'Depression, Fear and Anxiety: How To Be Your Own Therapist' 

Thank you for posting this. Love listening to Robina 😍 She is an excellent teacher. She says things “straight up “ ❤ 3/23/2024

I went into settings and changed speed to 75, now so much more understandable!

Perfect. THANKYOU. We desperately need teachings like this to shake us up from the apathy and delusions of our perceptions Wonderful compassionate wise perfect teacher. THANKYOU. 🙏🏼

As a practicing Buddhist I've just come across venerable Robina and I find her quite hilarious in the most respectful way it took me awhile to warm to her as as in my view she is not like any Buddhist I've come across before. She says it herself she is rude and she also appears to be quite aggressive and hard to interact with. But after watching this video I absolutely adore her and think her teaching is incredibly knowledgeable and easy to understand and even writing this now she makes me laugh I will in the future the listening to her views a life in the Dharma and spread the word over a great person she appears to be with metta thank you Venerable Robina

I have thought for some time, that wisdom centres would be a wonderful thing. Come as you are.

I love this woman and love her unique way of teaching (some might even call 'irritating' Lol) ♥ ♥ ♥

I like everything about her

You did a great job Dana in hosting and organising the whole event. Congratulation. It was a great success... and now a wonderful go to resource for many people.

71 years old and this is the best description of Buddhism and how to apply it to your life that I’ve ever ever heard thank you thank you so much would love to follow this woman but did not catch her name?

The stuff about the basis and the botany metaphor are striking in how clear they are.

Every day Robina is in my ear as I commute, or fold clothes or prepare food. I am such a preschooler to the teachings and so totally grateful for the practical tools. Never heard such a sassyassnun providing such beneficial methods to living an awakened life. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks so much, Andy. It was a really special night and great to see so many people there to talk about how to deal with difficult states of mind and emotions. I hope this video will be useful to others.

People need encouragement. We need to have social media for having people to help really, that's one of the positives of social media. I believe our suffering comes from not having awareness and feeling disconnected

One of the greatest shows of faith in any religion is to practice the teachings. Questioning them is okay but the biggest challenge may be having patience in seeing results or at what age or from which lines of thought the teachings make the most sense. You know: knowing what the teacher is driving at.

This talk totally resonated with me. Loved the point about the Buddhism journey being a "working hypothesis." Thankyou for sharing this.

30:06 Ven. Robina says " I was a catholic first and blamed all the non-catholic. Then I became a hippy and blamed all the straight people. Then I became a communist, radical left and blamed rich people. Then I became a black ...in the time of Black Panther in the 60s and 70s. Then I heard about feminism. I heard the word feminist. Then I heard a word radical and I became a radical feminist. Then I was to take philosophy seriously whatever I did, so I first chucked out men, then I chucked out God, but I preferred boys then after I became a radical lesbian feminist and then radical lesbian separatist feminist. Then I realized that I could not hate most of the human race. I had no one left to blame. Then I bumped into Buddhist. They asked me to look at my Self, which was a brand new idea... I am trying to be a radical Buddhist, which means radically working on mind, giving up blaming others, giving up anger, giving up neurosis, giving up jealousy..learning to have compassion, forgiveness. Radical is a great word..."

Someone else said she has a "tasty" style. I second that. Flavorful, spicy. Very much enjoyed it, kept me paying attention!

Thank you SO much for sharing this gem. Namaste!

Fascinating. Thanks for posting this, and great work Dana.

good ideas exchanged. her character makes it interesting.

this was amazing listen during my lunch hour, so many things to further consider, thank you for this

Very powerful stuff at the end there.

She sounds tough, I agree with you! But It's the traditional debate style that some might see as aggressive.I have been fortunate to be schooled in debating-and its tough when you are not used to it but its really thorough and demands that we think hard.,for our own benefit. I love her. Sometimes she is so refreshing after so much gentle, gentle,teachers-I like vigorous debate and challenge. She is good for me-someone else might learn better from the great Pema Chodron-so sweet and soft might be better for those that hear the teachings better in her caring way. I like to hear a nun who speaks her mind and is clear and thorough in her responses- I think her style is compassionate and aggressive because she is setting the bar high for her students. We have preconceived expectations sometimes-but I have learned so much from her!

Great upload. Many thanks for sharing.

Attention develops concentration. It all but focus and love

Westerners listen to this and their immediate reaction is "what can I get, what can I do, what can I attain'". They see it as another thing in the future that will make them happy. They want a fix and they want it now. I've been practising meditation and doing retreats for the last ten years and what I've learnt is that its an endless process of letting go. Noticing and letting go over and over and over of everything. It's all desire and aversion. It has become my whole life. It took some very enlightening experiences sitting with myself on retreat to push me on to beginning the work. However, the work has become a labour of love.

Brilliant talk, thank you so much for putting this online 🙏 watching in France

what a great talk

Love Ven. Robina. For those who think she is "rude" or "angry" maybe start at 28:30. She's not going to sugar coat Buddhism to give you the Whole Foods version that wants to sell you some nice stationary with some allegedly Buddhist quote or other :)

1:03:42 about meditation being a way out of depression, anxiety,... by examining your thoughts and delusions.

Gosh, that was good!!!

There's a word in French, tache, I believe this means Spot or stain. I'm wondering if attatchment might stem from that sort of word, perhaps it's Latin base. So to detach would mean to remove a stain. A tache= to (clinging to) stain; detache= resolve/dissolve the stain. Just wondering.

37:34 to 40:21 about our potential to change, by changing our thought patterns. The roommates. Be your own therapist is listening to all the thoughts coming up.

Thankyou for sharing x

Great vid! Way to go!!

Wonderful. Hooked from minute one. Such a refreshing approach, and something for me to aspire to, unlike the Thich Nhat Hahn's and Dalai Lamas, who I revere and respect, but.......

Four noble truth

54:35 To looking inside, you need a basis of understanding of where you're at. 1:01:39: Take a model (This Eight-fold Path ) and tick the boxes.

Very profound!

Guys, when recording, and putting it afterwards online, make sure the sound is clear and understandable.

A very logical and practical approach to good living.

32:30 about the social medias and the desire to be seen and heard and approved (attachment).

If anyone is truly interested in advancing their consciousness without all the mystical hype, I found some books on Amazon that explain it and also provide the tools necessary to do the work required to achieve it. It is The Evolution of Consciousness series by Endall Beall and they so far transcend all this mystical hype it is phenomenal.

Excellent and honest teaching. Thank you !! It makes sense.

When this physical body packs up, what happens to consciousness; and is the next episode of living in the next world tangible?

May all beings benefit

Wisdom is experiential knowledge as opposed to intellectual one.

I love this talk, wow, very clear, so helpful. My only issue is the very end. I think for westerners her answer to the last question is not totally clear and easily misunderstood. The question of "how do you know that you made it." There are a few teachings in Buddhism like 7 points of mind training where it says if you are having less delusions and non-virtuous emotions you are progressing, but I think there is a way her answer of you need to refer back to Buddhist teaching to know and to have a strong reference point can sounds to some like some type of dogma or possible cult thinking, especially for westerners who tend to have people always using the bible as reference point for truth. Also within the 7 point of mind training there is the instruction, "of the two witnesses, trust the principle witness". That means your the closest witness to your own mind so only you can know yourself. What others think and say can be helpful but when there is a conflict between what you see and know and what others say, trust your own witness more. So in some sense one cannot know an external reference to really see if one is progressing. John Lennon once said, no guru can see the world through your eyes" and this is a lot like "trust the principle witness". Anyway the relationship of teachings and gurus as a reference point and the person practicing teachings is an interesting question. And one westerners really are trying to figure out because in some very advance type forms of Tibetan Buddhism (and also in shamanism) often one works with teachers very deeply to help one stay on track. But actually I think their role is not exactly meant to be that they are the final reference point because in Buddhism they role is to help one go beyond reference point or ego and it is a non conceptual experience not a reference to "I" experience. But in most of her presentation she is just talking Hinayana Buddhism and in the end there was a little Mahayana Buddhism. Hinayana Buddhism is most appropriate for the audience and the topic of fear anxiety and being your own therapist. Therefore it makes sense that is her main focus in this discussion. In Hinayana and all Buddhism one is using the Buddha as a refreence point and the dharma and sangha and having the 3 things as a basis and therefore one is not just creating or making up ones own path out of the blue. I see her stress that in her answers. At the same time when one studies and contemplates one only does so because one sees and understands what one is doing and finds it to be true from ones own analysis and work in doing the study and meditation, one does not adopt dogma blindly. Buddha said to test it like gold and not believe even himself without investigating from ones own side. So it is not a blind faith. But when asked how do you know if your are finally enlightened, I head that Venerable Chogyam Trungpa rinpoche once said, "the ego cannot watch its own enlightenment", so therefore I think if one does make it, one is no longer asking the question "did I make it" or "how do I know if I had made it". I think it is a very ego driven question and also a cery future self oriented question. I do think one reference point is ones own suffering and inner knowing of why one is on the spiritual path or path trying to rid one of suffering. Siddhartha in his life story once can see demonstrated that he had a clear goal and clear question of investigation before he set out working with teachers. It is also poetic that in the story the last think Mara asked the Buddha is "who is your witness" as if to bring up I and duality as a question to the Buddha, like how to do you really know you made it. Buddha did not say any answer to mara, or refer to any religion or teachings, he simply touched the earth. To me that represents he was in his present experience and Mara just dissipated. Mara is just thoughts of reference so the last thought to go was the thought of reference? maybe this is my interpretation of the earth touching mudra but it is interesting how smart the questioners of the video are at analyzing Dana's talk and asking her the hard questions.

ANXIETY WILL BE FOREVER AND FOREVER YOU WILL FIGHT WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED OR CRITICIZED

anyone remember the name of book she was reading about organ donation?

Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu 🙏🙏🙏

55:38 about desire and attachment

Accept things and people as they are not how you (mind) think they should be.

21:07: the 3 layers of laziness: can't be bothered, procrastination (out of the comfort zone, too much work) and...?

How to deal with psychopaths and sociopaths? I understand that the Buddha helped several serial killers. I have been surrounded by them most of my life, and I believe the only thing I can do is try to stop them from causing suffering. My sense is that sociopaths have the ability to regain their humanness. They have to really want it though, and road will be long and difficult. I view psychopaths, as always predatory, as there seems no way to redemption and self redemption.

Anyone know the name of the hippy woman on death row she mentions right at the end ?

1:05:44 on we're not our brain (our mind and its thoughts), but Consciousness.

Wonderful intelligent fast paced and generous discourse. If something doesn't work reset your mind and try again. Use a new approach

56:25 is the thing people need to understand and work on

59:19: the bird needs 2 wings to fly: wisdom (sort of my own rubbish) and COMPASSION (to make the world a better place, to be at service). That is the whole point.

Sardu Sardu Sardu Well done. Well done. Well done.

A Painful experience is a good teacher for waking you up avoid from further suffering.

I don't believe you can perfect yourself. You can yes perhaps clear your path and pull the weeds out but even if you succeeded perfection, salvation, realization whatever you call it is ultimately a gift, and it is God's gift to give.

me recomendaron escuchar a esta señora,lastima que su videos no están traducidos ya que no se inglés

Inreresting

I find Robina's speaking style WAY too fast for me (she sounds stressed to me1). I do appreciate the content. Her choice of words -- her clarity -- wonderful. I'm truly sorry I can't 'hang' with this because her energy is actually upsetting me! Maybe because she is a visual accessor and I'm an auditory. Someone's sense of music in the voice is really important to me. Her gentleness. Her use of silence. Ironically -- Robina speaks continually!

Sadu sadu sadu

If our thoughts are electrical impulses then their must be a code. Who wrote the code?

She seems angry but I'm enjoying the message so far.

47:40 about what is Truth

Namo Amitābha

too fast for me as i'm not an english native speaker]

If people wish to understand All Buddhas of the three periods of time They should contemplate the nature of the Dharma Realm Everything is made from the mind alone

Oh hi! Have you thought about Depzap Total Depression Domination (just google it)? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my GF used it to beat depression quickly.

南无阿弥陀佛

The answer is not the Eightfold Path. It is not impossible but it is very difficult to come to your Aha moment of knowing by following the Eightfold Path. It is much more possible to understand your Aha moment of knowing, and come to realize that it took but a small portion of almost every element of the Eightfold Path to get there. Extending your Aha moments into the Aha experience of Prajna does not just happen by practicing the Eightfold Path. Extending your Aha moments into the Aha experience of Prajna happens by practicing increasing the frequency of your Aha moments, and by experiencing the happier-ness you gain. The Aha moment is the Wholistic Body Experience whereby you come to ‘’know’’ a piece of information is the truth, is knowledge, and not information masquerading as knowledge, and you become happier...and your whole body lets you ‘’know’’, with a feeling… within the Aha moment... An Aha Moment is a moment of Being. An Aha Experience is a series of Aha Moments, of a somewhat indeterminate duration, the experience of BEING over time. You can purposefully, deliberately, increase the frequency of your Aha moments by attempting to practice the utilization of your genius capable intelligence, conscience, and common sense. At first you probably won't believe that you have a genius capable intelligence, or any conscience at all, much less any common sense, but that would be incorrect. Almost every child created gets a ‘genius capable’ intelligence, conscience, and common sense, how frequently they are able to utilize these three elemental aspects of their brains is a free will choice entirely theirs to make, until all the various influences and biases and mis-directions are heaped upon them by the culture in which they grow up. As a child matures, he or she must learn how to separate from that pile of data they have received during the course of their youthful and formative years, ‘’information which is knowledge’’ and ‘’information masquerading as knowledge’’. The only way to successfully do this is to hold up a piece of information for review by your own reason and logic capabilities. It is important that you utilize your own reason and logic capabilities because you will never be able to fully trust another person’s or entity’s reason and logic capabilities. For you to grasp that a piece of information is knowledge you must be able to dispel all doubt. And the only successful way to do that is by having an Aha moment related to the information before you. The strength of your personal Aha moment regarding a piece of information is directly related to how much of a kernel of truth resides within that information. Therefore the stronger the aha moment, the more the truth exists within the information, that truth then becomes knowledge useful to you, which goes to make you happier, increasing your happier-ness. There have been thousands and thousands of attempts to describe and develop programs about how you get to your own Aha moment of knowing, all with varying and somewhat disappointing levels of success. There is one characteristic that resides in all those attempts to describe and develop programs, and that is: Think for Yourself. Striving daily to utilize your genius capable intelligence, conscience, and common sense, to ‘’Think for Yourself’’, accelerates the frequency of your Aha moments, accelerates your happier-ness. I am an everyman…If I can do it, anyone can… Stephen Kirby, Senior Program Designer, The Happier Project. The Conscience-ness Recovery and Retention Center. Genius-ness Recovery, Retention, and Utilization. Conscience-ness Reawakening in a Conscience-less World. Common Sense-ness in a World filled with Senseless-ness. thehappierproject@gmail.com

Denwabangowa

No hindu text say anything about meditation or mind, text like Ramayan, Gita, or 4veds, but rather talks about cast system, worship of higher cast etc..

I appreciate that Robina is so well rested & has so much energy & brilliance. However, I do wish she would *slow her delivery down*, Please, dear one, talk a bit slower!

I love these teachings, but feel uncomfortable about this "in the West" idea - there is a huge amount of pressure on people in non-western countries where people are made to feel like failures and under-achievers, or to have let down their families or communities by not conforming. Please be more mindful of the sweeping generalisations!

若人欲了知 三世一切佛 应观法界性 一切唯心造

27:47 to 30:06 delusion = not being in touch with reality. The ego grasping, the delusion of attachment, and needing to get what I want hence anger, depression and jealousy, etc. which are very disturbing delusional states of mind. Once we learn to focus (meditate) and notice the subtle body sensations and the arising of an emotion (interpretation), we begin to beyond the elaborate conceptual stories of the mind and their exaggerations (depression being this exaggerated sense of your own ugliness). All those neurosis are actually deeply engrained conceptual states of mind. The Buddha said we come to existence fully programmed at an instinctual level with this sense of self and all the dramas that come from our past habits (rather then from our genes, as the Western culture believes). (I believe the craving-aversion (pull-push) comes from the reptilian brain that has our survival at stake. Fortunately we've got 2 other brains (mammalian and prefrontal) to help us to ease those instinctive pull-push commands.) We can unpack, unravel and deconstruct those instincts with meditative techniques that allow introspection and see that they're just elaborate conceptual dramas, stories that are exaggerations of reality.

Neurotic Buddhas of modern times

Keep the camera still next time.

When she first started the Buddhist Chant I thought "that sounds like a Catholic tone" sure enough, she use to be Catholic. Well I found other reviewers that mentions she sounds "angry" I would agree, not only that a woman asks here a question about how to apply some of the ideas the nun snaps back "that is implied in what I said isn't it" then cuts off one person after another. I think she needs to meditate a bit more. I could not finish this program.

45:08 on IS a belief. not 'scientific' etc

Closer camera is out of focus - so annoying!

Reading the comments, and having a similar impression, the delivery is fast and strong... It might benefit some at some point. But not for me. I feel... Perhaps some long shamata retreat would change the speed of delivery. Bring more peace. And keep the strength.

Too fast for me

1:06:58 Attachment is mental however, I believe attachment can come with the chemicals our body release (when we feel lust or 'love') in order to assure our mating program to be accomplished, which is linked to the survival of our species. We are animals, mammals, and that's how Nature works, 'blinding' us through the process, until the program is achieved, or not. So, we see the other one as we are, if we love the other one will look great, if we don't or dislike the person, he'll look bad.

His Holiness Dalai Lama must teach her about "Calm speeches", simply because we live in a very fast world, and if these talks are not tunned to be slow, then I am afraid they may loose both warm heartedness and wisdom, which are the basic principles of Buddhism . . . "The much slower speech, the more it is meditative, and eventually full of wisdom and warm heartedness ", that's all I humbly suggest to this monk . . . Lesson: I think she will be brilliantly good when lecturing in the Universities rather than Dharamshalas or Aashrams! . . . Please, take my suggestions humbly and positively . . . Great regards to HH 14th Dalai Lama . . .

Does not understand here.. too fast, she is kind of stress in a hurry!

Why u look at your phone

Why are you speaking so fast??

I think this is very clear but have reservations about some of it , "neurosis" in indictaive of dishonest presentation of self hood ie anger repressed is the tendency to I want to be seen as in the right, as a good teacher person therfore I will not get angry ipso facto then all this poisonous stuff bubbles away and the person seems good but isn't , anger is technically neither good or bad only in attachment to it which causes the distortion and this lessens once insight is gained into the root cause seen again and again. But some interesting insights , her theistic interpretation isn't quite right either God is non phenomenal and outside of causation , beyond the cause yet still at the center of all , beyond... beyond even the most subtle . That is prior to consciousness and even awareness which is prior to consciousness and small mind attachment self hood ( or selfing ). But it is the "living" of it that counts . Hope this helps .

The self soul is all? The other does not exist!

Keeping your phone on lap . I don't know u don't like u already

I wish she had spoken a little less rapidly.

When I'm suffering I turn to Jesus and he gives me peace, hope, mercy and grace to understand. You can have these things by putting God first. If you follow Christ he can help you through times of suffering... Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." To become a monk you have to say goodbye to family, job. That is a heavy price to pay. Jesus said, "My yoke is easy my burden is light." Compare the costs between Christianity and Buddhism. Buddhism demands a heavy price. It means you have to let go of your family, let go of all attachments to people, the things that you love because love and a craving for things is a cause of suffering. You have to let go of them. So, if you want to achieve Nirvana you have to let go of your husband/wife, kids, job, grandchildren; everything that you love you have to let go of. Christ only asks that you put Him first and he will take care of the rest. He doesn't ask you to leave your family and everything you love. After you seek Him first he adds everything you need along with blessings upon blessings. He allows suffering so people will come to Him. God bless you, Betsy

slow down bro