Venerable Robina Courtin, an Australian Buddhist nun, has spent a lifetime defying stereotypes and expectations. Now aged 77, she is no different.
Still a powerhouse of energy and wisdom, Courtin is returning to Katoomba in early September to teach at the new premises of Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre.
"We're very excited to host Venerable Robina as our first teacher at the new Centre," said Helen Patrin, acting director of Kunsang Yeshe. "It's a perfect way to launch the next part of our journey after 30 years in the Mountains. Robina has a way of reaching people with her down-to-earth and entertaining teaching style. She breaks Buddhism down into everyday concepts that we can all relate to and use in our lives."
Now a globe-trotting Buddhist teacher, Courtin has travelled her own winding and at times tortuous route through life. Her extraordinary life experiences have led her to understand how to balance active involvement in the world with a sense of inner happiness and contentment. At the same time, she acknowledges that it is "easy to say but insanely difficult to do!".
Courtin was born in Melbourne as the second child of seven in a poor Catholic family. With an early sense of vocation, she announced to her parents at the age of four, "I'm going to be a priest!". While the impracticality of that aspiration became apparent to her and a non-conformist streak soon emerged, she always retained a yearning for the truth in life.
"On the one side, I was a very naughty girl, always rebellious, always making trouble, and on the other, always religious", she said.
Activist causes
In the 1960s and 1970s, Courtin involved herself in the passions and activist causes of the time. She trained as a classical singer, was drawn to the spirituality of Black American jazz, lived a hippy lifestyle, and was part of a London-based group supporting black American prisoners. While all of these pursuits gave Courtin a measure of satisfaction and purpose, she came to a point in her life where she saw the pitfalls of an us-against-them approach.
"Finally, I stopped being a hippy and hating all the straight people, a communist and hating all the rich people, into black politics and hating all the white people, feminist and hating all the male people. I knew I couldn't hate the entire human race. There was only me left."
Around this time, Courtin was engrossed in martial arts training six days a week, reflecting the enormous energy she still exhibits today. It was an unlikely road accident which devastated Courtin and her dreams of success in martial arts. The upside was that she met two great Buddhist teachers, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa, "and that's how I met this path".
Since that time, Venerable Robina has made substantial contributions to people's happiness and wellbeing, not least through her establishment of the Liberation Prison Project in 1996. The idea for this venture came from a letter sent to Courtin by a young prisoner in a Californian jail, asking for Buddhist guidance to help him through his difficult circumstances. Her work in this area has supported well over 20,000 prisoners around the world. It was featured in an award-winning film, Chasing Buddha, which featured her work with prisoners on death row in Kentucky State Penitentiary.
Now Venerable Robina travels the world, distilling Buddhist principles in a user-friendly way to a variety of audiences. She teaches on challenges faced by us all, acknowledging the traps we can fall into, but also providing a toolkit to move past them.
"The cause of our suffering in day-to-day life is attachment, a deep and constant emotional hunger. We also have plenty of the positive states of mind, such as love, empathy, generosity, intelligence, patience and so on. The trouble is they're mixed together in a big soup of emotion, and unless we do the hard work, we can't tell one from another."
In her upcoming teachings at Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre at 116 Bathurst Road, Katoomba, Venerable Robina will be teaching on 'Being your own therapist' (Wednesday, September 7, 5-9pm) and 'Courageous compassion' (Thursday, September 8, 5-9pm). Due to the universal and practical nature of her teachings, people of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome. Bookings are essential and can be made at www.kunsangyeshe.com.au.
