In the Sutra on the
Establishment of a Place, it says to practice generosity for your whole life
and to do 1 Nyung Nay is of equal merit. To serve all Arhats throughout the
universe and to perform 1 Nyung Nay are of equal merit.
In the Tantra of the Eleven-Faced
Chenrezig, it says that by doing one Nyung Nay you can overcome the
obscurations and wrongdoings accumulated throughout 40,000 eons of continuous
samsara.
(Eleven-Faced Chenrezig)
The Nyung Nay or fasting
retreat is a Vajrayana practice from the Kriya (Action) class of Tantra. It is
said that engaging in a Nyung Nay retreat is equivalent to doing up to three
months of other kinds of retreats. It is a powerful, quick and effective method
to purify a lot of negativities and at the same time collect a vast amount of
merit.
This extremely powerful
purification practice of Nyung Nay was given to the nun Gelongma Palmo directly
by Chenrezig as a method to cure herself of leprosy and, eventually, to attain
her enlightenment.
(Nyung Nay Offering)
Meditators of the past
have been known to purify such diseases as leprosy through this practice.
However, the principal purpose of the practice is the attainment of supreme
enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings.
If while doing a
Nyung Nay retreat you become ill, this purifies the karma that would
otherwise cause you to be reborn in the hell realm (provided that you still
keep the Nyung Nay vows).
If you become torpid,
sleepy or depressed but still continue the retreat, this purifies the karma
that would otherwise cause you to be reborn in the animal realm.
If you suffer from hunger
or thirst, you purify the karma that would otherwise cause you to be reborn as
a hungry ghost.
One should have received
the 1,000-arm Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) initiation in order to do this
practice. If not, one should have received a complete initiation from one of
the three higher classes of tantra, or an initiation of one of the deities of
the Tathagata or Lotus lineage of Kriya Tantra. As an absolute minimum, one
should have taken Refuge and the Eight Mahayana Precepts.
A Nyung Nay consists of
seven sessions spread over two days and a morning and requires taking the Eight
Mahayana precepts for the two days. In each session we practise the sadhana (a
text called “The Means of Achievement of the Eleven-Faced Great Compassionate
One”) of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion.
The sadhana involves
generating the altruistic aspiration to attain enlightenment for the sake of
all sentient beings, visualization of the deity, reciting prayers and mantras,
and performing prostrations. Each session takes between two to three hours.
Participants arrive at the
retreat center on the evening before the first day. On the first day of the
Nyung Nay, we take the Eight Mahayana Precepts: avoidance of killing, stealing,
sexual activity, telling lies, taking intoxicants, eating more than one meal,
singing, wearing ornaments, etc. and using high beds or seats. Three sessions
of the sadhana are practiced on the first day.
On the second day, we take
the Eight Mahayana Precepts, as above, with the additional vows of not eating,
drinking or speaking until sunrise the next day.
Three sessions of the
sadhana are practiced on this day. Although we vow to keep silence, we continue
to recite the prayers and mantras of the sadhana. If communication between
participants is necessary, it must be done through writing notes.
The second day is the most
difficult part of the retreat. We experience hunger, thirst, tiredness and
aches and pains from doing prostrations. Some people feel ill from the fasting.
However, if we understand the purpose of the practice, we will not mind the
discomfort.
Refraining from eating and
drinking or even swallowing saliva is a way of offering food, drink and saliva
to other living beings. By experiencing hardships in our Dharma practice, we
are able to purify a great deal of our negative karma accumulated over
countless previous lives.
We can also build up
positive habits and states of mind to counteract the negative ones. Although
the Buddha advised the “middle way” - not too soft, not too tough - the
discomfort experienced during a Nyung Nay is bearable and not too tough. Also,
it helps us have better understanding of the suffering experienced by animals
and hungry ghosts (and some humans!), and thus develop greater compassion for
sentient beings, and greater renunciation of samsara.
We do the seventh and last
session of the Nyung Nay in the early morning of the third day. At the sunrise,
the fast is broken with blessed water.
The fast that we are to
abide in is to abstain from physical, verbal, and mental destructive actions
and to abstain from ignorant, angry, and clinging attitudes. To help in the
process, the eight Mahayana precepts are taken for two days.
These are to abandon:
* Killing
* Stealing
* Sexual activity
* Lying
* Intoxicants
* Sitting on high or
expensive beds or seats
* Singing, dancing, or
playing music; wearing perfumes, ornaments, or cosmetics
* Eating at improper
times.
Dear friends, at lest
sponsor and attend one Nyung Nay in your lifetime.
Even if you cannot do the
practice yourself, there is immense benefit for sponsoring a Nyung Nay retreat
or facilitating the practice for others. This includes such things as providing
the food on the first day or serving the people who are doing it.
For example, it is said
that to serve or offer food to a Nyung Nay participant is the same merit as
offering food to an 8th-level bodhisattva. In addition, it is said that by
offering food to Nyung Nay participants even once for a day, the result will be
that in all your future lives you will never suffer from famine, and for 80,000
eons you will never suffer from hunger or thirst.
All obstacles will be
pacified, you will be assisted by devas and your body, speech and mind will be
free of defect and everything you wish will occur.
Your longevity, merit and
prosperity will increase, and you will become a disciple of all the present and
future Buddhas.
Tashi Delek
