TEACHERS

 TEACHERS

Lama Tsultrim Allione

Lama Tsultrim Allione, author and international teacher, founded Tara Mandala in 1993. While living in the Himalayas in the 1970s, she was inspired by the vision of creating a retreat center in the West. She was ordained as a Tibetan nun in 1970 at the age of 22 by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. At the age of 26, after four years as a nun, she returned her monastic vows, then married and raised a family of three children. While raising her children, she earned a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies and Women’s Studies from Antioch University. Author of Women of Wisdom, a groundbreaking book on the lives of great Tibetan women practitioners, Lama Tsultrim also authored the recently published National Best Seller, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict now translated into sixteen languages. Feeding Your Demons presents Lama Tsultrim’s pioneering technique based on Chöd, using five steps to nurture the parts of ourselves we usually fight against. Numerous audio programs, DVDs, and magazine articles have been produced about her life and work, including "Feeding Your Demons: The Life and Work of Lama Tsultrim Allione," a one-hour documentary by Jaap Verhoeven produced by Dutch TV.

For many years, she has focused on the teachings from the lineage of Machig Labdrön, the 11th century Tibetan yogini who founded the Chöd lineage. In 2007 while traveling in Tibet, Lama Tsultrim was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdrön by the resident lama at Machig Labdrön’s monastery in Tibet, Zangri Khamar. In 2012 she was given the Machig empowerment by H.H. the 17th Karmapa at Chang Chub Jong in India.

In 2009, Lama Tsultrim Allione was selected by an esteemed committee of scholars and practitioners to receive the international “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” Award given in Bangkok, Thailand. Her teaching inspiration comes from her sublime Tibetan lamas and her experience as a Western woman and a mother. She is now enjoying being the grandmother of four and is currently writing a book with the working title, Meeting the Mandala, to be published by Simon and Schuster, while continuing to guide Tara Mandala and thousands of students around the world.

To learn more about Lama Tsultrim Allione, visit www.taramandala.org.

Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton 

From the very beginning of her Buddhist studies, Chandra has recognized the profound need to bring forth the voice of the sacred feminine in Buddhist theory and practice. Due to this, in 1999 during her first pregnancy, she met and then later began to study with Lama Tsultrim Allione, pioneering female Buddhist teacher, national best selling author, and founder of Tara Mandala Retreat Center. Chandra has served on the Tara Mandala Board of Trustees, helping to develop programs and curricula for Tara Mandala as well as teaching nationally. In September of 2015, during the final day of the White Dakini Drubchen, Chandra was enthroned as the Dorje Lopön (Vajra Teacher) of Tara Mandala under Lama Tsultrim Allione and given the name Lopön Yeshe Dawa Zangmo by H.E. Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche who presided over the ceremony with Lama Tsultrim.
Chandra has had the good fortune to study with many Tibetan and Western Buddhist teachers such as H.H. Dalai Lama, H.H. Karmapa, Lama Tsultrim Allione, Gyatrul Rinpoche, Jennifer Welwood, Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, B. Alan Wallace, and Lama Pema Dorje.

Chandra is currently teaches and organizes events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her new book, 

Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom, will be released in December, 2023. 

Chandra lives in Berkeley California. For more information go to: https://chandraeaston.com/

Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche 

Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche has a direct, unbroken lineage back to Longchenpa. He was recognized by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as the tulku of the great Gyurme Dorje, the eldest son of Adzom Drukpa. 

 

Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche 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; within a nomad family, he is the second son of seven, his father Kelzang Phuntsok and his mother Sonam Tsomkyi.

When the letter written by Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, indicating all details of his rebirth, came to the hand of Rigdzin Pema Tulku, he offered it to HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche to confirm. After few years HH Khyentse Rinpoche confirmed his family and a group of people was sent in search, but they returned with the wrong son, because his mother gave the youngest son at that time. Realizing their mistake, HH Khyentse Rinpoche asked for the boy who was born in the Iron-Monkey year, by then he was eight years old. After that he was recognized as the reincarnation of Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje at Gelephu, southeast Bhutan, and HH Khyentshe Rinpoche even performed his hair-cutting ceremony. Then he was first ordained as monk at Kharbandi, Phuntsholing – Bhutan; later at Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu – Nepal, the grand enthronement ceremony was conducted by HH Khyentshe Rinpoche in presence of HE Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche and HE Nyoshul Khen Jamyang Dorje Rinpoche.

At early age he was well taken care with loving kindness by his root teacher HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and during that time he received many teachings, transmissions and empowerments from him, also from HE Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lama Tserpo Rinpoche, and since some years ago, from HH Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche; besides them, he also received from HH Dalai Lama, HH Trulshik Rinpoche, HH Penor Rinpoche, HE Chokling Rinpoche, HH Taklung Tshetrul Rinpoche and HE Yangthang Rinpoche, HE Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche.

By 2004, under the guidance of HE Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, he completed the extensive nine years course in Buddhist philosophy and graduated from Philosophical College (Shedra). After his graduation he started teaching and giving oral transmissions (lung) at Shechen Philosophical College in Nepal. By 2010 he was awarded the scarf of Khenpo (Doctorate Certificate). At present he also preside all the annual ceremony going on in Shechen Monastery in Nepal and even at some branch monasteries in Bhutan. He also gives guidance to the monks who stay in retreat for three years in Bhutan, where he has a retreat center.

Robin Gayle 

Robin Gayle has undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology, psychology, and east-west studies. She is a Tara Mandala authorized Feeding Your Demons psychotherapist in private practice in Marin County, CA, and currently serves as Full Professor of Counseling Psychology at Dominican University of California. Her Buddhist studies began in 1986 with a Medicine Buddha empowerment by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey; followed by Kalachakra & Dzogchen teachings by H. H. Dalai Lama; Longchen Nyngtig and Rinchen Terzod cycles with Ven. Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche; extensive Shamita, Vipassana, Lojong, and Dzogchen retreats with B. Alan Wallace; and many teachings and empowerments by Ven. Gyaltrul Rinpoche and Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. Robin met Lama Tsultrim Allione in 1990 at a Dakini retreat in Bali and subsequently pilgrimaged with her to several power places around the world assisting Lama Tsultrim in spreading the Dakini net and Chöd practice. Robin is in the Tara Mandala Teachers Training, offers study in Jigme Lingpa's Treasury of Precious Qualities, and leads the Machig Lapdrön Opening the Gate to Space practice in Marin Co, CA. 

Karla Jackson-Brewer

Karla Jackson-Brewer, MS is a founder of Sine Qua Non: Allies in Healing, an Integrative Therapy Practice in New York City. She is an adjunct Professor in the Women’s & Gender Studies Department and the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers, The State University. Karla is a Public Speaking Coach and Emotional Intelligence Coach.

Karla has been a student of Lama Tsultrim Allione for 28 years. She is a Tara Mandala Authorized Teacher, and has traveled with Lama Tsultrim on pilgrimage to Tibet & Bali. Karla has been practicing Chöd for 27 years and has assisted Lama Tsultrim on many Chöd retreats. She teaches Chöd at Tara Mandala with Chandra Easton, another Tara Mandala Authorized Teacher. In October 2012, she received the Chöd Empowerment from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje.