Buddhist nun Robina Courtin is currently touring globally to share the wisdom of Buddha and show us how to harness our thoughts and and take control of our life – rather than letting our thoughts take charge.
Robina spoke with Deborah Hutton from Balance By Deborah Hutton, about her tour, Harness the Craziness and how we can cope with the increasing pace of the world we’re living in. Robina, who is also an author, put a great emphasis on the importance of looking after our mental health and how to actually do that.
Firstly, she tackles our busy lives and the high speed pace we live in the modern world. She says that it’s OK to be moving and thinking fast, but that we need harness neurotic thoughts before they get out of control.
“Speed is okay. It doesn’t matter how many thoughts you have,” Robina said.
“Buddha talks about these neurotic, unhappy, I-based thoughts,” she added. “Whether they are depression, low self-esteem, arrogance or anger whether they harm just you or others. Buddha’s deal is that we should look into our mind and recognise these.”
“This is what is breaking our heart – our fears themselves, the anxiety itself, the depression itself.”
Robina says while life plays a role, how you deal with your feelings is the problem.
“You have to have the courage to own what is there and then to recognise we have love, compassion, kindness and intelligence and Buddha’s deal is literally that this stuff is what defines us, that is who we really are. If we can learn to define ourselves by that and identify with that, the other stuff won’t freak us out.”
How to harness the craziness
To harness the craziness of our mind, Robina says we don’t need to control our thoughts but recognise them, acknowledge them and then focus on the ones that matter, the positive things that can define us.
“We are addicted to running to the negativity,” she said.
“We run to the negativity, and then we think we shouldn’t be that way. Well, I’m sorry but where is that written? Join the universe. If we can have the courage to own it, then it’s already not so bad.”
Practice makes perfect
Robina talks about the things we can practice to become more focused and present. Thankfully, it’s not about thinking less or stopping thoughts. However, Robina warns that harnessing our mind using the Buddhism techniques is hard work.
“There are skills we can use to help us learn to be conscious of this before it gets to the mouth, without going crazy,” she said.
How to practice concentration meditation
Concentration meditation is to focus on one thing, explains Robina. You don’t ask the other “thoughts” to go away, just to focus on one thing and your breath.
“One misconception is you’ve got to make all the thoughts go away; another is you’ve got to make them go slower, another is its an alternative to a pill, another is its relaxation technique. Well, this technique is none of those.”
“It’s actually about being happy to be in the middle of a room of chaotic thoughts but training your attention to stay on one thing.”
This article first appeared on Balance By Deborah Hutton.
