“With the wisdom of equanimity, there's also the sense of self-acceptance. You don't need anyone else to approve you because you're enough in yourself.”
— Lama Tsultrim Allione
Feeding Your Demons®
Amanda is a certified Feeding Your Demons® Facilitator and will utilize this process as a life tool to assist clients in feeding rather than fighting their inner blocks to healing, growth and transformation. She has been a Buddhist practitioner for more than ten years and, has been a student of Lama Tsultrim since 2017.
A recent study of the effects of Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) was conducted on adults in recovery from alcohol and/or drug abuse and who had elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression. The study found that FYD was associated with significant decreases in stress, depression, and intolerance for uncertainty, combined with significant increases in self-compassion and satisfaction with life. Click here to see a full summary of the study.
This method can be viewed directly from the Tara Mandala website
No previous meditation experience is necessary
About Feeding Your Demons®
Lama Tsultrim Allione distilled the teachings and practice of the 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön for the Western practitioner for the first time in her book, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict (2008). In it, Lama Tsultrim outlines an accessible and effective approach for dealing with negative emotions, fears, illnesses, and self-defeating patterns. She explains how when we fight our demons, they grow stronger. If we feed and nurture them, however, we can free ourselves from the struggle. Through the clearly articulated practice outlined in Feeding Your Demons®, we can learn to overcome our obstacles and achieve a sense of freedom and inner peace.
Feeding Your Demons® has benefited thousands of people worldwide, with practitioners from every walk of life on five continents. The work transcends spiritual constructs, serving as a meaningful tool for anybody, regardless of spiritual affiliation or personal philosophy.
What Does it Mean to ‘Feed Your Demons’?
For the purpose of this practice, a ‘demon’ refers to the disruptive aspects of our own mind, such as anxiety, depression, anger, addiction, trauma or illness. Demons are often relegated to the dark recesses of our minds and fester there as we either repress- or ‘fight’ against them. This adversarial relationship with our demons is the very thing that polarizes our mind. In our attempts to overcome our ‘shadow’, we become more enmeshed with it and our demons (i.e., negative patterns, emotions habitual tendencies) and therefore they gain strength and control over our lives.
The Feeding Your Demons® (FYD) method employs principles of the Tibetan Buddhist practice Chöd, as originally articulated by the eleventh-century female Tibetan teacher, Machig Labdrön. FYD is a five-step process that guides the practitioner to transform their demons into protective allies through a sequence of illuminating questions and visualizations.
Why choose Feeding Your Demons?
· Readily recognize and transform deep-seated patterns, triggers, and neuroses, and gain a deeper understanding of what drains your energy and occupies your mind
· Understand the interconnectedness of your emotional patterns, and how a single pattern can impact multiple areas of your life
· Work with your demons on your own terms and in a way that is aligned with your own process
· Establish a regular, transformational meditation practice that integrates seamlessly with your established life and work
· Gain a sense of internal agency amidst the ups and downs of everyday life
· Experience more peace through an increased capacity to lead with compassion
Additional Resources for Feeding Your Demons:
Lama Tsultrim Allione | Feeding Your Demons
In times of stress or crisis many of us fall into habitual patterns activated by our frustrated desires, anxiety or feelings of helplessness. The resulting fears, obsessions and addictions are all parts of ourselves that have become “demonic” by being split off, disowned, and battled against. When we try to flee from our demons, they pursue us. By struggling with them, we become weaker and may even succumb to them completely. In this talk and guided meditation Lama Tsultrim will explore the 5 steps of the Feeding Your Demons process which helps us recognize the futility of our struggle and allows us to begin to accept and even care for those parts of ourselves we most instinctively push away.
Feeding Your Demons
Five steps to transforming your obstacles—your addictions, anxieties, and fears—into tranquility and wisdom, from Tsultrim Allione.
Amanda’s teachers
This extraordinary practise was developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione. Lama Tsultrim Allione is the bestselling author of Women of Wisdom (1984), Feeding Your Demons (2008), and Wisdom Rising Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine (2018). Lama Tsultrim is the founder of Tara Mandala, a 700-acre retreat centre with a three-story temple and library dedicated to the divine feminine in the Buddhist tradition near Pagosa Springs, in southwest Colorado. She leads a vibrant international community with over forty groups around the world. Born in New England, she traveled to Asia in her late teens and in 1970 at the age of 22 in Bodhgaya, India she became the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She later disrobed, married and became the mother of three and now is grandmother of six. In 2007 she was recognized in Tibet and Nepal as the reincarnation of a renowned 11th-century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön, and she is one of the few women Lamas in the world today. In 2012 she received the Machig Labdron Empowerment from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. She was awarded international recognition as an “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism” in 2009 by a panel of distinguished scholars and practitioners in Bangkok, Thailand. Please see more about Lama Tsultrim and Tara Mandala here.
Magyu Lopön Charlotte Z. Rotterdam has studied Tibetan Buddhism for the last 20 years, was authorized to teach by Lama Tsultrim Allione in 2006, and received the title of Magyu Lopön, lead teacher of Magyu: The Mother Lineage at Tara Mandala from Lama Tsultrim in 2016. Lopön Charlotte teaches in the US and abroad, often in partnership with her husband Pieter Oosthuizen, and co-leads the Boulder Tara Mandala Sangha. Lopön Charlotte received a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School where she studied comparative religion. She served as executive co-director of Tara Mandala for four years, and thereafter as Trustee and Board President. Currently, she is an Instructor and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education at Naropa University. The mother of two boys, she has published essays in Mandala, Lion’s Roar Online, and in an anthology, Fearless Nest. Pieter’s and her blog offers reflections on the intersection of Dharma and modern daily life: www.skymind.us.
Pieter Oosthuizen is a teacher and entrepreneur and a long-time student of Tibetan Buddhism. He has been teaching various practices and retreats in Lama Tsultrim’s lineage in the US and abroad since 2006, offering a blend of incisive insight and genuine compassion. He co-leads the Boulder Tara Mandala Sangha with Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam, and serves as the President of the Tara Mandala Board. In addition to Lama Tsultrim Allione, Pieter studied with Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, and others. In the past, Pieter has brought innovative leadership to institutions such as Naropa University, where he served as Assistant VP for Academic Affairs, and Tara Mandala, where he served as Executive Co-director and Board Member. His years of leadership have been dedicated to creating healthy, creative, and effective organizations built on cultures of openness and authenticity. He is the founder and current CEO of Celsus Bio-Intelligence, a skincare company. Pieter received his Law degree in his native South Africa.