Allyn Lyon

Born in Ohio in 1937, Allyn R. Lyon was raised in northern New Jersey. In her "younger days," Allyn's interest was in politics and social issues. But somewhere during the course of two marriages and the adoption of her son Chris, it became clear to Allyn that "the 'problem' lay, rather, in the human mind." Like many in her cohort, Allyn began to read Eastern philosophy in the early '70s. By good fortune, she found herself at The Naropa Institute in the summer of 1974: "Naropa, of course, radically changed my life," she says. By 1977, Allyn and her son and were living at Karm? Chöling. As a meditation instructor, Allyn managed to sit five dathuns and began teaching. She went to the 1979 Vajradhatu Seminary, the first of seven that she would attend as a student, staff member, or teacher. Due to what she calls "strange Karma," Allyn held a number of administrative positions at The Naropa Institute, Vajradhatu, and Boulder Karma Dzong. In 1992, she managed an escape to Asia to direct several Naropa Nepal and Maitri programs. In 1995, Allyn "found herself volunteering" to take on the position of Director of Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center and since that time, she's managed to combine center administration with teaching trips to Europe, Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and elsewhere. Allyn main interest in teaching Dharma remains the nature of mind and how it functions: "What is mind? How does practice work with mind? What is real?" But if there's a bottom line, Allyn says, "it's that I really enjoy teaching and practicing the Dharma."