Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 9-minute teaching, Ven Robina Courtin introduces the six paramitas (perfections) of the Mahāyāna path, opening with the striking example of Lama Zopa’s rigorous schedule—practicing from 4am to midday with minimal sleep—to inspire joyful effort and counter the limiting belief “I can’t do this.” She outlines the first four perfections (generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm) practiced over many lifetimes in relation to beings, and the final two (concentration and insight into emptiness) perfected through meditation. The culmination is Buddhahood, achieved through non-conceptual realization of emptiness. The second half opens to questions about generosity, with Robina offering frank, practical guidance on giving to those in poverty—including memorable personal anecdotes from India and New York—before closing with dedication prayers.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 DAR 2003 06 22.mp3
UUID: a48025ff-45bd-47fe-9b30-76bbfaeead99
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Death and Rebirth (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2003-06-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 9.5 minutes
Words: ~1,956
Students and blah blah blah. And then he meditates, when he stops the work, and then the other students go to bed exhausted, his attendance. And then he goes from four in the morning till midday, he does his practice. And then he works, and then he teaches. And that’s his life.
Right? Now, it sounds insane to most people. It sounds incomprehensible and impossible to attain. So of course we say, oh, that’s a Lama Zopa, I couldn’t do that. But we’ve got to start first with the thought, oh, well, you know, I’d like to do that.
Even but I mean, that’s so exhausting, because the thought of not having sleep, for me, I almost can’t bear it, you know? You see, by the end of the day when you’re tired, you just cannot wait to die in that bed for a few hours, isn’t it? You just can’t wait to go there. So even to have the thought, may I one day not need sleep, is already so courageous. But it’s certainly possible.
Many examples. So we just the belief we can’t do it, you know. But we can all see the difference. Two kids will go to the football and see one famous person I don’t know who the famous footballer here. This is and whoever he is.
There’s a famous footballer. And two kids go and one goes and they both go, wow, isn’t he amazing? Then one says, oh, can’t do that. So they go back and watch them on telly. The other one says, I can become like that.
Well, that’s enthusiasm. Seeing the example and knowing no matter how long it takes, I want to do that. And that’s what makes you succeed. So we’ve got to have this joyful effort, enthusiastic perseverance. We’ve got to conquer the opposite, which is the laziness, you know.
That’s the point. So it’s a tough one. And the next one is what the last two, the first four you do in relation to beings, from life after life after life after life, bopping along, perfecting all of these, becoming this amazing being. And the last two you do in your meditation. This is where you perfect the wisdom wing, actually.
You perfect the wisdom wing in the context of the perfections of the bodhisattva. So the fifth one is concentration, which we discussed this morning, concentration meditation. And the sixth one is insight meditation, specifically insight into emptiness. So we discussed these two. We’ve discussed these two.
So the culmination of all of this all of these, you know, all of this entire path is finally Buddhahood. The culmination of wisdom, when you finally get the non conceptual realization of emptiness, you totally perfect it, removing all the obstacles, and you’ve perfected the the six perfections. You do them side by side, you know. You finally become who you really are. So that’s the path to enlightenment from a to zed.
Okay, five. We have to go. Just to finish, any questions then? We didn’t do the meditation tonight, but you got it in your in your books, and we did it briefly yesterday. So you got you know how to do it.
So tell me, any questions? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. That’s to go, oh, I’ll give them food, and I’ll give them money.
That’s right. Depend on. Of course. Yeah. They might.
It is. No, I mean, thing is, if you can see that a person’s gonna really do harm to someone else, then I think maybe it’s cool to not give. But I mean, all of us have alcohol, do something, you know? Mean, it’s like so they’re gonna I mean, this guy we saw, he’s all drunk, know? He’s outside the pub, wait, ran in as soon we gave him the money, you know?
I don’t care. I mean, so it’s being moralistic. Well, I’m not gonna give him, you know, I’ll give him a banana. Mean, excuse me. And just somehow this karmic connection made, and he was very happy when he saw that note, you know?
Was great. It’s probably that fear, yes. It is fear. And then especially if you’re in places like India, you know, where you’re just bombarded by beggars. You can get very embarrassed and very nervous, we do in the West, but you know, you decide in advance.
And that’s what Tibetans do. They understand giving. And they they go to the bank, they get their change, they have a certain amount of rupees, and then when you run out, you run out. You just decide you’re going give a certain amount. There’s nothing wrong with that.
And you give, even though they’re all rushing and shouting and yelling and begging at you, you don’t start sort of, oh, look, they’re really cheating. Oh, they don’t really mean it. Look, the very fact that a person has a poverty mentality and needs to be a beggar is enough reason to give them a rupee, you know? Big deal. We get too caught up in philosophy and they shouldn’t and should and why not and how.
Just there’s a person in front of you, they need a rupee, give it, you know? I remember one time, actually, when I lived in Delhi, in India, and every time looked the red lights, all these beggars would naturally come, know, these little kind of guys all doing their job. And I remember this dude, and I got so fed up. I said, listen, you give me something. But he gave me a rupee.
Was so sweet, this beggar. He did. That was very funny. Actually, that’s what I said to the guy in New York who held me up with a gun. I was so outraged this man had a gun in my chest.
I was so outraged. I was so actually, I couldn’t believe this dude. How I kept abusing him. How Who do you think you are? How dare you?
How dare you ask for money? I said, I’m just as poor as you. I said, you give me your money. And there’s this gun right here. He said, give me your money, bitch, you know.
I said, no. You give me your money. The idiot couldn’t believe it. He just shrugged and walked away. Oh, so outraged.
How dare he put a gun in my chest? Anyway, that was just another story. My sister kept saying, give him some hey, give him he kept my sister Janet was in the studio. She had a glass of wine. We’d just been to this Irish bar.
Janet had a glass of wine. She kept saying, hey, man. Hey, brother. Have some wine. I want your fucking wine.
I want your money. Then he kept shouting kept saying to me, give him some. I said, no. You’re giving me money. This is a ridiculous conversation.
He couldn’t believe it, you know. There’s these sort of English sounding accents, which already blows Americans’ minds. He couldn’t believe it, so he left, you know, and just went away. So why don’t we do our few little wee prayers? If you have prayers in the back of your notes, we’ll do a few more.
Okay? May I have a copy? Just have a look now. Just a look. You share for now and I’ll just before that one.
Yeah. Thanks, darling. There we go. On page forty one, there’s a few little prayers, end of the dedication prayers, there’s few, just for auspiciousness. Can we read them please?
Together, if you’d like. Make them your thoughts if they make sense. Through the merits have you all got them? Forty one. Yeah?
Okay. So through the merits it just says dedication prayers. Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the supreme jewel, bodhicitta, that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen not diminish, but increase more and more. Just as the brave Mañjuśrī and Samantabhādra too, Samantabhādra was famous for all his offerings.
Realize things as they are, I too dedicate all these merits in the best way that I may follow their perfect example. I dedicate all these roots of virtue with a dedication praises the best by the victorious ones thus gone of the three times so I might perform good works. I dedicate whatever virtues I have ever collected for the benefit of the teachings and of all sentient beings, and in particular, for the essential teachings of venerable Lozang Drakpa, that’s Lama Tsongkhapa, to shine forever. May we not arise heresy even for a second in the actions of the glorious guru, may we regard whatever actions are done as pure. With this devotion, may we receive the blessings of the guru in our hearts.
And whatever way you appear, glorious guru, with whatever retinue, lifespan and pure land, whatever noble and holy name you take, may I and others attain only these. In all my lives, through the victorious one acting in person as the Mahāyāna guru, may I never turn aside for even an instant from the excellent path praised by the victorious ones. And this next one is just a prayer for the long life of his holiness, but again thinking the long life of all the holy beings on this earth, whoever they are who are bringing goodness and clarity and wisdom for us suffering sentient beings. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and good. All powerful Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until saṃsāra ends.
And this is a little prayer, which actually, I was gonna do refuge today, but I didn’t do it, did I? Too late. Ask me next time. Anybody who wanted to take refuge? I just forgot to mention.
We’re going to do it. So it was in these notes. So never mind. But this is a little prayer that Rinpoche adapted from Saint Francis’s Francis’s prayer on the back page. It’s just nice to say.
You who uphold oh, Sorry. This is Lama Zopa’s long life prayer. You who uphold the subdue as moral way, who serves as the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving, and spreading Manjunath’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplishes magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, protective of myself and others, your disciples. Please, please live long. In this little prayer of Saint Francis.
Lord Buddha, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, let me sow pardon. Where there is discord, let me sow unity. Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is error, let me sow truth. Where there is despair, let me sow hope. Where there is sadness, let me sow joy. Where there is darkness, let me sow light. O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek happiness for the ego, to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, as to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying, having practiced, that we are born to eternal life, from happiness to happiness up to full enlightenment. Okey doke. It’s gone like a dream? Oh, yes, your prayers. Thanks, darling.
So thank you. All I can say very much, everybody. Oh, darling. You’re so kind. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. That’s all I can say.
Okay. So, Joe.