In the first of two classes, Ven. Robina Courtin discussed the difference between love and attachment and led a discussion on how our lives are affected by confusing the two.
Join us for part 2 of the class on April 20, 6-7:30 pm PT
Optional registration here: lu.ma/RobinaCourtin
According to Buddha, attachment is effectively the main source of our suffering in day-to-day life. A big surprise! We usually confuse it with love, which is necessarily altruistic. It’s the source of our own happiness and the capacity to help others.
Buddha’s view of the mind describes two distinct categories of states of mind: the deluded, disturbing ones - such as attachment, anger, depression and the rest - and the virtuous, spacious ones - such as love, compassion, patience, and so on.
Attachment is necessarily I-based: dissatisfaction, neediness, expectation, manipulating others to get what I want. Love, however, is other-based: open, kind, clear, the wish that others be happy. “I could tell you about attachment for one whole year,” Lama Yeshe said. “But you won’t begin to understand it until you go deeply into your own mind.”
How do we distinguish them? That’s the key to practice. Through meditation, becoming our own therapists, as Lama says, we can learn to unpack and unravel our emotions and lessen attachment and the other delusions and grow love, compassion and the rest - for our own sake and the sake of others.
Venerable Robina Courtin has worked full-time for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, since her ordination in the late 1970s. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala Magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work with prisoners have been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom. Venerable Robina is known for her straightforward and energetic teaching style, helping people discover the potential of their own minds with clear explanations about Tibetan Buddhism and how to apply it to their lives.
Visit her website at www.robinacourtin.com
❤️ Support the dharma by donating here: sfdharmacollective.org/donate - with a note that the donation is for Robina.
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