Teacher Bios
Lama Tsultrim Allione, M.A., was one of the first American women to be ordained as a Tibetan nun in 1970 by the 16th Karmapa. She is the author of Women of Wisdom, a groundbreaking book on the lives of great female Tibetan practitioners. Her newest book, Feeding the Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict, (2008, Little Brown & Co), connects the ancient knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism with the modern psyche, addressing the major issues of our culture and the roots of our suffering. Based on her pioneering technique using five steps to feed your demons, this book offers a system to transform our inner demons by nurturing rather than fighting them.
After four years as a nun, Lama Tsultrim returned her monastic vows, married, and raised a family of three. She also earned a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies and Women’s Studies from Antioch University. Inspired by the vision of a Western retreat center while living in the Himalayas, and seeing the need to create a place for the re-emergence of the sacred feminine, Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala in 1993, the 700-acre retreat center where she is now the resident teacher. Tara Mandala has recently constructed a magical handcrafted three-story mandala temple dedicated to Tara.
Lama Tsultrim is collecting the lineage of Machig Labdrön, the 11th century Tibetan yogini who founded the Chöd lineage. As a long-time Chöd practitioner, Lama Tsultrim has studied Machig’s teachings for decades and taught the practices all over the world. In 2007, Lama Tsultrim was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdrön by Karme Dorje Rinpoche, the resident Lama of Zangri Khangmar in Tibet and independently by Lama Tsering Wangdu, holder of the lineage of Machig Labdrön and Phadampa Sangye from Tingri Langkhor, resident of Nepal.
Lama Tsultrim Allione was selected by the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Committee’s panel of distinguished Buddhist scholars and practitioners as an Outstanding Woman in Buddhism 2009. In April, 2009, her second book, Feeding Your Demons, became a national best-seller.
Lama Tsultrim’s skill at teaching arises from the blessings of her many wonderful Tibetan teachers, her forty-year dedication to the Buddhist teachings, and her experience as a Western woman. She brings forth the vibrancy of the teachings in a way that makes them germane for accomplished practitioners and those new to the path. TaraMandala.org
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
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
Stephen Batchelor was a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions for ten years. Known for his agnostic and secular approach to the Buddhadharma, he has authored several books, including the bestselling Buddhism Without Beliefs. He lives in France with his wife Martine and teaches seminars and leads meditation retreats worldwide. www.stephenbatchelor.org
Martine Batchelor was a Zen Buddhist nun in Korea for ten years. She teaches meditation retreats worldwide. She is the author of Meditation for Life, The Path of Compassion and Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices. Her latest book is Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. She lives in France.
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
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.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a poet and Zen Buddhist priest. For many years he has taught at the San Francisco Zen Center, the oldest and largest of the new Buddhist organizations in the West, where he served as Co-abbot from 1995-2000. He is presently a Senior Dharma Teacher there as well as the founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation, an organization dedicated to adapting Zen Buddhist teachings to Western culture.
A person of unusually wide-ranging interests, his Zen teaching is known for its eclecticism, openness, warmth, and common sense, and for his willingness to let go of everything, including Zen. His chief interests in addition to poetry and traditional Zen and Buddhist teachings, are the adaptation of Zen meditation and understanding to the worlds of business, law, conflict resolution, interreligious dialog (he works especially with Jewish meditation and Catholic intermonastic dialog), care of the dying (he has for many years been a teacher with and is emeritus chair of the board of the Zen Hospice Project), the world of technology, and anything else he can think of. EveryDayZen.com
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.
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
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.
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.
Patricia Sullivan’s classes offer a depth and breadth that arise from over 30 years of teaching, and include many streams of study. Having begun yoga in 1971, she studied in India with the Iyengars in the 80′s and taught Advanced Studies at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco through the 90′s. Since then she has contributed her skills in teacher trainings and retreats for various institutions, including Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, California Institute for Integral Studies, the Yoga Loft, Piedmont Yoga Studio, and others.
Patricia has studied many translations and commentaries, as well as the practice of chanting, of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali; explored other systems of yoga, and dedicated many years in personal exploration. Her practice and study of Buddhism brings the emphasis of mindful awareness and investigation taking precedent over accomplishment, and her work as a sculptor adds a creative, improvisational element to the class.
Patricia’s knowledge of alignment, anatomy and kineseology promotes healing and aesthetic awareness on the physical level. Her emphasis on attuning to and balancing the energy body through sensitive awareness in the poses, through sound, chanting, and pranayama practices, creates an effective bridge to and from the more subtle and universal aspects of our existence. The meditation practices offered, primarily Buddhist, guide students toward greater sensitivity to the effects of our conditioned, reactive tendencies in daily life and relationships and help build tools for wiser, more compassionate and joyful living. PatriciaSullivanYoga.com
Jennifer Welwood, M.A., MFT, has been a spiritual practitioner since 1970, and a psychotherapist since 1988. She has been leading groups, retreats, and seminars that integrate deep psychological and spiritual work for 20 years.
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