before Lama Tsultrim’s arrival, the resident Lama had had a dream of a white Dakini coming from the West loudly sounding a damaru (drum used in Chöd). There were other indicative signs during the visit, and after the recognition he gave her Machig’s relics to bring back to Tara Mandala, claiming that the future of Machig’s lineage would be in the West.

The pilgrimage then returned to Nepal where Lama Tsering Wangdu abbot of the monastery dedicated to Machig Labdron’s lineage was waiting for them.  Lama Wangdu holds a lineage from Tingri Langkhor, the seat of Phadampa Sangye in Tibet. He had also had a dream. Three days before the group arrived, he dreamed of Machig Labdrön and her entire lineage. Machig said to him, ‘In three days I will be there.’  When they arrived he gave the group teachings and the Machig Chöd Empowerment at his monastery in Bodhanath, Nepal. This monastery is entirely dedicated to Machig’s lineage. After visiting Tara Mandala in 2008, he gave Lama Tsultrim the title of  ‘Lama’ and wrote a recognition letter of her as an emanation of Machig Labdrön, a long life prayer, and praises of her. Read more about Lama Tsultrim’s recognition. Lama Wangdu subsequently came to Tara Mandala and wrote a Long Life Prayer for Lama Tsultrim and a recognition letter of her as an emanation of Machig Labdron.

 

 

 

 

Dzinpa Rangdrol

Since 2008, Tulku Sangngag Rinpoche has been establishing the lineage of Dzinpa Rangdröl from Do Khyentse at Tara Mandala. This cycle combines the lineage of Machig and the practice of Chöd with Dzog Chen teachings. It is a complete cycle beginning with Ngöndro (preparatory practices) and extending through the most advanced Dzogchen teachings. Tulku Sangngag Rinpoche has been extremely helpful and supportive of Tara Mandala first helping with the building of the stupa, then with the filling and blessing of the vase offering to the earth and water spirits placed under the temple foundationm ceremonial filling of the Sertog (gold pinnacle on top of the temple)  and then with the establishment of the Dzinpa Rangdrol cycle guiding the three year retreat and the Tsogyel Karmo White Dakini  Drubchen held every other year. He wrote  a song in praise of Tara Mandala in 2009, a long life prayer for Lama Tsultrim in 2010,  and a beautiful Tsog song about Dzinpa Rangdröl in 2011. He has kindly overseen many ceremonies and necessary rituals at Tara Mandala and has taught here extensively on many topics as well.

Feeding Your Demons and Kapala Training

Lama Tsultrim Allione authored Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict (Little, Brown Co.),  published in 2008. This book connects the knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism with the western concept of the psyche, addressing major cultural issues and the roots of our suffering. This national bestseller is based on Lama Tsultrim’s pioneering technique which uses five steps to nurture the parts of ourselves we usually fight against. The book offers a personal and collective new paradigm of “feeding not fighting” inner and outer demons. She developed a training program combining the Demon Works and Machig Labdron’s lineage practices  called Kapala Training which has become an international program.

Loss and Return

In July 22, 2010, Lama Tsultrim’s husband David Petit died suddenly of a heart attack. He was cremated in front of the stupa he built on the land. At the time of his death he was proclaimed a great yogi by many lamas who knew his practice and the signs at the time of his death. Extensive traditional rituals were performed for him at Tara Mandala and in Tibet.

His bones were blended with clay and made into tsatsas (clay stupas with mantra roles placed inside) and placed in a tsakang (a memorial stone house) on the ridge where he practiced in the early mornings.

After David’s death, Lama Tsultrim took a year off and made a long pilgrimage to Asia. She started with a six-week stay in Kangding (Dartsedo) receiving the entrustment ceremony (Katey) and oral transmission (lung) of Dzinpa Rangdröl from Do Dasel Wangmo, great granddaughter of the terton Do Khyentse. Lama Tsultrim then went to central Tibet to Machig Labdron’s cave and birthplace, and to Nepal and India where she met Orgyen Thrinley 17th Karmapa and Sey Rinpoche, son and lineage holder of Apho Rinpoche. She then visited Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in Australia and made a short visit to New Zealand.

At the end of 2011 she started to teach again. She gave the Chöd Empowerment and Prajna Paramita teachings in California at Orgyen Dorje Den and she taught in Switzerland and Italy. Tara Mandala and an international community of practitioners continue to flourish under her care and guidance.

Children

Lama Tsultrim is the mother of three grown children and has recently become a grandmother. Her daughter Sherab is an architect who is married to Eric Adolphi and lives in Telluride, Colorado. Aloka is a manager in Human Resources at Disney Films and is married to Trevor Sands. Aloka is the mother of Luna Violet and Truman James and lives in Los Angeles, California. Costanzo works at Tara Mandala and is engaged to Cady Holtcamp.

Lama Tsultrim is now working on several new books and traveling in Europe and the USA to the Tara Mandala Satellite Sanghas to teach.

She writes:

“We find conflict in so many places today, within ourselves, in relationships, between countries, and even in places we associate with peace, like the Himalayas. What is the solution? The Buddha teaches that violence leads to more violence. So how can we be actively engaged in change, yet not caught in patterns that perpetuate suffering? Meditation can create a working basis for changing the fundamental causes of suffering and moving toward natural liberation.“

 

In 2009, Lama Tsultrim was selected by an esteemed committee of scholars and practitioners to receive the International Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award given in Bangkok, Thailand.  Lama Tsultrim’s teachings arise from the blessings of her many wonderful Tibetan Buddhist teachers, her 40-year dedication to the Buddhist teachings, and her experience as a Western woman and a mother.