Karma and Emptiness - Ven. Robina Courtin

Venerable Robina Courtin
Teaching for Maitripa College, Portland, OR
18 March 2021

[@lawmay7162]

thank you so much for sharing karma and emptiness, Action is key 😉🌷

[@joeykathlean9875]

I am very grateful for these Buddhist teachings. Thank you Venerable Robina Courtin 🥰🙏🏻❤️ 3/18/2024

[@Jnow796]

Robina Courtin and Ajahn Brahm helped me to become a buddhist, even if just an armchair one

[@palmo9823]

Robina did my refuge ceremony 🥰

[@dublinphotoart]

@@palmo9823 you met Robina? 😮😀

[@smithatenzin6719]

Two great teachers!

[@Ndefinitely]

Robina is really focused on this teaching. Two 👍👍

[@angelabrainky7786]

Thank you.

[@lah6739]

Such clarity - thank you. Each time I listen to this I learn something more.

[@terrilewis5082]

Can’t express how grateful I am for this teaching...💡🤯

[@palmo9823]

I once heard a story about a woman who was starving, I believe she was a prisoner, and she had nothing to eat but mouldy bread. One day she found a toothpaste tube and spread the toothpaste onto a piece of bread, and she said it was the most exquisite thing she'd ever eaten, even tho she was well-to-do before her imprisonment

[@karolfrench5816]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼📿

[@Ndefinitely]

Some kids have sued their parents for being screwed up.

[@dublinphotoart]

Saying that anything happening to you is 'your fault' makes no sense, having been listening to this Buddhist model for years... that implies you have some kind of control or choice over what you are doing.... which we don't for now. Up until now we have had no idea of cause and effect. We haven't a clue what we are doing which is the whole point of learning the path. Fault and blame don't come into it. I assume highly realized beings have reached a stage where they can actually control their activity and direction and so can actually take credit for what they are doing (although karma is a natural law, maybe we can only take credit for understanding and aligning with it?). I fully understand things coming from previous activities and intentions but again it is completely hidden to us so 'fault' and 'blame' are inappropriate language and most likely ideas from some religious conditioning. 🤔

[@RobinaCourtinYouTube]

I understand what you’re saying about karma. But “fault” isn’t the point. The best way to put it is that Buddha is saying that we basically create ourselves; the Dalai Lama calls it “self-creation” - it’s a very different view. Everything we think and do and say produces the person we become. Every moment of anything good that has ever happened to you, every good quality within you - you created them. And eventually, when we’re advance in our practice, we’ll able to see the process of cause and effect and be in complete charge of it. I find this a very empowering view. I love knowing that I’m the boss!

[@dublinphotoart]

@@RobinaCourtinKZbin Yes thanks Venerable Robina! Absolutely agreed. (I just hear people talk about 'fault' in their questions a fair bit... but as you say fault is not the point) I want to be my own boss too... it's happening! 🤣🙏🙌👋 Love the short Vajrasattva Prurification. Living the dream here in Ireland. 👋☘

[@lah6739]

We do have control and choice in this life with how we behave and treat other beings; it will have effect on our future lives. That is the whole point of Robina's talk. It's not "sowing" any more negative karmic seeds that will ripen in the future and cause suffering for us, in future lives. That's what we do now. As for our current life as a result of past actions, thoughts and behaviours that generated karmic "seeds" that have ripened - good and bad. As for this current life and it's rewards/challenges, step one is watching what comes out of our mouths, how we use our bodies and what we think that could harm other sentient beings. This isn't a higher being activity - they are way beyond this. This is step one of many, many steps of a practice, along with continuing to learn and understand the dharma, one day at a time. It's not easy but with practice it easier. It's all about self-awareness.