On April 16, 2023, Lama Tsultrim Allione joined us for a very special afternoon.
Lama was joined by Eve Ekman to discuss the recently released results of a qualitative study of Feeding Your Demons, after which Lama led the sangha in a Feeding Your Demons practice. The afternoon ended with a Question and Answer period.
☀︎ Inspired by the ancient practice of Chöd, Feeding Your Demons ® (FYD) is a five-step process created by Lama Tsultrim that allows one to offer nurturing and understanding to one’s own inner demons, our disowned shadow parts, rather than engaging them in battle and struggle.
We all have our demons. Paradoxically offering compassion to the parts of ourselves we wish would go away, develops the potential for transformation from demon to ally. This allows the psyche to move from polarization to integration, and the energy that has been trapped in the demon becomes accessible as the ally. FYD is of great benefit when working with a wide variety of both personal and collective issues, including depression, anxiety, addictions, physical issues, fear, anger, relationship challenges, and other dilemmas of modern life.
☀︎ Lama Tsultrim Allione is the bestselling author of Women of Wisdom, Feeding Your Demons and Wisdom Rising Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine. She was the first American to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun ordained in 1970 in Bodhgaya India by the 16th Karmapa. She lived in Nepal and India meditating in caves and mountain hermitages for several years. She eventually returned to the USA and began studying with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and traveled with Allen Ginsberg and Ram Dass, and became the meditation instructor for Ginsberg.
After disrobing several years later, she had four children, but lost a baby girl to SIDS. This triggered the need for the stories of women which became her first book Women of Wisdom. She became a widely known Buddhist teacher combining a understanding of western psychology with Tantric Buddhism. Lama Tsultrim is the founder of Tara Mandala, a 700-acre retreat center near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. In 2007 she was recognized in Tibet as the emanation of the renowned 11th-century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön. She received the “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” award in 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand and now lives in Encinitas, California.
☀︎ Eve Ekman, MSW, PhD, is a contemplative social scientist focusing on emotion awareness, empathy, and consciousness. She is lead author of the study: Transforming adversity into an ally: A qualitative study of “feeding your demons” meditation. ([ Ссылка ]) Eve is a senior fellow at the Greater Good Science Center, head of Cultivating Emotional Balance, an evidence-based meditation and emotion regulation training, and contemplative science instructor at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
☀︎ Find out more about the Feeding Your Demons practice and opportunities here:
[ Ссылка ]
☀︎ Support the San Francisco Dharma Collective and Lama Tsultrim here: [ Ссылка ] or at our Venmo, here: [ Ссылка ]. Be sure to indicate that the donation is for Lama Tsultrim!
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