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Nyung-Ne Retreat (Day 1)
Friday, 31 December 2021 @ 5:00 am – 8:00 pm
This is the first time we have offered this retreat online! It is a challenging yet rewarding practice of Chenrezig, the compassion buddha. This purification method involves keeping physical discipline, meditation, prostrations, and silence and fasting on the second day. It is a powerful means of purification, and especially recommended for people whose busy schedules cannot accommodate long-term retreat.
Doing even one Nyung-Ne or “abiding in retreat” is said to be as effective as three months of other purification practices, and is extremely powerful for healing illness, purifying negative karma, and opening the heart to compassion.
- Introduction Evening is essential for everyone doing the full retreat. We will introduce each other, set up our altars, review the schedule, and discuss any dietary questions.
- Retreat Day One starts at 5 am with precepts for the day. We have two sessions in the morning, a tutorial after lunch, and a final session in the evening. Each session is about 2-3 hours, but is broken up with guided visualisation, prayers, mantra recitation, mandalas, offerings and prostrations.
- Retreat Day Two starts at 5 am with precepts that also include nil by mouth – no talking, eating or drinking for 24 hours. There are four sessions on this day.
- Final Morning. We end the retreat on the third morning with a retreat session where we break the fast during the ceremony, and finish with many group dedications!
- During the breaks you can do restful activities such as painting tsa-tsas, colouring line-drawings of Chenrezig, or reading commentaries on the practice. These help to keep us alert but relaxed, and to enhance concentration.
Retreat Support:
As this is the first time we have held this retreat online, and it is quite a demanding practice, we want to give you as much support and encouragement as possible over the two days!
Break-out rooms:
Each session will have a set time for small-group discussions of 2-3 people, in zoom break-out rooms, where you can share your experiences, questions and progress during the retreat.
Individual chat:
You will also have access to individual chats with previous retreat attendees, where at any time during a session you can touch base, get handy hints for practice, or just check in to see how you are going!
Nyung-Ne Kit:
This will help you set up your own altar at home. You can pick up the kit from the centre or we can post it to you. It includes printed Nyung-ne text, Abiding in the Retreat commentary, mani pills, plastic offering bowls, small incense, deity and mandala cards.
Add to Google Calendar Led by FPMT registered teacher:
Schedule
Attend the full retreat or join us for any single session:
– Thursday 30 Dec (5 pm) Intro evening
– Friday 31 Dec retreat sessions:
(5 am, 9 am, 2 pm tutorial, 5 pm)
– Saturday 1 Jan retreat sessions:
(5 am, 9 am, 2 pm, 5 pm)
– Sunday 2 Jan (5 am) Final morning
Download the texts:
Nyung-Ne Practice (pdf) bind the Appendix as a separate booklet
LTC Booklet (pdf) extras
What you will need (pdf) info sheet
Abiding in the Retreat full commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Donate to the Retreat:
Can’t attend this year? We invite you to sponsor someone to attend in your place. The merit is the same as if one does it oneself! Any donations large or small are welcome, and will go towards offerings and holy objects. Please email your dedications for the group to read each evening.
Sponsor a Nyung-Ne & Kit
Sponsoring a Nyung-Ne creates as much merit as doing the retreat oneself, so if you can still accumulate mountains of merit even if you are unable to do the retreat at present. We invite you to contribute to the offerings or sponsor a kit.
The pop-up altar kits enable students joining the retreat at home to create their own altar with all the essential elements. The kit also contains commentaries, images and offerings. Your sponsorship of a kit donation ill make a significant contribution to the joy and success of the retreat participants!
The Nyung-Ne retreat is a required activity of the Discovering Buddhism course, and doing one’s first Nyung-Ne at LTC is an ideal introduction to the joys of serious practice.
I am very happy that you are interested in doing nyung-nä. It is great. Fantastic! Nyung-nä does not just purify many eons of negative karma, especially developing compassion, which means bodhicitta – it makes us so much closer to enlightenment, so close to being able to enlighten all sentient beings – which is our ultimate goal in life. It also brings you closer to the Guru-Compassion Buddha.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche