Join Venerable Robina Courtin for these three special events at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre!

**1.) BE YOUR OWN THERAPIST**
Public talk Tuesday Nov 17th from 6.30pm

Suggested Donation $20

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing completely that happiness and suffering come from “out there.”
But if we look into our hearts we can see that this is not true, that the more we hold on to people and things and experiences, the more dissatisfied and lonely we become.
Happiness and suffering come from the way we perceive and interpret things, not the things themselves.

By becoming deeply familiar with the workings of our own minds and hearts through meditation and purification practices – truly, being our own therapist – we can slowly loosen the grip of ego-grasping and begin to open up our marvelous potential for clarity, contentment, love and the other qualities that are within us.

**2.) THE NATURAL KARMA: WE CREATE OUR OWN REALITY**
Open Dharma teaching Wednesday Nov 18th from 6.30pm

Suggested Donation $20

According to Buddha’s view of the world, the natural law of karma is such that everything we think and do and say programs us, basically turns us into the person we become. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, karma is like “self-creation.” We are, literally, the creators of our lives, our happiness, and our suffering.

We will talk about how to take responsibility for our actions and thoughts, learning to interpret our lives and the world around us without fear, and growing the confidence that we can determine our own reality, rather than feeling that life is a series of random events, all just good and back luck.
As Lama Yeshe says, “We create negative karma with our minds and we purify it by creating positive karma with our minds.”

**3.) A BIRD NEEDS TWO WINGS: WISDOM AND COMPASSION**
Thursday November 19th 9.30am to 5pm

A one day immersion into the heart of Buddhist practice with Ven. Robina Courtin. Followed by Guru Puja with Tsog Offering at 6pm

$80 includes lunch and refreshments

Compassionate action is the final the point of Buddhist practice, with our actions – helping our next-door neighbour or helping stop the destruction of the planet – needing to be grounded in wisdom. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “Compassion is not enough; we need wisdom.”

First we need to develop our own marvellous potential to live our lives with self-confidence, contentment, and courage. The key to success is to recognize our own suffering and how it’s caused by our own attachment and anger and the other unhappy emotions. We become intimately familiar with our mind – the whole spectrum of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions – and learn to unravel and deconstruct them and, finally, change them. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “We can mould our mind into any shape we like.”

We can go beyond our narrow sense of self and realize everyone else is in the same boat, and be of benefit to others. This brings the optimism and confidence that every small action really matters and we develop the courage to never give up. The great bodhisattvas are fierce in their determination to never give up on helping all sentient beings.