Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Robina Courtin teaches Vajrasattva purification practice in this 37-minute retreat session, with particular emphasis on the power of strong determination. She guides the three-stage visualization: powerful nectar from the Buddha’s heart forces out harmful imprints through the body, speech, and mind in sequence. Her distinctive teaching avoids vague commitments and urges precise, concrete timelines for restraint—never kill, never lie, or commit to one specific month. She then offers practical retreat instructions on silence and sleep, covers meditation posture, teaches nine-round breathing, and begins Tārā visualization. Suited for practitioners already familiar with Buddhist refuge and purification practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 Unknown.mp3
UUID: f359b838-6434-41bb-9fd0-72309554b5fd
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Unknown 1988 9 Cassettes (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 1988 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 37.0 minutes
Words: ~3,914
You also include, even though you don’t remember, but if it makes sense to you, to think of anything that you must have done in infinite past lives to harm all living beings in all the different realms. Whatever you have done, the lying, the killing, the stealing, the harming, since beginningless time, you have absolute regret because you do not want the future suffering from any of this at all. You’ve got to be delighted to sort of own it all, you know, the whole lot you deeply regret. So now we think, well, whom can I turn to, you know, to give me the methods that help me purify these imprints in my mind so that I can turn around, release myself from the suffering of them and stop doing them again? So we think, well, okay, in this case, we turn to the Buddha whose methods we’re using, like a doctor.
To the extent that it has meaning for you to have refuge in the Buddha, then you do conjure that up in your mind. And then we visualise the Buddha. In this case, his name is Vajrasattva. It’s the same Buddha if you like, just different aspect, you know. And it’s not in the aspect of a monk, it’s more this aspect they call the bodhisattva aspect, looking very radiant in kind of white silken clothes, Indian style, you know, with earrings and necklaces and anklets, like you see in some of the very beautiful statues.
Five pointed crown, long black hair, partially held up in the top knot. Very radiant, and his very energy is representing purification. Think of it like that. So in his left hand, he’s holding a bell, which is the wisdom wing that’s crossed at his heart. In his right hand he’s holding what they call a dorje or a vajra which is like indestructibility and representing the compassion wing which is crossed over the left at his heart.
The crossed over like this is complete development of these two wings which is what our potential is. And it’s like everything’s made of light. He’s sitting on a lotus. He’s sitting above our heads, facing the same way as we are. And if we have a spiritual teacher, a lama, we imagine that it’s their mind manifesting in this aspect for our benefit.
Just get a feeling of the presence of this enlightened energy above us, radiant light. And we think, well, you know, we’re delightedly turning to the Buddha whose methods we’re going to use to help us purify. And the second part of this so called reliance, the second step, is where we generate compassion. We think of all the living beings that we have harmed in this life, in the past, unknowing or what, whatever, countless numbers, whom we really now do not want to harm any longer. We only want to benefit them.
So we imagine now that we’re going to be doing this practice to purify our delusions so we can become a Buddha, so then we’re really capable of benefiting all these beings. And compassion, so love, for example, is the wish that others be happy. Compassion is the wish that they don’t suffer. So you have to just generate this in the heart, you know, strong wish to not harm others, only to benefit them. Now we go to the third step, is where we take the medicine, we do the practice.
So in this case, what we’re going to do is visualise coming from Vajrasattva’s heart, very powerful nectar in the first stage, we do it in three stages, and we recite a mantra. We’re going to purify, first stage we’re to purify all the negative karma created with our bodies, this body and previous bodies. Then the second one is we purify all the negative karma created with our speech. And the third one is we purify all the negative karma created by our minds, the delusions themselves, which are the source of our own suffering and the harm we do to others. So we strongly imagine from Guru Vajrasattva’s heart, he very compassionately sends powerful, like a hose of energy so strong, this nectar, that forcefully enters our crown, filling us completely.
And then what it does is force out, you imagine, all the imprints of all the harm we’ve ever done with our bodies since beginningless time, to any living being, this life, past life. And it all forces out this negativity in the aspect of like filthy liquid that leaves through the lower orifices of the body and then disappears as far as we can imagine. Really think this, imagine this, want this. Strongly visualizing this as we recite three times this mantra, this long mantra of Vajrasattva. So if you know it, you join in.
Otherwise, just focus on the visualization, focus on the visualization and the sound of the mantra too. Om Vajrasattva Samaya Manupalaya Vajrasattva Tvenopatishtha Dridho Me Bhawa Sutokayo Me Bhawa So imagine totally full of this amazing radiant nectar now, absolutely all the negativities of all the harm we’ve ever done with our bodies, completely gone. I feel so delighted. Disappeared into space. Now from Guru Vajrasattva’s heart, he again sends this powerful nectar, hose of energy that enters through our crown, and this time fills us up, but forces out through all the top orifices, the negative imprints of all the harm we’ve ever done with our speech, in the aspect of filthy liquids, all the harm we’ve done, you know, the uncontrolled speech, all the rubbish pouring out of our mouths with no concern for whether the person listening even wants to hear it, for the lying, the gossiping, the bad mouthing, criticism, finding fault, all this nonsense.
The harm we’ve ever done since beginningless time, pouring out like a filthy liquid through the top orifices of our body. Just like when you turn on a tap in the sink, all the junk in the glass comes to the surface, doesn’t it? Just like that, as you recite the mantra. Really imagine this, want this. Pretty soon full of this nectar.
All the negativity of speech disappeared completely. Gone. Not one atom left. So delighted. Now Guru Vajrasattva this time sends very compassionately from his heart chakra powerful beams of light.
It’s more subtle. And what it does is enter our crown, and as it hits our heart chakra, imagine it completely, immediately eradicates all the imprints of the negativities of our mind, which are the source of what we do with our body and speech, which are the source of all of our own pain as well as the suffering of others. So all the ego grasping, the ignorance, the attachment, anger, pride, fears, delusion, depression, anxiety, the whole deal, we imagine instantly gone. Just like when you turn on a light in a room, the darkness is instantly dispelled, isn’t it? There’s sort of no argument, you know.
Boom, the light is there. Just like that, full of this radiant light. All the delusion’s gone, all the fears, depression, anxiety, mental suffering gone completely. Imagine this. So relieved, so delighted.
So now we do the fourth step, the most important in a way. Strong determination not to do again. So, you know, Lama Yeshe says don’t lie to ourselves. So if we don’t if we can’t say I will never gossip again, well, don’t don’t say you will. But give yourself a timeline.
It’s really important you have great courage. We have the courage to be very precise, you know, just like we are with a diet. Be very accurate. So if there are things that we can say like I will never kill with intention, say it absolutely. I will never kill again.
This is very powerful. Or if you can say for sure, will never with intention, you know, I will never lie again. And if we can’t, then we give ourselves a time. We can say maybe for one year, perhaps we can say for one month, perhaps we say for one day, one hour, doesn’t matter. Don’t just say I’ll do my best, it’s kind of wimpy.
Really make determination, give yourself a strong goal, and the more strong it is, the more likely you are to succeed. And it’s only the strength of our own mind that causes us to do this, and we can build it up and eventually can we say, never, you know, with great courage and determination. So if there are some things, let’s say we’ve already taken vows to not kill, not lie, not steal, we say it. I will never kill, never lie, never steal. I will not gossip for one day, one year, whatever.
Whatever our main habits are, that we know harm us and harm others. And you’re promising it to yourself, no one else. So now we imagine that the lotus that the Guru Vajrasattva is sitting on dissolves up into his body, then he very happily dissolves into white light that enters our crown. So we feel that the Buddha, the Lama, and our own mind completely merge, becoming the same thing. This is who I am.
This is my true nature. And then we rejoice that we’ve done this activity and remembering it’s the power of our own mind that we are using, and that it’s our own mind that, as Lama Yeshe says, you know, it’s your own mind that created negativity. So it’s with your own mind that you transform it by creating positivity. You know, instead of this view that I’m still the same old hopeless person no matter what I do and think, it’s nonsense. Know?
You just done a whole pile of gardening. And by doing this kind of practice, the lamas say this type of practice, this particular one, is unbelievably powerful. It has huge power to transform our mind, to remove negativities from our mind in a deep way. Be delighted with that. Rejoice.
It’s the power of our own mind. Or as Lama Yeshe also says, Purification is the power of the regret, power of the reliance, the power of the practice, and the power of the determination. That is what purification is. That is what it is. That’s the process.
So we’d be so delighted we’ve done this. And also Lama Yeshe says, now we can go to bed with a happy mind. You start the day with practice. You do something during the day. You finish the day with practice.
So, you know, it’s like cleaning up your house, cleaning up your desktop every day, you know, doing some gardening every day. It’s very practical. Take it one day at a time, and rejoice. One of the most important practices is to rejoice in our efforts, you know, to delight. It gives us courage to continue.
So we dedicate now the virtue that we’ve created by doing this practice. The seeds we’ve planted in our mind, may they ripen as quickly as possible in the development of our own amazing potential for the sake of all beings, as well as ourselves, of course. Okay. So now, be silent. You’ve got to go back into yourself now, totally focused and have a whole day of, you know, plenty of stuff, food for thought.
Really just focus your mind, either on just what you’re feeling, just relax, but just be with yourself. Act like you’re on your own now, you know, really strictly. Now until let’s just see how it looks by tomorrow morning, you know, strict between now and at least breakfast. Absolutely silent. And that doesn’t mean kind of communicate with other people, even if you’ve got friends, it might sound weird, but don’t have contact with others.
It’s like you’re on your own. That’s the real meaning of retreat. It’s not just to be silent because there’s some virtue in just not saying words. It indicates that you’re learning to be in yourself. And that means not even communicating with someone else.
Don’t feel it’s weird, know, because you really want to be on your own, like we do sometimes. We really need that. Well, that’s what we’re trying to do here. Be totally internal, you know. Just process with yourself.
Understand what’s happening in your mind. I don’t have communication with someone else. Let’s just do it for breakfast very strictly. Just mind your own business between now and breakfast. That’s the idea.
So thanks everybody. Have a good sleep. Let me just say how to go to sleep. Okay? One of the things they say is to not just try and, you know, go to bed when you lie down.
There’s different things. If you’ve a lama, let’s say you have you’re closer to one of the deities, you’ve got a feeling for Tārā or Chenrezig or Buddha or something. You’re used to that. One way to go to sleep is like with your head in their lap, like blessing you, you know. Another way to go to sleep is like just relax peacefully after doing this meditation, and then have a strong aspiration to see your dreams as dreams, as they say.
Which the meaning of this is because, you know, dreams aren’t real in the conventional sense. You understand? A person isn’t shooting you. You’re not being killed. You’re not drowning.
You’re not flying. You’re in bed, for God’s sake. But your mind is doing it. So we get caught up, don’t we? Because we get caught up in how things are.
So it’s used as a good analogy for how to live your life. To see everything as a dream. So to try and see your dreams as dreams first. So to make the strong aspiration that if you do dream, to have a sense of objectivity that it’s just a dream. That’s very powerful.
And then think before you go to sleep, I will wake up in the morning and I will think immediately, my goodness, how amazing I’m still alive. Know, my gas tank, my petrol tank of morality hasn’t run out yet. My life is still here. How incredible. May I make the most of this day?
And that’s before you even open your eyes, you know? So already you’ve started to counteract and counteract permanent grasping, and already you’re starting to shift your mind. That’s a good way to go to sleep and then to wake up. Okay. Good night.
I really feel I think I’d like you all to move forward. I don’t know what happened to this morning, but I feel so far away from you all. Unless you don’t want to leave it like it is if you’re happy. If you’re happy with how you are, leave it. You don’t have to do what I want.
It’s alright. If you want to though. It just feels like you’re so far away. Can’t see any of you. Thank you very much.
Even this permanent me. But we can see, we didn’t sort of think, oh, I’m really permanent, did we? We didn’t have to think it because it’s already in the mind. It’s something very deep. And this is what Buddha’s saying.
So we have all these assumptions that we don’t even articulate. We just absolutely assume There are certain truths, you know. And one of these is that we are somehow we won’t die today. We won’t die tomorrow. We won’t die the next day.
In a sense, we’re permanent. Intellectually, we know it’s not true, so we have some kind of tension there. But the way we live, we live according to this instinct, virtually, that I’m a permanent person. Which is precisely why, when we’re told we’re sick, or we do die, it comes as an unbelievable shock to us. This is the reason.
So we need to train our minds, as what Buddha is saying, in in learning to, you know, see how things are. Not because of some interesting just idea to see how things are. It’s because that’s what causes us happiness. That’s what prevents us from suffering. So thinking now, trying to conjure up say the thoughts and conjure up a feeling for it, for the truth of it.
I am still alive, and it’s amazing. I’ve still got all these various conditions, this incredible fortunate life that I worked so hard to get. So how crazy to waste it? We all know the more we appreciate something, its value, its qualities, the more we don’t want to waste We understand that, it’s natural. If we don’t appreciate something, then of course we won’t even use it, not even, not to mention, waste it.
So if we don’t appreciate our qualities, our health, our reasonable amount of wealth so that even we can be here this weekend, you know, not having to be working eight hours a day just to get a mouthful of rice. This is fortunate. It gives us the leisure to look more deeply into our hearts to be contemplating such things as we’re doing here this weekend. That’s an extraordinary good fortune. Rather than having to have been forced to use this body and speech just to, you know, eat, sleep, you know, to use his body and mind just to eat, sleep, and go to the toilet.
So we’re fortunate that we created the causes for it. So we know if we work hard for anything, we don’t want to waste it. So let’s not waste this day. As long as we might have, let’s make the most of this day. And that means, at the very least, to not harm others.
Minimally that. That protects us as well. Even more than that, let’s use the rest of this day as much as we can to, again, listen to these ideas to see if there’s something relevant to our own life, to develop our own amazing qualities and our potential to be useful to others. For this reason, we’re sitting here now. So just checking our bodies, getting them in the appropriate position to do some contemplating, remembering that it’s not the body that meditates.
It’s not a physical experience. Of course, we tend to think of it this way. It feels comfortable, then we think we had a good meditation. But that’s not the point at all. The point of meditating is to train the mind to be focused so that we can then develop insight into how our minds are and how to bring them into sync with reality.
That’s the purpose of meditation. So checking first. Most of us sitting in chairs, so then having our backs straight. They say this is really Meditators say this is the most important thing, the back very straight, like an arrow. Not tight, you know, not too tense, but certainly strong.
The muscles relaxed, but the bones and the skeleton sort of strong and upright. Otherwise, the mind becomes very sluggish. The shoulders, not tense, but very square and strong, slightly held back, not slumping forward. There’s a way you can see. There’s a way to hold yourself up very straight, but to be relaxed.
Muscle’s not tight. That’s crucial. You think of your spine as like an arrow or like a pile of coins you’re holding up very carefully. Hands in the meditation mudra in your lap.
Left underneath, right on top. Thumbs touching. Away from your body. Feet, as we’re in the chair, feet firmly planted in the ground. But if we’re sitting on the floor, then having it cross legged to the best of your ability, because your back’s straight, and best to have your bottom slightly raised.
Even just a cushion just underneath the coccyx, that’s it. Not necessarily under the whole having your legs flat is good if you can, but just a cushion just under the coccyx so it raises up your back and keeps it very strong. Your head slightly down, chin tucked in. Eyes, best to be open, but if we get distracted easily, which is reasonable, then we have them likely closed. But have your eyes looking down, as if you’re looking at the floor, straight ahead of you at the floor.
So you get a sense of the whole posture as an inward looking thing, isn’t it? So settle into this position and then forget about it, okay? Or your tongue, Jaw relaxed, tongue behind the top teeth resting there, so you breathe very easily and so you don’t have to swallow too much. They say for meditators who are sitting a long time, it stops you from having to dribble. So just settle into this position now.
Be very comfortable, very natural. So let’s now try a meditation that uses the breath. We call it the nine round breathing. It’s like three sets of three breaths. So you imagine the first three breaths, you’re taking very full, complete breaths, Okay?
Not loud. The person next to you shouldn’t hear. Very complete, full breaths. And when you these first three breaths, you imagine when you breathe out, all the air leaves that you imagine, you visualize it through the right nostril. And it’s like in the form of like yucky smoke, you know.
And it’s all your anger, frustration, aversion, irritation, annoyance, criticism, judgment, all that part of us. Totally breathing it out, imagining it disappearing into space as kind of yucky smoke, you know. In the next three breaths, when you breathe out, you visualize it all leaving your left nostril. And all this is your attachment, neediness, this bottomless pit of dissatisfaction. Always wanting something more.
Always thinking something’s missing. Dissatisfaction, attachment, neediness. Left nostril. Completely disappearing into space. Not one atom left.
And then the next three breaths, when you breathe out, it goes through both nostrils. You visualize it leaving through both in this form of this yucky smoke. And all it is now is your ignorance, your indifference, your uncaring. They call these the three poisons, the three root delusions. Ignorance, aversion, attachment.
So when you breathe in, if it check it out. When you breathe in, you imagine through the other nostril breathing in all the blissful energy of all the holy beings, which is really your potential. Think of it as like your potential too. Blissful, radiant light that you breathe in completely and then it drives out all the unhappy energy. Just visualize like this.
If you lose track, just start again. The right anger, the left attachment, Both ignorance. Just at your own peace through these three sets of three breaths. With his steady mind, visualize in front of us the Buddha, this time in the aspect of the female Buddha Tārā. There are these different aspects of the Buddha.
We visualized yesterday morning Śākyamūni Buddha in the aspect of the monk. Then last night, Vajrasattva, particular aspect for purification. You can say it’s the same qualities, same enlightenment, just different ways of showing, you know, expressing different aspects. So this morning it’s Tārā, in Sanskrit, and it means liberator. And she’s known as the liberator from the fears of saṃsāra.
So she represents certain qualities that, you know, what we’re trying to do by meditating in this way, we’re trying to develop those very qualities in ourselves. So she represents you can say there are three