We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing utterly that happiness and suffering come from “out there”. Even more fundamental than that, we assume that we are the handiwork of someone else, either a superior being or our parents. The experiential implications of this are blame, anger, and guilt, bringing ever-deepening levels of suffering and hopelessness.

Buddha’s view of reality is that we create ourselves: 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.

Because we are not set in stone, we can change, therefore there is no tendency in the mind that we can’t reverse. As Lama Yeshe says, we create negative karma with our minds and so we purify it by creating positive karma with our minds.

During our four days together, we will discuss how we create karma and how we purify it in conjunction with the meditation on the Buddha Vajrasattva and the application of the four opponent powers. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “We are insane not to do this practice every day.”

Ordained since the late 1970s, Ven. Robina has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT. 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.

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Thank you and may you be happy.