About Lama Christie McNally

Lama Christie McNally trained in Tibetan monasteries in India and Nepal, and received extensive instruction in all the texts required for a Geshe degree, which is traditionally a 20-year course of study. From there, she immersed herself in the secret teachings of Buddhism. She is one of the first Western women to be recognized as a Lama. Through her efforts, she has begun to change the face of Buddhism that has historically been predominantly male.

Lama Christie teaches business people in China how to create prosperity.

She is a translator of ancient Tibetan and Sanskrit, and a professor of religious studies. She has also co-authored The Essential Yoga Sutra, How Yoga Works, and The Eastern Path to Heaven.

Lama Christie reveals teachings on Spiritual Partners at St. Bart’s Cathedral in NYC

Lama Christie teaches students at Diamond Mountain University advanced meditation techniques

Lama Christie is the co-founder of Diamond Mountain University, a revolutionary effort to provide without charge a classical monastic education to westerners of all walks of life, to be used within the modern world.

By staying close together for 12 years, spiritual partners Lama Christie and Geshe Michael have maintained an extraordinary form of the exchanging self and others practice (Dak Shen Nyam Je)

From 2000 to 2003, Lama Christie and her spiritual partner, Geshe Michael Roach, completed a traditional Great Retreat of 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days of silence and meditation, in the wilderness of the southern Arizona desert.

Geshe Michael, Lama Christie, and their student Lama Dvora Tzveli teach in Israel

Since completing their great retreat, Lama Christie and Geshe Michael have divided their time following the example of the first Panchen Lama, Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen, who was a known as a great peacemaker. They spend 4 months of the year at Diamond Mountain University training advanced students who will become teachers; 4 months of year in silent meditation retreat; and 4 months of the year traveling the world making the teachings accessible to public audiences. They continue the lineage of their Lamas, always teaching Buddhism for free wherever they are in the world.

Lama Christie teaching in Prague

Geshe Michael and Lama Christie make time for a TV interview

Lama Christie becomes the first Western woman to teach Buddhism publically in Mongolia.

Recently, Lama Christie became the first western woman to teach Buddhism publicly in Mongolia. The Buddhist history of Mongolia spans more than 2,000 years. According to historians in the Mongolian Academy of Science, Lama Christie was also the first woman to teach Buddhism publically in Mongolia since the Queen of Khublai of the greater Mongolian empire in the 14th Century and Dadishuari, the consort of Danzanravjaa, the Gobi mystic lama of the 19th Century.

After overcoming cultural skepticism, 1,000’s of Mongolian women attended these historic teachings and mobbed the stage afterwards.

Lama Christie also maintains a daily physical yoga practice in addition to her meditation practice. She is the co-founder of the Yoga Studies Institute. Her and Geshe Michael are now regular teachers at the annual Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong.

Lama Christie also maintains a daily physical yoga practice

Lama Christie reveals advanced yoga practices at the Hong Kong Yoga Conference

After translating over 10,000 pages of Buddhist text (including sutra and vajrayana teachings) and teaching 36 advanced courses to students at Diamond Mountain University, Lama Christie and Geshe Michael plan to undertake their second Three-Year Retreat starting in 10/10/10. An international group of well-trained students intend to follow their example and will dedicate this Three-Year Retreat to creating the causes for world peace.

Geshe Michael and Lama Christie scout cabin locations for the upcoming Three-Year Retreat in an isolated valley in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona

Lama Christie meditates on loving kindness causing every being's happiness.

For more information, please read a recent interview with Lama Christie McNally about her life and goal in writing The Tibetan Book of Meditation.