Ven. Robina Courtin Visit
Aug 1-13, 2017
Gonpo Ludup Study Group is delighted to welcome Ven. Robina back to Laguna Beach!
Scroll down below for details & tickets for each event:
Tue, Aug 1 Public Talk: Cultivating Love & Compassion in Difficult Times
Wed, Aug 2 Public Talk: What Is Happiness & How to Find It
Sun, Aug 6 All Day Workshop: All About Karma
Tue, Aug 8 Public Talk: Dealing with Depression & Anxiety
Fri, Aug 11 Public Talk: Happy Living, Happy Dying
Sat-Sun, Aug 12–13 Weekend Workshop: Preparing for Death & How to Help Others
Tue, Aug 1
Public Talk: Cultivating Love & Compassion in Difficult Times
7-9 pm
Cost: $20
Venue: Laguna Beach Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Dr.
According to Buddhist psychology, “love” is the wish for others to be happy; and “compassion” is the wish that they not suffer. Easy enough to understand intellectually, but how to put these powerful concepts into practice? What would practicing love and compassion in the face of adversity look like? How do we learn to love and have compassion for those that harm us? How to practice in the face of fear or pain or suffering or sickness? Buddhist psychology teaches that the development of love and compassion is the point of the path to enlightenment, and the end result is the removal of all separateness from others and the spontaneous capacity to benefit all sentient beings perfectly. The development of love and compassion is dependent upon renunciation of suffering and its causes, as well as the wisdom that sees reality as it actually exists. This is possible for all of us. Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike can benefit from these teachings, applying the great cognitive psychological practices of Buddhist wisdom to our lives, learning to love our problems, our enemies, and to live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Wed, Aug 2
Public Talk: What Is Happiness & How to Find It
7-9 pm
Cost: $20
Venue: Laguna Beach Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Dr.
We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing utterly that happiness and suffering come from “out there.” But Buddhist psychology says that what goes in our minds is the main source of our happiness, and how we deal with life. The experiential implication of this view is empowerment, accountability, and the courage to change. And the ability to change the way we experience the world, our suffering, the ups and downs of life. Gradually we loosen the grip of ego-grasping and the other neuroses, thus developing our marvelous potential for happiness, clarity, self-confidence, empathy and the other qualities that Buddha says are at the core of our being.
Cost: $80 (includes your book of teachings; Felicia’s delicious teas & cookies and Kathy’s famous chocolate cake; Lunch catered by Felicia, a Four Season’s chef; as well as our running costs, etc. etc. both days)
Venue: Laguna Beach Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Dr.
SCHEDULE
9:30 am Doors
10 – 11:30 am First Session
11:30 am – 12 pm Tea Break
12 – 1 pm Second Session
1 – 2:30 pm Lunch & Discussion Groups
2:30 – 3:30 pm Third session
3:30 – 4 pm Tea & Cake
4-5 pm Final Session
We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing utterly that happiness and suffering come from “out there”. Even more fundamental than that, we assume that we are the handiwork of someone else. The experiential implications of this are blame, anger, and guilt, bringing ever-deepening levels of suffering and hopelessness.
Buddha’s view of reality is that we create ourselves: we come into this life at the first moment of conception in our mother’s womb fully programmed with our own tendencies and the seeds of our experiences in this life. As the Dalai Lama says, the view of karma is one of “self-creation.” We are, literally, the creators of our lives, our happiness, and our suffering. We are the boss.
With this view we realize that everything we experience is our own “karmic appearance”, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche puts it. Everything is made by our own minds, in the past and in the present.
The experiential implication of this view is empowerment, accountability, and the courage to change and, combining it with an understanding of the Buddha’s model of the mind, we gradually loosen the grip of ego-grasping and the other neuroses, thus developing our marvelous potential for clarity, self-confidence, empathy and the other qualities that Buddha says are at the core of our being.
Tue, Aug 8
Public Talk: Dealing with Depression & Anxiety
7-9 pm
Cost: $20
Venue: Laguna Beach Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Dr.
Depression and anxiety are conditions almost all of us in the West can relate to and have experienced at one time or another. The Buddhist view is that we’ve all got extraordinary potential to reduce the unhappy emotions that so often overwhelm our lives, and to cultivate our consciousness and extraordinary potential for happiness and joy. It’s not some special gift that only some people have; according to Buddhist psychology this potential is innate within all of us.
Potential to lessen depression, anxiety, fear, neediness, low self-esteem and to grow love, contentment, compassion, clarity, courage and the other qualities we want so badly.
It is something very earthy, so tasty, not something vague and mystical.
We need to learn how to access our own minds, and as Lama Yeshe said, to become our own therapists. Sounds simple enough, but it’s not a job we’re educated to do. It is not our habit to look inside, much less know deeply and well what’s going on there.
Fri, Aug 11
Public Talk: Happy Living, Happy Dying
7:30-9:30 pm
Cost: $20
Venue: Laguna Beach Women’s Club, 286 St Ann’s Dr.
This public talk will be an introduction to the Tibetan Buddhist approach to death (and life), in preparation for our Weekend Workshop: Preparing for Death & How to Help Others, Aug 12-13, based on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s most recent book, edited by Ven. Robina, on how to help our loved ones and ourselves at the time of death.
Sat, Aug 12 – Sun Aug 13
Weekend Workshop: Preparing for Death & How to Help Others
10 am-5 pm Saturday
10 am-5 pm Sunday
Cost: $80 for one day/$160 for the weekend (includes your book of teachings; Felicia’s delicious teas & cookies and Kathy’s famous chocolate cake; Lunch catered by Felicia, a Four Season’s chef; as well as our running costs, etc. etc. both days)
Venue: Laguna Beach Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Ann’s Dr.
SCHEDULE
9:30 am Doors
10 – 11:30 am First Session
11:30 am – 12 pm Tea Break
12 – 1 pm Second Session
1 – 2:30 pm Lunch & Discussion Groups
2:30 – 3:30 pm Third session
3:30 – 4 pm Tea & Cake
4-5 pm Final Session
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in his latest book about how to help others through the dying and death process, “Helping our loved ones at the time of death is the best service we can offer them, our greatest gift. Why? Because death is the most important time of life: it’s at death that the next rebirth is determined.”
But we before we’re qualified to do that, we need to know how to be ready for our own death, our own rebirth. During this two-day workshop we will go through the crucial Tibetan Buddhist teachings and meditation practices that prepare us for this natural event so that we can accept it and face it without fear, but with confidence and contentment that our life has been lived in the most fruitful way, thus perfectly preparing us for our next life.
The teaching will be based upon the 2015 publication of How to Help Your Loved Ones Enjoy Death and Go Happily to Their Next Rebirth: A Handbook by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Ven. Robina Courtin.
These teachings are invaluable for all of us — people of all faiths, atheists, etc. — and also for professionals in care giving, hospice, and chaplaincy.
NO ONE IS EVER TURNED AWAY FROM ANY OF OUR TEACHING EVENTS FOR LACK OF FUNDS. CONTACT KATE FOR SCHOLARSHIP DETAILS FOR ANY OF THE EVENTS YOU WISH TO ATTEND: gonpo.ludup@gmail.com
Australian ex-Catholic, ex-political activist, ex-radical feminist, and former body guard for the Dalai Lama, Robina Courtin has been a Buddhist nun since 1978. Well known for her work for 14 years with people in prisons in the US and Australia, Robina’s life and work is the subject of the award-winning documentary Chasing Buddha, featured at Sundance in 2001. A renowned teacher of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, she teaches full time around the world at the centers of her teachers’ organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).
QUESTIONS?
Contact Kate
gonpo.ludup@gmail.com
(949) 371–6804
Gonpo Ludup Study Group 
