About
Tsultrim Allione was born in New England and ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in Bodhgaya, India in 1970, becoming the first American so ordained. She later disrobed and married. In 2007, she was recognized in Tibet and Nepal as an emanation of the 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön. She received the Machig Labdrön Empowerment from the 17th Karmapa in 2012. She is one of few women lamas teaching in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Teaching focus
Her teaching emphasizes the feminine principle in Vajrayana, including detailed instruction in Chod (the practice of cutting through ego attachment) and Mahamudra. The Feeding Your Demons method, which she developed from classical Chod practice, is widely used as a contemporary contemplative tool. The work draws on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as the foundational framework, taught with care for the textures of present experience rather than as abstract doctrine. Foundational shamatha and vipashyana support the more characteristic Tibetan practices: refuge and bodhicitta, deity visualization, mantra recitation, tonglen as the core compassion practice, and pointing-out instructions in the higher teachings depending on student readiness. Lovingkindness gets serious time on retreat, treated as central practice rather than supplemental, and the broader brahmavihara framework offers additional ground for the slower work of equanimity and forgiveness. Daily-life integration runs through the recorded teaching as a steady concern. The same awareness that opens during a sit is the awareness that meets traffic, family, and work, and the teaching keeps coming back to that continuity rather than treating retreat as a separate world. Across the recorded teaching runs a steady commitment to the actual work of practice, the slow unfolding that doesn't always make for inspirational soundbites but that carries the path forward across years of sitting. The recorded talks return often to the question of how practice meets specific lives rather than an idealized practitioner, and the careful framing of instructions reflects that orientation. Students don't have to fit themselves to the teaching; the teaching meets them where they actually are.
Background
Tsultrim Allione is a senior teacher in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition with roots in the Tibetan teaching lineages. Tsultrim Allione is a senior American teacher in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. She was the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, in 1970 in Bodhgaya, India. She later disrobed and married. In 2007 she was recognized in Tibet and Nepal as an emanation of the 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdron. She's the founder of Tara Mandala, a retreat center in Colorado, and the author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons. The Dharma Seed archive at dharmaseed.org/teacher/184 currently holds about 18 talks across 2 recorded retreats, a focused body of work that rewards careful listening. Senior teachers like this one often shape not only individual students but the wider ecosystem of practice around them, through retreats, mentorship, and the steady availability of recorded teaching across decades. Listeners describe a steady, unhurried voice and a willingness to be specific about practice rather than abstract. Like many teachers in the wider Insight community, this teacher's path includes time on long silent retreat, ongoing study with senior teachers, and gradual integration of teaching responsibility through co-teaching and small local programs before stepping into broader retreat work. That apprenticeship model shapes the careful pacing of the teaching.
Lineage
Allione was the first American ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun (1970), trained extensively in Vajrayana practice, received the Machig Labdron Empowerment from the 17th Karmapa in 2012, and is one of few women lamas in the world today. She founded Tara Mandala in Colorado. The teacher works as a layperson, in keeping with the broader Western lay-teacher form of the tradition. She founded Tara Mandala in Colorado at taramandala.org.
What to expect
Programs at Tara Mandala in Colorado include sustained retreat practice in the Tibetan Vajrayana forms. The retreat center is set in the mountains and offers extended residential practice options. Programs include traditional Tibetan elements alongside formal sitting: refuge and bodhicitta practice, mantra recitation, visualization, and tonglen, with shrine forms and offerings that distinguish Vajrayana retreats from their Theravada counterparts. The setting is unceremonial and present-focused, with care taken that practice meets the actual lives students walk in carrying. Students new to the teacher's work often find it useful to start with a shorter program or a recorded talk before committing to a longer residential retreat, both to get a feel for the teaching voice and to clarify whether the format suits their practice at this stage.
