Teaching schedule
United States
MARCH 28, 2024
The Nature of Mind
6-7:30pm San Francisco time (PDT)
MARCH 30, 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
APRIL 1, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
APRIL 7, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (PDT)
Sweden
APRIL 14, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
4-5:30pm Sweden time
Details to follow
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
Australia
APRIL 21, 2024
Cultivating a healthy sense of self
Sat Apr 20, 8-9:30pm New York time /
Sun Apr 21, 10-11:30am Sydney time
Sweden
APRIL 21, 2024
How to Face Death Without Fear
4-5:30pm Sweden time
United States
APRIL 21, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (PDT)
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
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 (PDT)
MAY 15, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
1:30-3pm New York time
MAY 21, 2024
Morning Express Meditation
7:30-8am Santa Fe time (PDT)
MAY 23, 2024
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
Details to follow
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 3, 2024
The Workshop Is in the Mind
7:30-9pm New York time
JUNE 4, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (PDT)
JUNE 13, 2024
Co-Sponsored with Shantideva Center
6:30-8pm New York time
Details to follow
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 18, 2024
Be Your Own Therapist
5-6pm Santa Fe time (PDT)
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
25 March, 2024
How to help a child see that it’s her behavior that’s the problem, not her heart
QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,
I need some advice about our daughter. She is a smart, talented, incredible athlete, social kid. She’s got a good heart, is a kind friend, a leader, gets great grades and is highly motivated by sports. She understands some Dharma – and still learning.
All this being said, she’s a boundary pusher and has a problem with cussing and can be very cocky. Since she was little, she’s always gotten in trouble at school for not listening, being the class clown, sometimes being disrespectful.
With all this, she has gotten a poor reputation with some parents who don’t want their child spending time with her and some sports coaches choosing not to work with her despite her massive talent.
We as parents think she is pure gold. We support her always, and work to guide her and to teach her to be a good person, and how to navigate life.
But when hard things happen for her, it is incredibly painful for me. She cries to me asking why grown-ups don’t like her, and that she doesn't want to be the bad kid. I feel like I am constantly on the defense of her and have some extra sensitivity surrounding her.
I also recognize that I create negative stories around how I think my child is being perceived that aren’t always true. I realize I have immense attachment to her, and also she has her own karmic ripening.
Sometimes I get so sad, hurt, depressed and anxious about it I don’t know what to do about it. I often feel like I want to take her away from it all and bring her somewhere so she can be protected and safe and learn.
I’d appreciate any words of advice. I am hurting a lot.
Much, much love,
A
ANSWER
A, dear one. I understand exactly.
How fortunate she is to have you both. But, like all of us, she has to learn from her own experience.
I’d hear my father say those words to my mother so many times when it came to me. I recognize myself in your beloved daughter! My mother would repeatedly defend me, pick me up, when actually she shouldn’t have. I’d hear my father say those words and I’d think and think about what it meant.
So love your girl to death, but give her the respect that she deserves and don’t be afraid to help her see she needs to learn to control her behavior, how she is with other people.
Because that’s the problem. All my life I'd be direct, say what I felt, etc., etc., and then people would be scared of me, reject me. At school I was broken-hearted because the nuns didn’t see my good side; I was always getting punished. Later in life, often the same.
One time when I was with Lama Yeshe and I was full of self-pity because of some blame put on me and Lama said, “There’s nothing wrong with your heart dear, it’s just your behavior.”
I understood for the first time: I had to learn to control my speech. I had to grow up, stop blaming other people for being scared of me, rejecting me. I had to change my behavior.
These words seem so simple, but they are profound.
The lamas say: when we’re with others, control our body and speech; when we’re on our own, control our mind.
So, yes, love your daughter, protect her, encourage her, praise her – and help her see that she can learn to harness her energy, to take responsibility. If she’s intelligent, which she is, she can do it.
Be brave!
Much love,
Robina
Robina’s Blog
28 March, 2024
We need to practice generosity
If you’re going to get born a human, you've got to make sure you have all the conditions in place for a good, productive life. The way Lama Zopa Rinpoche puts it, and this is Buddha’s teaching, we need two main karmas for this: non-killing gives you the human body; and the practice of generosity – conscious, intentional giving – is the cause for having the good conditions: a family, a home, an education, and access to money fairly easily, which is unlike the majority of humans.
This is what’s necessary for one’s own benefit and so that we can be useful to the world.
But you don’t only want the result of past generosity, which is what gives you those resources; we need to make sure we are born with the continued tendency to be generous: you want to be generous and you also want to have the resources. It’s a magical combination. If we look at the world, you don’t meet many people who are rich who are also generous. You just don’t. It’s so tragic.
In other words, they are experiencing the result of past generosity by being rich now, but they are experiencing the tendency to be miserly from another track of karma of not being generous.
This is where we really have to understand karma very well. A person who is rich can have lots of attachment, and because they don't understand karma, there's lots of hubris: “Oh, aren’t I lucky?” Or, “I’ve got all this money because I worked so hard.” No. They’ve got this money because their generosity karma’s ripening. But then they're being mean and miserly in this life and that generosity karma will definitely run out. That’s why many people run out of money in this life: they haven't continued to be generous. The karma can finish, you know?
You can be born in a good human body, the result of non-killing, but be born in a desert where you have to work eighteen hours a day for a bowl of rice, which is the result of not being generous. Whether we're rich or poor, we need to practice generosity: wanting to give to others. It’s a huge practice, so important.
In other words, the point about karma is that because we are in charge of the process, then obviously we need to understand the process. If you're a gardener, and you're in charge of what grows in your garden, you absolutely have to learn botany. It's not just potluck. We know that when it comes to practical things, but we're so superstitious when it comes to so-called spiritual things, you know? We just think it's good luck that we're born rich. Or we’ll think, “Oh, the universe is kind to me.”
Saying that the universe is kind to me is like saying God is kind to me: it’s coming from outside of me. I’m not being critical about this view, but Buddha does not talk like that; there’s no force out there that does good things to you; the universe doesn't pay anything back to you. You pay back yourself; you are the boss. This is a really powerful point in Buddhism. The Indian and the Tibetan texts don’t talk like this – they don’t say you’re the boss – but we get the point. It’s a modern way of talking about it.
We have to know about the law of karma, what causes what. If you know your mind continues in a next life, and Buddha says it will, then you might as well make sure you get the right conditions. You want a decent human life again? Don’t kill, please; live in vows of not killing. You want to have really good conditions? Don’t steal and be generous. You want people to be kind to you? Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t harm others.
It’s sort of logical. Then guaranteed you’ll wake up next life with a decent human mother in a good environment where you’ll have access to more spiritual teachings, and you'll have all the conditions you need to keep on moving on your spiritual path.
We really believe there's something out there that does all this to us. This is one of the main functions, Buddha says, of the way ego works. It’s complete superstition. We are the main cause of our happiness and suffering. We are in charge. When we begin to get this, it's very profound. It makes us much more powerful, much more confident, much more grown up, in a way, much less fearful. We are the boss.
So, you better learn the rules. You better learn Buddha’s botany so you can get a decent garden in the next life – and then you can make the most of that garden and keep creating new and better ones into the future!
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.