Mandala Magazine, Dec 1, 2003
Ven. Robina Courtin talks about karma and what life can be like for prison inmates.
Mandala Magazine, Sep 1, 2003
“When I met Buddhism I felt like I had found something I had lost… When I heard it again, it was like coming home.”
Australian Yoga Journal, Oct 1, 2013
"This award-winning short film serves as an introduction to the very down to earth, fiercely energetic style of Tibetan Buddhism embodied by former Australian political activist turned Buddhist nun, Robina Courtin."
The Age, Feb 15, 2002
“The Melbourne-born woman with the private Catholic girl's school education used to be a self-confessed 80-cigarette-a-day wild card. But she's not like that any more…”
The Australian, Apr 19, 2013
“ʽDON'T say “stilling your mind” – you won't still your mind sweetheart – your mind is going to be as berserk as normal.’ Robina Courtin likes to tell it like it is when giving instruction on the mind, meditation or just about anything.”
Dakini Power, Jul 25, 2013
"I’m just the same radical person. I’m radically working on my own mind. Not believing in the way things appear to us: you can’t get more radical than that. How women are treated in Buddhism, full ordination for nuns, whatever – all of these issues are important. But I want to look at the internal component, not the external. I want to uproot the causes of all suffering, which are mental. In that, I am more radical than ever."
Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 2, 2002
“She has the explosive energy more typically associated with the radical activist, black-belt martial arts practitioner she once was than the Tibetan Buddhist nun she has become.”
Sundance Institute Archives, Jan 1, 2000
“In his inspired first film, Chasing Buddha, Amiel Courtin-Wilson (who happens to be Robina’s nephew) provides an intimate portrait of a unique individual whose own search for inner peace helps guide others to transcend their arduous circumstances.”
The Age, Sep 12, 2000
“Chasing Buddha is the portrait of a Buddhist nun, Robina Courtin: strong, aggressive and revered. A bundle of contradictions, a violater of expectations, someone with a robust and confrontational view of what it is to lead a spiritual life.”
Mandala Magazine, Sep 1, 1999
“Lief Halvorsen is awaiting execution at Kentucky State Prison in Eddyville, Kentucky, USA. He was sentenced to death in 1983 with his friend Mitchell Willoughby, who is on death row with him, for the murders of two people (and a life sentence for a third). Overwhelmed by drug addiction, he was at his lowest ebb. Here he describes his struggle to reclaim his life through education and a renewal of his Catholic faith.”
The Age, Dec 1, 1998
“One could imagine **Robina Courtin** resembling Susan Sarandon's character in the film Dead Man Walking. The similarities are there… Knowing she is a Buddhist nun makes it easy to imagine a gentle soul, softly spoken, calm. But you'd be wrong.”
Sydney Morning Herald, Oct 4, 2000
“Yet from her first appearance, it was clear Courtin, was not your average nun. This was no deferential, gentle, whisper-quiet soul. Here was a tiny, middle-aged motormouth who called everyone ‘honey.’”
