Venerable Robina Courtin was raised Catholic, and during her youth, considered becoming a Carmelite nun. In the 1960s, she trained as a classical singer in London, where she lived. In the early 1970s, she became a feminist activist and worked on prisoners’ rights. In 1972, she returned to Melbourne. In 1974, she started to study martial arts, went to New York and returned to Melbourne.

In 1976, she attended Buddhist teachings given by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa in Queensland. In November 1977, Robina Courtin traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to study at Kopan Monastery, where she was ordained as a Buddhist nun. She became director of the Buddhist publishing house Wisdom Publications until 1987, then editor-in-chief of the magazine “The Mandala” until 2000. She left “The Mandala” to teach and develop the “Liberation Prison Project.”

For over 10 years, she has come to the Institute annually to give teachings.