News
Lama Tsultrim Allione, internationally recognized author and founder and spiritual director of the Tara Mandala Retreat Center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, will present “Taking Grief onto the Path,” at the 10th annual Dr. and Mrs. Max Littner Memorial Lecture Series for Bereavement, which is cosponsored by St. Luke’s University Health Network.
The lecture is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, October 27, at the Zoellner Arts Center Baker Hall on the campus of Lehigh University. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Lama Tsultrim will share her life story of love, loss, grief and transformation. Her life story includes becoming the first American nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, returning her vows, marrying, becoming a mother, enduring the death of her child and husband, and envisioning and building Tara Mandala Retreat Center, a 700-acre retreat center dedicated to the divine feminine in the Buddhist tradition.
Lama Tsultrim said she will be “speaking of grief from the inside, not the outside” and not as “the expert telling you what to do.” Lama Tsultrim hopes to take her audience “into an experience. I don’t just want to lecture,” she said in an earlier interview with St. Luke’s.
Grief can be very isolating, Lama Tsultrim said. Those who suffer a loss must learn they are not alone, she said.
Wendy Littner Thomson, founder of the lecture series, said she hopes the evening will start meaningful conversations about the hardest issues “we face as human beings: We will eventually lose everyone and everything we love.” Littner Thomson said she is optimistic people who attend will be introduced to ideas and actions they may want to try to help them deal with their grief and transcend their losses. “We often avoid conversations about these hard topics until we are forced to face them,” she said.
Littner Thomson said Lama Tsultrim will speak about practices she learned to help her overcome twosuddenlosses – her baby daughter’s death at 2 ½ months old to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and her husband’s death from a heart attack at 55. She will speak about how she was able to find deeper connection and meaning after her life was shattered apart by these unexpected deaths, Littner Thomson said.
Lama Tsultrim’s latest book, Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Mandala of Empowered Feminine, will be available for signing after the lecture.
The Dr. and Mrs. Max Littner Memorial Lecture Series for Bereavement was created to raise consciousness for the big issues of life: living meaningfully and well and sparking necessary conversations with loved ones about issues that truly are a matter of life and death. The annual lecture features prominent guests who discuss the importance of mind and body in healing and care, and ways people can cultivate hope, take action and be more responsible for their mental and physical health.
Tickets for general admission are $10. Tickets can be purchased at: zoellner.cas.lehigh.edu/content/littner-memorial-lecture-presents-lama-tsultrim-allione. Students with school ID are admitted free.
Parking is free with ticket purchase.
In addition to St. Luke’s, sponsors include: Heintzelman Funeral Home, Inc., Wendy Littner-Thomson Counseling Services, LLC, Pearson Funeral Home, Inc., Healing Through the Arts, and W. Beall Fowler.
