Grønn Tara-fest for håp og en ny vår!
Grønn Tara puja
Takk for en gledens feiring av Ani Könchog Lhamos 80-årsdag
En stor takk til alle som kom til Karma Shedrup Ling søndag for å feire vår kjære Ani Könchog Lhamo.
Dagen begynte med en vakker grønn Tara puja og meditasjon ledet av Ani Chökyi. Lovsang til de 21 Taraene på norsk var rett og slett fantastisk: så mange stemmer som sang sammen.
Etter pujaen samlet vi oss rundt et grønt og franskinspirert lunsjbord, med taler, personlige historier, dikt, sang og gitar, og opplesning fra dagbok, alt båret av personlig varme og humor. En gledens dag.
Tusen takk til Ani-la for alt du er, og for alt du gir til sanghaen og dharmaen. Og takk til alle som bidro, kom og feiret med oss.
Feiring av Ani Könchog 80 år
Lama Changchubs tale under feiringen:
We are gathered here to celebrate Ani Könchog Lhamo’s 80th birthday.
Now, eighty years is quite something. In ordinary terms, it means you have survived a great number of winters, meals, and conversations. In Dharma terms, it means something else—it means you have had eighty years of opportunity to be stubborn… or to wake up.
Ani-la, I think, chose the second. Although perhaps with a bit of the first as well—which is not a bad combination.
When I first came to know Ani Könchog Lhamo, I did not immediately think, “Ah, here is a great practitioner.” She did not advertise herself in that way. There was no spiritual marketing, no display. Just presence. Very simple. Very direct.
But over time—slowly, almost inconveniently slowly—I began to notice something.
Things worked.
Her practice worked.
Not in a grand, theatrical sense. No lightning bolts, no mystical announcements. But in the very ordinary situations of life—how she responded, how she related, how she continued—there was a kind of unmistakable transformation taking place.
This is what we could call practical Dharma.
And practical Dharma is slightly uncomfortable, because it leaves us with no excuses. We cannot say, “Oh, the teachings are too profound,” or “Maybe later,” or “I need better conditions.” Ani-la never seemed particularly interested in such negotiations.
She simply practiced.
Lojong, especially, is not a decorative teaching. It is not something you frame and hang on the wall. It is something that pokes you—constantly. It rearranges your priorities, often in ways that your ego finds deeply offensive.
And yet, Ani-la has taken this to heart.
When difficulties arise, she does not make a big philosophical project out of them. She uses them. Which is slightly irritating to observe, because it means the teachings actually function.
So after some years, I had to admit: this is not theoretical Dharma. This is applied Dharma. And applied Dharma, unfortunately—or fortunately—never fails when it is genuinely applied.
From that, something else begins to happen.
When one has personally tasted even a small result of the teachings, there is less interest in self-absorption. Not because one becomes morally superior, but because one sees it is unnecessary. Then, quite naturally, a sense of serving others begins to arise.
Not as a duty. Not as a performance. But as the most reasonable thing to do.
This is an important point.
We often ask, “Am I progressing on the path?” But this is a slightly self-centered question. A better yardstick is: are we becoming more available to others? Is there more willingness to serve, to give, to show up?
In Ani-la’s case, the answer is quite obvious.
Through her life at KTL, she has served many. Quietly. Consistently. Without needing acknowledgment or reward. And in doing so, she has also served the Dharma itself—the living continuity of the teachings.
This is not a small thing.
Serving the Dharma is not just preserving texts or maintaining rituals. It is embodying the teachings so that they remain alive, workable, and relevant for others—now and in the future.
Ani-la’s devotion to the Three Jewels is not theoretical. It is not occasional. It is steady, unshakeable, and—one could say—slightly immovable.
Which again, is a good quality on the path.
So when we say that she embodies practical Dharma, this is not praise in the conventional sense. It is more like an observation. A slightly inconvenient observation for the rest of us.
Because it shows that the teachings can be done.
And if they can be done, then perhaps we also have to do them.
So today, as we celebrate her 80th birthday, we are not only celebrating a person. We are being confronted—gently, humorously, but quite directly—with an example.
An example of what happens when one actually practices.
An example of what happens when one stops negotiating with the Dharma.
An example of what happens when one allows the teachings to become one’s life.
So the real celebration, perhaps, is this:
That such a life is possible.
That we have been able to witness it.
And that we still have the opportunity to follow it—at least a little bit.
Ani-la, thank you for being slightly uncompromising, slightly stubborn, and very genuine.
May your life continue to be a source of irritation—in the best possible way—for all of us.
And may we finally take the hint.
Thank you.