Teacher Bios
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Lama Tsultrim Allione, author and international teacher, founded Tara Mandala in 1994. Inspired by the vision of a Western retreat center while living in the Himalayas in the 1970s, Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala with her late husband David Petit, where she is now the spiritual director and resident teacher.
Lama Tsultrim was one of the first American women to be ordained as a Tibetan nun in 1970 by the 16th Karmapa. At the age of 26, after four years as a nun, she returned her monastic vows, married, and raised a family of three. Lama Tsultrim earned a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies and Women’s Studies from Antioch University. She is the author of Women of Wisdom, a groundbreaking book on the lives of great female Tibetan practitioners.
Lama Tsultrim also authored the recently published Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict, which connects the knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism with the modern psyche, addressing major cultural issues and the roots of our suffering. This National Bestseller is based on Lama Tsultrim’s pioneering technique using five steps to nurture the parts of ourselves we usually fight.
Lama Tsultrim has for many years focused her teachings on the lineage of Machig Labdrön, the 11th century Tibetan yogini who founded the Chöd lineage. In 2007, while leading a pilgrimage to Tibet, she was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdrön by the resident Lama of Zangri Khangmar (Machig’s monastery in Tibet). In 2009 she 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.
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."
Schedule: July 31-Aug 4, 2013 |
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Thanissara, started Buddhist practice in the Burmese school in 1975. She was inspired to ordain after meeting Ajahn Chah and spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun, being one of the first women to take ordination in the West. During her monastic life she became interested in the placement of the feminine within Buddhism and helped found dharma retreats for families and children. Thanissara has an MA in Buddhist Psychotherapy from Middlesex University & the Karuna Institute, UK and has taught Buddhist meditation internationally for 25 years. She is co-facilitator of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre CA, and director of Dharmagiri and Dharmagiri Outreach which is based in South Africa.
www.dharmagiri.org / www.dharmagiri-outreach.org
Schedule: Feb 28-Mar 9, 2012 / December 6-16, 2012 |
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Kittisaro is from Tennessee USA, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford before going to Thailand to ordain with Ajahn Chah in 1976. He was a Theravadin monk for 15 years and during that time helped found Chithurst Monastery and Devon Vihara in the UK. He also taught extensively during this time and was involved in the training of monks. He disrobed in 1991 and since then has taught internationally in the States, Europe, Africa, and Israel. He has studied and practiced Chan and Pure Land for 20 years informed by the Chinese school of Master Hua. Kittisaro has completed two year long silent self retreats and is currently director of Dharmagiri and Dharmagiri Outreach which is based in South Africa. www.dharmagiri.org
Schedule: Feb 28- Mar 9, 2012 / December 6-16, 2012 |
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Scott Blossom is a Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner, yoga therapist, and Ayurvedic Consultant. He has been studying yoga for over eighteen years and teaching for thirteen. He holds a degree in biology and has extensive training in anatomy, physiology, and Ayurveda (East Indian traditional medicine). His primary teachers are Zhander Remete (Natanaga Zhander) and Dr. Robert Svoboda.
Scott’s teaching focuses primarily on Shadow Yoga as taught by Zhander Remete, as well as, the therapeutic integration of yoga and Ayurveda. He teaches from a multidimensional perspective, integrating contemporary western and classical eastern concepts of healing and balance.
He has published articles on yoga and Ayurveda in Yoga Journal and Yoga International, and The Journal of the Association of International Yoga Therapists, as well as, a series of articles on herbal medicine in Natural Health Magazine. He is a faculty member of the Kripalu School of Ayurveda. Shunyatayoga.com
Schedule:
February 26-28, 2012 |
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Chandra Easton began studying Tibetan Buddhism in 1996, in Dharamsala, North India, at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, founded by H. H. the Dalai Lama. While there, she studied Tibetan language, Buddhist philosophy, and meditation. In 1997, she resumed her studies in the Religious Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara where she worked on the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts with the Buddhist scholar, B. Alan Wallace. She also had the good fortune of studying Tibetan language with Ngawang Thondup Narkyid, one of the official biographers for the Dalai Lama. While at UCSB, she taught Tibetan language, as well as supervised the cataloguing of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon for Davidson Library.
Chandra has been studying yoga since 1991 and began teaching in 2000 after training with Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT), as well as Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley. She blends her studies of Vinyasa, Shadow and Yin yoga to create a practice imbued with sensitivity and strength. In her classes, she integrates her background as a translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts into her teaching of both yoga and meditation as a way of facilitating a direct experience of mindfulness, introspection, and compassion in one’s practice.
Her primary Buddhist teachers are H. H. the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gyatrul Rinpoche, Lama Tsultrim Allione, and B. Alan Wallace. Her primary yoga teachers are Sarah Powers, Zhander Remete, and her husband Scott Blossom. Chandra lives in Berkeley, California with Scott and their two childeren, Tara and Tejas.
February 26-28, 2012 |
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Paul Grilley has practiced yoga since 1979. He practices postures in the taoist style of Paulie Zink. His special interest is anatomy and he has developed an anatomy program for yoga teachers, three instructional DVDs and a book on yoga and anatomy. Paul and Suzee can be reached via www.PaulGrilley.com.
Suzee Grilley is a former member of the Nikolais Dance Theatre. A choreographer, teacher and performer, she has studied and taught yoga for 25 years. Paul and Suzee live and teach in Ashland, Oregon.
Schedule: February 23-27, 2013 |
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Gregory Kramer teaches meditation, writes, and directs the Metta Foundation. He is the author of Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom, from Shambhala Publications. Gregory has practiced meditation since 1974, and studied with esteemed monks, including Anagarika Dhammadina, Ven. Ananda Maitreya Maha Nayaka Thera, Achan Sobin Namto, and others. Gregory has been teaching meditation worldwide since 1980. At Metta Foundation, he has pioneered online meditation and contemplation practices. His primary focus since 1995 has been developing and sharing Insight Dialogue, an interpersonal form of Buddhist insight meditation, and groups are now active worldwide. He also developed Dharma Contemplation, a text-based contemplation practice.
Gregory holds a Ph.D. in Learning and Change in Human Systems from CIIS. He co-founded Harvest With Heart, a hunger project in the Northeast United States, and Spiritual City Forum, an interfaith dialogue program in Portland, Oregon.
Formerly a composer and NEA Composition Fellow, he has made significant contributions to music technology. He is recognized as the founding figure of the field of data sonification. Metta.org
Schedule:
October 18-28, 2012 / December 5-15, 2013 |
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Sarah Powers began teaching in 1987. She interweaves the insights and practices of Yoga and Buddhism into an integral practice to enliven the body, heart and mind. Her yoga style blends both a Yin sequence of floor poses to enhance the meridian and organ systems, combined with a flow or Yang practice, influenced by Viniyoga, Ashtanga, and Iyengar teachings. Sarah feels that enlivening the physical and pranic bodies, as well as learning to open to our emotional difficulties is paramount for preparing one to deepen and nourish insights into one’s essential nature–a natural state of awareness. She draws from her studies in Transpersonal Psychology, as well as her in-depth training in the Vipassana, Tantric and Dzogchen practices of Buddhism. Her main teachers are Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Jennifer Welwood, Lama Tsultrim Allione, and Lama Pema Dorje. Sarah and her husband Ty Powers live in the San Francisco bay area and have created the Insight Yoga Institute which offers 700+ hour trainings with other renowned teachers blending yoga, buddhism and psychology (www.insightyogainstitute.com). She is co-founder of Metta Journeys (www.mettajourneys.com), a service oriented organization that offers yoga retreats internationally to help women and children in developing countries. Sarah is also the author of the book Insight Yoga (Shambhala Publications). To learn more about her see her dvds Insight Yoga or Yin and Vinyasa and go to www.sarahpowers.com.
Schedule:
Feb 28-March 9, 2012 / October 18-28, 2012 / December 6-16, 2012
February 28-March 10, 2013 / October 17-29, 2013 / December 15-5, 2013 |
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Ty Powers, co-founder of The Insight Yoga Institute, has been a yoga practitioner since 1987, facilitating and leading yoga and meditation retreats throughout the world, with his wife, yoga and mindfulness teacher, Sarah Powers. Ty has been practicing Buddhism for many years, the last 10+ under the guidance of Dzogchen teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche, as well as many of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center teachers, most notably, Ajahn Amaro, having completed Spirit Rock’s 2 1/2 year Community Dharma Leader training program in 2003. Ty has taught daylongs at Spirit Rock and a weekend retreat at Mountain Cloud Zen Center In Santa Fe, New Mexico on issues concerning cultural diversity. Ty is also a mentor to several men and women around the globe.
Schedule:
Feb 28-March 9, 2012
/ October 18-28, 2012 / February 28-March 10, 2013
October 17-29, 2013 / December 5-15, 2013 |
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B. Alan Wallace began his studies of Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture in 1970 at the University of Göttingen in Germany and then continued his studies over the next fourteen years in India, Switzerland, and the United States. Ordained as a Buddhist monk by H. H. the Dalai Lama in 1975, he has taught Buddhist meditation and philosophy worldwide since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he returned his monastic vows and went on to earn his Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University. He then taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is now the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (http://sbinstitute.com). He is also the director and chairman of the Phuket International Academy Mind Centre
(http://piamc.com) in Thailand, where he leads meditation retreats. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than thirty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion. His most recent books include Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity, Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality, and Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness.
Schedule: July 18-22, 2012 |
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Jennifer Welwood, MA, MFT, has been a spiritual practitioner since 1970, and a psychotherapist since 1987. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford University, and her graduate degree from The California Institute of Integral Studies.
Jennifer’s first spiritual tradition was Kriya Yoga, a path of nondual tantric Shaivism in the lineage of Babaji Nagaraj and the 18 Tamil Yoga Siddhas. Her primary tradition since 1986 has been Vajrayana, or tantric Buddhism, and her teachers include Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.
Jennifer was propelled onto the spiritual path at the age of 15 by the sudden and unexpected death of someone close to her, which catalyzed a profound recognition of impermanence and a yearning for that which cannot be lost. She decided to become a psychotherapist after repeatedly experiencing, in both teachers and students, a lack of integration that often seemed to accompany even genuine spiritual development, and the harm that such lack of integration could cause.
Her life purpose since then has been to bring together psychological and spiritual work in the service of both realizing and embodying our essential nature––finding our intrinsic nature while unwinding our conditioned patterning––and she has been leading retreats, seminars, and ongoing groups dedicated to this work since 1988.
Jennifer lives in northern California with her husband, John Welwood, and has a grown son, Bogar Nagaraj.
Schedule: / Feb 28-March 9, 2012 / October 17-29, 2013
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John Welwood, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, an editor of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, and teacher whose work integrates Buddhist teachings with Western psychological practice. His books include Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation; Journey of the Heart; Love and Awakening; and most recently, the award-winning Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships. See johnwelwood.com
Schedule: February 21-March 4, 2013 |
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