Teaching schedule
United States
APRIL 17, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
1:30-3pm New York time
APRIL 18, 2024
The Workshop is In the Mind
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
APRIL 20, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
Sweden
APRIL 21, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
4-5:30pm Sweden time
United States
APRIL 27, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
Sweden
APRIL 28, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
4-5:30pm Sweden time
United States
APRIL 29, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
MAY 4, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
Sweden
MAY 5, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
4-5:30pm Sweden time
United States
MAY 7, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 7, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
7-8pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 8, 2024
How to Use the Natural Law of Karma to Create the Reality We Want
7-8:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 9, 2024
Understanding Dependent-Arising is the Best Method for Realizing Emptiness
12 noon-1:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 10, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 10, 2024
Public Talk: Mahamudra — How to Discover Our True Nature
7-8:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 11, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
MAY 11, 2024
Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature
10am-3:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 12, 2024
Mahamudra: How to Discover Our True Nature
10am-3:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 14, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 14, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
7-8pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 15, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
1:30-3pm New York time
MAY 15, 2024
How to Use the Natural Law of Karma to Create the Reality We Want
7-8:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 16, 2024
Understanding Dependent-Arising is the Best Method for Realizing Emptiness
12 noon-1:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 17, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 17, 2024
Public Talk: How to Face Death Without Fear
7-8:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 18, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
MAY 18, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
10am-3:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 19, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
10am-3:30pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 21, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (MDT)
MAY 23, 2024
Saka Dawa practices
1:30-3pm New York time
MAY 23, 2024
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
Details to follow
MAY 25, 2024
Chanting the Names of Manjushri Continuously for Rinpoche's Swift Return
Ven. Robina will lead the 9-9:30am New York time session
Click here for the text
Click here to join on Zoom
Australia
MAY 26, 2024
Love vs attachment
Sat May 25, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun May 26, 10-11:30am Sydney time
United States
JUNE 2, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
JUNE 3, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
JUNE 13, 2024
Transforming Problems into Happiness
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
Australia
JUNE 16, 2024
Moulding our mind
Sat Jun 15, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun Jun 16, 10-11:30am Sydney time
United States
JUNE 16, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (MDT)
JUNE 19, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
1:30-3pm New York time
JULY 1, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
JULY 11, 2024
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
Details to follow
JULY 17, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
1:30-3pm New York time
Australia
JULY 21, 2024
Counteracting laziness
Sat Jul 20, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun Jul 21, 10-11:30am Sydney time
United States
JULY 29, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
Sweden
United Kingdom
AUGUST 8-10, 2024
Cultivating a Healthy State of Mind
6-7:30pm UK time
AUGUST 9-10, 2024
Cultivating a Healthy State of Mind
10am-4pm UK time
AUGUST 10, 2024
Cultivating a Healthy State of Mind
10am-4pm UK time
Australia
AUGUST 18, 2024
Transforming knowledge into action
Sat Aug 17, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun Aug 18, 10-11:30am Sydney time
SEPTEMBER 15, 2024
Developing equanimity
Sat Sep 14, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun Sep 15, 10-11:30am Sydney time
OCTOBER 20, 2024
Get ready for death
Sat Oct 19, 7-8:30pm New York time /
Sun Oct 20, 10-11:30am Sydney time
United States
OCTOBER 22, 2024
The Three Marks of Existence
7pm New York time
France
OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Retreat
Details to follow
OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Retreat
Details to follow
OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Retreat
Details to follow
OCTOBER 31-NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Retreat
Details to follow
Australia
NOVEMBER 24, 2024
What is happiness
Sat Nov 23, 6-7:30pm New York time /
Sun Nov 24, 10-11:30am Sydney time
Q & A with Robina
15 April, 2024
We can have our cake and eat it too
QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,
Thank you for reading my message and I hope you are keeping very well.
I am struggling with the teaching from Lama Zopa entitled Samsara is Not a Pleasure Park. I understand what he means and I do understand the different types of suffering, and agree that in its nature, samsara is suffering for every being still stuck within it.
But I am struggling because I still want to experience it! The incredible richness of the human experience, all the amazing achievements in music, art, architecture, and beautiful customs of the different people of the world are fascinatingly attractive to me, and I want to go into the world and experience them. To me this feels important because human life is so precious, and while I am alive and healthy, I can experience these wonders of the world.
This seems to be at odds with many teachings which seem to say that my time would be better spent on a meditation cushion in practice or in retreat. In several situations I have even chosen not to continue with important practices because I knew that I did not have the ability to remain dedicated in the long term. Yet, in my core, I do know that practice is so important too.
Can you help me reconcile these two seemingly opposing ideas?
Thank you, with many prayers for your health, long life, and happiness.
K
ANSWER
Happy to hear from you, K!
Your points are perfect!
As you well know, there are different levels of teachings for different levels of mind.
The first level, entry level, junior school, if you like is Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths: there is suffering, there are causes, there is the possibility to cease suffering and its causes, and then the methods of how to do it.
We need that first!
Then we can go to the more advanced teachings of the bodhisattva path where now, having clearly understood suffering, we can learn to be in the world but not tainted by it.
That’s what you want, so go for it!
But the ability to live life fully, enjoy all the amazing art and music and pleasures, is totally dependent upon our ability to understand and apply the teachings of the first level: that is to say, to enjoy them without attachment. What takes the place of attachment is compassion and wisdom. That’s what brings joy!
The key is to understand attachment and how it functions to cause suffering. The problem isn’t all the marvelous things in the world, it’s our attachment to them. When there’s huge attachment, no matter how glorious the art or music, we will only suffer.
When we live our life driven by compassion and wisdom, not attachment, we can have our cake and eat it too!
These words are easy to say, but to get to this level takes a lot of thinking and meditating.
The methods are all there.
Much love,
Robina
QUESTION
Venerable,
Thank you so much, I understand.
All of my prayers for your health and happiness!
K
ANSWER
Good!
Robina’s Blog
11 April, 2024
How to understand anxiety
Anxiety is so utterly normal, isn’t it? It’s a combination of things, but the key one to understand, which always sounds so simplistic initially because it’s not the way we talk in the modern psychological model: the problem is attachment.
Buddha's saying this state of mind called attachment is effectively the source of the suffering of all sentient beings. This sounds pretty shocking; for a start, we use the word attachment very differently, you know?
Attachment is multifaceted. The primordial energy of attachment is a constant feeling of dissatisfaction; everybody has it unless you're highly advanced spiritually.
Dissatisfaction means that, second by second, no matter what you've got, no matter what you see, no matter what you hear, no matter what you taste, no matter what you do, there's an immediate assumption that somehow it's not good enough; somehow it's not enough. We all feel this in one way or another, and for some of us this can be much stronger than others.
And then, when it’s really strong, it goes from you feeling that you don’t have enough to feeling that you are not enough.
Then one major function of attachment is this next level where because you feel you don’t have enough you then hanker after something. You think, “Well, what's missing?” This hankering then leads to all this anxiety to try and find the object of the senses or whatever it might be such that when you get it, it'll stop the dissatisfaction. This is really working in all of us to one degree or another all the time.
Then, just naturally, this leads to trying to control, to manipulate in order to get what we feel we must get in order to make the dissatisfaction go away. We’re all control freaks!
Then there’s the constant worry – this is anxiety! – about whether or not these things we’re trying to control will happen: “What if I don't get it?” Or worrying about the bad things that could happen. What if this happens? What if that happens?
It’s like I want an ice cream, but then I think, “Oh my God, maybe the shop is closed. Maybe the traffic will run me over. Maybe it's going to be too dark. Maybe I'll get raped on the way.” Or you worry about driving on the freeway: “What if I have an accident?”
And then you add to this all your other worries – your family, the world, the war zone here, the rapists there, the terrorists here – and our minds are overwhelmed by all the things that could happen, might happen, will happen. It's amazing to me we're not all completely crazy.
So what’s the solution to this? How do you deal with it? How do you work with it? How do you argue with those assumptions?
They’re all thoughts but because they’re so habitual we just can’t hear the thoughts; we just feel the feelings, which is when it all hits our body.
So one of the key things is to hear the thoughts; this takes time to get to. We know there are masses of thoughts flooding into our mind: we have no control over them – some can be completely ridiculous; some can be quite reasonable.
We have to learn to not ignore the thoughts, but also not to give them more power than they need. We need to learn to step back and observe them and then try and get some sense of whether there’s any reality to them. Because the trouble is every thought that arises we tend to believe it’s true; this is huge actually. We tend to believe whatever thought pops up.
Sometimes I think of them all as my roommates – these crazy roommates saying all these crazy things: “What if I freak out while I’m driving? What if I get into an accident? What if I cause an accident? What if I get lost?” Just let them rave on! Don’t give them power, don’t believe them. You just have to learn to listen to them sometimes.
At other times you need to argue with them. You see, you’ve also got other roommates as well. You've got kindness; you've got intelligence; you've got clarity; you've got wisdom. You’ve got lots of good roommates, but they’re hiding away in there and we have to consciously bring them up, say them. “Give yourself a break, girl. You know perfectly well you'll be okay. You’ll do a good job.”
It's like if a friend comes to you and is saying these very words that your mind is saying, you'd argue with them, wouldn’t you? “Don't be ridiculous! You're not as bad as you think. It's really okay, honey. Have some confidence. You'll be okay.” You’d calm your friend down, give them confidence. That’s what you must do to yourself. That’s what Lama Yeshe means by “be your own therapist.”
Other times, just let the thoughts be there and don't give them too much power. Other times, consciously say positive thoughts and give them the power because they are who you really are. There are many approaches.
When you think about needing to drive tomorrow, you can think of your kindness in driving somebody somewhere; how kind you are. Pat yourself on the back, you know? You'll do beautifully, and then you think, “Well, even if I lose the way, so what? I'll stop. I’ll look at my Google map. It's okay.”
It's okay to fail. We want to be a good girl all the time. That’s another major one for all of us: the attachment to being a good girl. That’s a big one. So we can also just be brave enough to know we’re human beings, and we might fail, and that’s just cool. So give yourself a break.
Bodhichitta Trust projects
Lawudo improvements projects
Helping to Improve the Living Conditions & Infrastructure at Lawudo Retreat Centre, Solu Khumbu, Nepal
Lawudo Trek
A Himalayan adventure & retreat with Ven. Robina that raises funds for Lawudo Gompa, Lama Zopa Rinpoche's retreat center in the Solu Khumba region of Nepal.
Devotion CD
A modern rendition of traditional Tibetan Buddhist prayers, arranged and performed by Ven. Robina and sound artist Yantra de Vilder.
Chasing Buddha Film
The award-winning documentary about Ven. Robina by her nephew, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, the internationally acclaimed Australian filmmaker.
Tsa-Tsa Project
In 2004 Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised Ven. Robina to make 700,000 tsa-tsas: 350,000 of Buddha Mitrugpa, and 350,000 of Lama Tsong Khapa.
Alison harr memorial fund
Alison Harr was a student of Ven. Robina’s who died tragically on June 1, 2013 in San Francisco, due to complications from a car accident.
Cocktail party-auctions
Since 2009, using commerce, kindness, and generosity to raise funds to support FPMT & Bodhichitta Trust projects.