Chasing Courtin: Buddhist nun brings teachings to Missoula

by Maddie Vincent, Montana Kaimin, Feb 25, 2016

Missoula, MO (USA) -- She enters the room and everyone stands. Dozens of bowed heads and hands at heart center decorate her path to a chair neatly set up front.

Before she sits, she fluidly moves from her feet to her knees, arms outstretched on the floor towards images of Buddha and the prominent teachers who follow him. For Missoulians, she is one of those teachers.

Robina Courtin is a Buddhist nun, a woman whose life is dedicated to preserving Buddha’s views. She has taught around the world and visited Missoula’s Osel Shen Phen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for the last 20 years.

Eliminate all forms of mental suffering

“…There was actually a Buddha and there were actually his teachings that can help eliminate all forms of mental suffering. The person who has realized this truth is at the first level of Ariya-Saṅgha, the Sotāpanna. Once you see this truth, you will also eliminate your doubt of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha.

Your faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha will be unshakeable because you know that they are real. But before you reach this stage, you can sometimes doubt whether the Buddha was real, whether his teachings were real, whether they are capable of eliminating the suffering from your mind, or whether the Ariya-Saṅgha are real. These are things that you haven’t proved for yourself.

German nun’s Nagano monastery all about the Zen of fullness and fun

BY TAKAFUMI SUKEGAWA, KYODO JAN 31, 2016

NAGANO – Deep in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, a German Zen Buddhist nun offers guidance to those who feel they have lost their way in life.

“Why don’t we think about what kind of life we’d be satisfied with?” Dorothee Eshin Takatsu, 62, asked to four visitors in their 20s to 60s who visited her Zen monastery in Suzaka, Nagano, one day last November.

Takatsu, who is originally from the central German city of Kassel, said she never dreamed she would pursue Buddhism in her life.

“Regardless of religion or nationality, what’s important for us is to find a life each of us can be satisfied with, and I’d like to assist in that process through Zen teachings,” she said.

Don’t Fall into the Self-Esteem Trap: Try a Little Self-Kindness

Striving for self-esteem is about trying hard to feel special, above average. It’s absurd. We don’t need to feel extra-special or over the top. We need to touch who we really are in any given moment.

By Kristin Neff | February 17, 2016

The great angst of modern life is this: No matter how hard we try, no matter how successful we are, no matter how good a parent, worker, or spouse we are—it’s never enough. There is always someone richer, thinner, smarter, or more powerful than we are, someone who makes us feel like a failure in comparison. And failure of any kind is unacceptable. What to do?

Buddhist settlement discovered on Seethanagaram hill

by P. Sujatha Varma, The Hindu, March 4, 2016

Vijayawada, India -- Archaeologist and CEO of the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada (CEO) E. Nagireddy has discovered a huge Buddhist settlement with traces of stupas, chaityas and viharas on the Seethanagaram hill located on the outskirts of Vijayawada city.

Historical remains on Seethanagaram hill

The relics surfaced as part of a survey conducted under the guidance of Mr. Nagireddy.

A rock-cut cistern, once used by the Buddhist monks during the rainy retreat, located next to the recently taken up Ramanuja-Vasudeva temple complex by the Jeeyar Trust provided a clue on the existence of a Buddhist monastery on the right side.

Further probing revealed brick-built viharas datable to 1{+s}{+t}century BC to the 2{+n}{+d}century AD. The bricks used in the construction measured 60x28x7 cm. “A rock-cut steps-like path leading to the top of the hillock perhaps helped the monks reach the monastery,” says Mr. Nagireddy.

Dhamma is so simple

Dhamma is so simple and yet people have made it so complicated. There cannot be anything simpler than Dhamma. It has been made complicated by adding this or that philosophy, this or that belief. Just practise; don’t make it complicated. Those who have made it complicated have harmed themselves and harmed others. You have the true path but it’s a long path. To change the habit pattern of the mind takes time; but a beginning has been made. Even if you have taken one course, a good beginning has been made. Make use of this and start to decondition the mind at the deepest level." ~ S N Goenka, For the Benefit of Many

From Lama Tsultrim Allione on International Women's Day

Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women shared Women of Wisdom's post.

"Sometimes questions about women in Buddhism are discouraged as being dualistic. People don't seem to think about the fact that the development of male-oriented Buddhist institutions is heavily dualistic and has been for thousands of years. In order to find the balance in Buddhism between male and female energies there will need to be investigation of and talk about women's role in the Dharma...I believe accepting women in Buddhism-- with their own energies and gifts--might lead to balance, rather than a new kind of dominance or further dualism. We might discover a profound partnership that is mutually beneficial. In spite of the resistance and criticism women in the Dharma have received, there has been an ever-increasing movement toward an exploration of women's role in the Dharma, and it is with great joy that I see the emergence of joyful, powerful women in Buddhism."

 ~Women of Wisdom, Tsultrim Allione publ. Shambhala 

Image Machig Labdron's face from Tara Mandala's Chod lineage tangkha. Green Tara Lama Tsultrim 's personal Tangkha given to her in Bhutan by the mother of Tshering Jamtso in1998