Leaving Samsara

“I don’t want to live in worldly pleasures and work with worldly beings. I don’t want to live in Samsara.” –Karma Kenchog, 55, retired storekeeper at the Karma Drubdey Gompa Nunnery and Retreat Center in Trongsa

Karma Kenchog lost both her parents as well as her siblings by the age of 15. This loss left her struggling with a deep fear of death. Within a year, her fears led her to join the nunnery, where she has been living for the last 39 years.
Her devotion and pursuit of spiritual learnings have helped her accept life’s impermanence, she says. Most importantly, though, she believes her spirituality has brought her great happiness.

Now that she is retired she spends her days in meditation and strolling through the nunnery. She can often be found laughing and giggling with the younger nuns, whom she tells, ”be good, do good, do not fight with each other, and do your practices well!”

In her own practices, the meditation on emptiness, or sometimes called mindfulness, inspires her most. For Karma Kenchog, this practice, which helps train the mind to be focused, also helps her work through difficult emotions. “If I feel angry,” she said, “I meditate on anger and its essence, and that pacifies the anger. By looking at the essence, I liberate the emotion. This helps me turn anger into bliss. It’s hard, but necessary."