 Venerable Robina Courtin has been a nun for over 20 years in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.She was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up as a Catholic. In the late sixties, She became actively involved in the radical left, working mainly with a London-based support group for Black and Chicano prisoners. In 1974 Robina began studying martial arts in her quest for a spiritual path and two years later, attended a Tibetan Buddhist course in Queensland where she met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa.
She spent 10 years editing for Wisdom Publications followed by over 5 years as the main editor of Mandala, an international Buddhist newsmagazine. Since 1997 she has run the Liberation Prison Project for Buddhist Practitioners, which works with people in prisons throughout the US, helping them with their practice and studies by writing to them and sending books, tapes and other materials. She visits prisons in California, Massachusetts, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia, giving teachings to groups and meeting them one-to-one. Several of these men are on death row or have life sentences, and some have been involved in gangs, both on the streets and in prison.Ven. Robina's prison work was recently profiled in an award-winning documentary, Chasing Buddha.
|
Return to Singapore DharmaNet