When the Chocolate Runs Out

with Ven. Robina Courtin

Friday, August 18
7:00pm – 9:00pm

We love chocolate. Perhaps so much so that on some level we may believe, "As long as I have chocolate, I'll be happy." This is the power of attachment at work. And based on this attachment, we create a chocolate-based philosophy and order our life prioritizing chocolate.

But sometimes, we can't get our hands on any chocolate. And when the chocolate disappears, we get nervous, upset: "Oh no! Now I'm unhappy!" But of course it's not the absence of chocolate that's making us unhappy; it's our fixed ideas, and our misunderstanding the nature of chocolate.

— Lama Thubten Yeshe: When the Chocolate Runs Out, Wisdom Publications, 2011.

Since ordaining as a nun in 1978 Ven. Robina has worked full time for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and their Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

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.

​In 2001, Courtin created Chasing Buddha Pilgrimage, which lead pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India, Nepal, and Tibet to raise money for the Liberation Prison Project, an association engaged for the Tibetan cause.

Known for her extraordinary energy and fiery compassion, Ven. Robina's life and work have been the subject of documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.

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