Charlotte Rotterdam & Pieter Oosthuizen

Charlotte Rotterdam and Pieter Oosthuizen are a married pair of Vajrayana Buddhist teachers who work together under the name Skymind. Both are senior teachers in Lama Tsultrim Allione's lineage at Tara Mandala in Colorado, and both have trained with Tibetan masters including Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. Charlotte, who grew up in New York and studied theology at Harvard Divinity School, also teaches at Naropa University, where she leads its centre for contemplative education. Pieter trained as a lawyer in South Africa before moving to Colorado, where he held leadership posts at Naropa and at Tara Mandala.

Their teaching centres on Machig Labdrön, the eleventh-century Tibetan yogini behind the Chöd lineage, and on her short, direct instructions for recognising the open, aware nature of mind. Students move from steadying attention towards simply resting in awareness, while also turning gently towards fear and difficulty rather than away from it, often through the five-step Feeding Your Demons process. Charlotte and Pieter run a nine-month online Skymind programme, weekend and week-long retreats in the United States and Europe, and one-to-one and couples mentoring. Their book, Skymind: The Radical Path of Open Awareness, was published by Shambhala.