"Karma: How We Create Our Own Reality" with Venerable Robina Courtin.

KARMA: HOW WE CREATE OUR OWN REALITY

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing utterly that happiness and suffering come from "out there”. Even more fundamentally, we assume that we are the handiwork of someone else; that we’re innocent victims who didn’t ask to get born and that there’s no logic for why things happen. The experiential implications of this are fear, blame, anger, and guilt, bringing ever-deepening levels of suffering and hopelessness.

Buddha’s view of reality is that 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. And because of this there is no karma that we can’t change.

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.

Friday 29th June 6:30 pm  - Sunday  1st July 3.45 pm, held in the Gompa at Chenrezig Institute.
Facility fee $108  10% discount for members and concession card holders. Accommodation and meals available separately.

Established 1974, Chenrezig Institute is a centre for Buddhist study, meditation, retreat and practice nestled in the foothills of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. The Institute is home to a Tibetan Geshe (Lama), a large community of ordained Sangha (monks and nuns), students, residents, volunteers, retreat goers and guests.

Apart from the formal study programmes, Chenrezig Institute is a peaceful, calm and relaxing place to spend a few hours, days or weeks. Stroll along the bush paths, wander in formal garden, espresso in the cafe or a vegetarian meal.

Teachers’ availability subject to change; please http://www.chenrezig.com.au/programme/calendar/ for updated information.

Also below the far carpark is our new addition ‘The Wellbeing Centre’ which provides courses focusing on cultivating physical, emotional and mental balance and wellbeing. They include authentic traditional and modern psychological approaches to health and lifestyle. They are suitable for everyone who maybe looking for genuine happiness and well-being in a non-religious framework.