Buddhist mind training without soft edges.
The Workshop is in the Mind frames Buddhist practice as daily mental training, not distant philosophy. Its talks move from cake, coffee, approval-seeking, anger, and world suffering into clear Lamrim reflections on how the mind shapes experience.
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The Workshop is in the Mind is a Buddhist teaching series built around one blunt premise: the mind has to be trained. Not admired from a distance. Trained. Across the sampled episodes, the teaching keeps returning to ordinary moments where suffering begins before anyone recognizes it. A craving for more cake. A reflexive need for approval. A sister slurping coffee. A justified anger that feels useful but leaves the person less clear. These examples are not decorative; they are the workshop floor. The show uses them to examine attachment, aversion, contentment, compassion, anxiety, low self-esteem, and the stubborn habit of blaming the outside world for inner turbulence. Its Buddhism is practical rather than ornamental. The emphasis falls on paying attention early, before emotion has spilled into speech, resentment, or collapse. One recurring idea is that people often wait too long to inspect the mind, as if mental habits only deserve attention once the wheels are already coming loose. Another is that compassion does not cause suffering; fear, anger, despair, and attachment distort the encounter with suffering. The show is also comfortable challenging common assumptions about happiness. Sensory pleasure is treated as real but limited, while contentment is presented as something developed through repeated mental practice. Emptiness appears through simple shifts in point of view, not through heavy terminology. The pacing can feel urgent, circular, and insistent, with the same core ideas worked from several angles until they become harder to dodge. It is best suited to listeners who want Buddhist instruction that is direct, practical, and psychologically demanding. It does not promise calm as a mood. It presents calm, clarity, courage, and kindness as skills that require repeated work.
Made for: For listeners drawn to practical Buddhist teaching, Lamrim meditation, and close observation of everyday mental habits. It especially suits people who want spiritual instruction that speaks directly about anger, attachment, anxiety, contentment, and compassion.
What sets it apart: The show turns small daily frictions into rigorous Buddhist practice, connecting cake, approval, coffee, anger, and world suffering to the same inner mechanics. Its strength is the forceful insistence that happiness and steadiness are trained in the mind before crisis arrives.
Venerable Robina Courtin weaves a tapestry of modern Buddhist commentary as she illuminates this ancient spiritual path with humor, wit and intensity. This Buddhist program aims to give every listener an opportunity to ponder some of life's deepest questions such as:"Why do bad and good things happen? Is it karma? How can I overcome insecurity and start to care deeply for other beings? Can I lessen my depression and fears? Is reincarnation real? What is the mind? Exactly what is enlightenment?A Buddhist nun since the late 1970s, Robina Courtin has worked since then with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, a worldwide network of Tibetan Buddhist activities of Lama Y…
This is the workshop where your unruly mind gets homework, not incense-scented reassurance.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
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