The Mystical Positivist: The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #107

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #107 - 23FEB13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:

A conversation with Lama Tsultrim Allione, international Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons. She is the founder and spiritual director of Tara Mandala. In 2009, Lama Tsultrim received the International Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award given in Bangkok, Thailand.

Born Joan Rousmaniere Ewing in 1947 to a family of considerable accomplishment in New England, the young woman who would become Lama Tsultrim Allione began a lifelong study of Tibetan Buddhism at the age of 19 after encountering it during a long trip to India and Nepal. Among other teachers she studied with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, and at the age of 22 was ordained a nun by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, who became her root guru. After several years of study and training in both Asia and America with many wonderful teachers, she made the difficult decision to return her monastic vows, married, and moved with her new husband to Puget Sound. There she gave birth to two daughters, and both she and her husband continued their Buddhist studies. The family moved to Colorado to work with Chogyam Trungpa, where Tsultrim separated from her first husband and later married Italian filmmaker Costanzo Allione. They had two children, one of whom died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Her Buddhist studies which helped her come to terms with this death were the foundation of her first book Women of Wisdom.

She met her third husband David Petit in 1988. This marriage was a true partnership, and the couple collaborated in the creation of Tara Mandala near Pagosa Springs, Colorado in the early 1990s. For many years, Lama Tsultrim has focused her teachings on the lineage of Machig Labdrön, the 11th century Tibetan yogini who founded the Chöd lineage. In 2007 she was recognized and acknowledged as an emanation of Machig Labdrön, by the resident lama and lineage-holder at the monastery in Tibet where Machig Labdrön lived most of her long life. In 2008 she published the national bestseller Feeding Your Demons – Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict.

More information about Lama Tsultrim Allione's work can be found at:

Tara Mandala Website: www.taramandala.org

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"The Mystical Positivist" Radio Show

The Mystical Positivist is a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP FM 107.3 Occidental, CA, and on the web at KOWS-LP Live Feed, Saturdays from 4 - 6pm PST. Coming up on The Mystical Positivist:

April 20: A pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod, Buddhist teacher and author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana. In this conversation, we plan to explore a compelling quote from Ian McGilchrist's The Matter with Things: If you had set out to destroy the happiness and stability of a people, it would have been hard to improve on our current formula: remove yourself as far as possible from the natural world; repudiate the continuity of your culture; believe you are wise enough to do whatever you happen to want and not only get away with it, but have a right to it—and a right to silence those who disagree; minimise the role played by a common body of belief; actively attack and dismantle every social structure as a potential source of oppression; reject the idea of a transcendent set of values.

One of the more innovative Buddhist teachers today, Ken McLeod is known for his clear explanations, poetic translations, and pragmatic approach to practice. He is one of the first generation of Western teachers in the Tibetan tradition and one of the few to be authorized to transmit the full scope of these teachings to students. In particular, his approach resonates strongly with those whose path lies outside established institutions.

After graduating with a degree in mathematics, Ken cycled across Europe to Istanbul and then continued his journey overland to India. In 1970 he met his principal teacher Kalu Rinpoche at his monastery near Darjeeling. There Ken began a study and practice in Tibetan Buddhism that lasted more than twenty years. He completed the traditional three-year retreat program two times, translated for many teachers, and helped set up Buddhist centers in Canada and the United States. After his teacher's passing, Ken moved away from the hierarchical structures of Asian Buddhism to explore new approaches.

In 1990, he founded Unfettered Mind in Los Angeles. His approach of one-on-one consultations roiled the Buddhist world in the early '90s, but was quickly recognized as a viable way to teach and guide students in the West. He made individual interviews a central feature of the many retreats he taught in California, New Mexico, and British Columbia. Through numerous small groups in Southern California, he developed the materials that became the encyclopedic meditation manual, Wake Up to Your Life.

Now retired from formal teaching, he lives in Northern California where he hikes and writes. His writings and translations include The Great Path of Awakening (1987), Wake Up to Your Life (2001), An Arrow to the Heart (2007), Reflections on Silver River (2014), A Trackless Path (2017), and The Magic of Vajrayana (2022), as well as a corpus of articles and translations in Tricycle and other Buddhist magazines.