The fasting & purification practice of Nyung Nä, with Venerable Rita Riniker
Date/Time
Date(s) – 15 Jun 2012 until 18 Jun 2012
12:00 AM – 12:00 AM
Location
Center for Visdom og Medfølelse
Category(ies)
The fasting & purification practice of Nyung Nä
with Venerable Rita Riniker
Friday, June 15th from 17:00-Monday, June 18th until 8:30
Price: 225 kroner (for a copy of the text)
+ food or money towards 3 meals, check with coordinator about how you’d like to contribute
Registration: Please register below
Meals: Vegetarian- Dinner Friday, Lunch Saturday, Breakfast Monday
Sleeping arrangements: on mats in the meditation room
Location: Center for Visdom og Medfølelse
The Nyung Nä retreat is a two-day intensive practice that includes taking the 24-hour Mahayana precepts with the addition of complete fasting and silence on the second day. Doing even one Nyung Nä or “abiding in retreat” for just two days 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.
Nyung Nä is a practice based on the deity, 1,000 armed Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. This practice involves making offerings to Chenrezig, prostrations and mantra recitations. It purifies negative karma and opens up our potential for compassion. Precepts are taken each day and the second day is a day of complete fasting and silence. As a retreat experience, this practice is very effective, but also physically demanding. It is important that you are aware of your own health limitations, please read the information below very carefully.
Personal Accounts of Nyung Nä Practice from Langri Tangpa Center in Brisbane, Australia here
Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the practice of Nyung Nä here
Details:
Friday: Preparation Evening
17.00 – Preparing the altar, room, seats, texts and receiving an introduction to the practice from Ani-la
19 or 20.00 – Pot Luck Dinner together at the Center, no meat, no eggs, no radishes, no garlic or onions, no intoxicants
Sleep over at the Center, all nights
Saturday: First Day of the Retreat
- taking the vow of the eight Mahayana Precepts
- Participants undertake to observe The Eight Mahayana Precepts
- no killing
- no stealing
- no lying
- no sexual misconduct
- no intoxicants
- no singing
- no make up or jewellery, ornaments, etc
- no sitting on high or luxurious seats
- only one meal is allowed and must be of pure foods and eaten before midday: Pot luck lunch together at the Center.
And to only eat Pure Food; the following foods are not permitted:- no meat
- no eggs
- no radishes
- no garlic or onion
- no intoxicants
- after noon time, only drinks are allowed (either water, tea, coffee or beverages made up with 2/3 water)
- reciting prayers, chanting the Chenrezig mantra and dharani. Click here to download these prayers and mantras
- doing prostrations at intervals
Sunday: Second Day of the Retreat
first session 05.00 – 08.00 second session 09.30 – 12.00 third session 15.30 – 18.30
- Continue to abide with the eight Mahayana Precepts taken on the first day taking additional vows of no eating, drinking and talking for the next 24 hours. The Definition of ‘No Drinking’ Nyung Nä falls under the Kriya Tantra, of which the precept of ‘no drinking’ allows the practitioner to wash and keep the body clean. Therefore, on the second day of the retreat, the practitioner can wash the mouth but not drink any fluids of any kind.
- continue reciting prayers, chanting mantra and dharani
- continue doing prostration
Monday: Second Day of the Retreat
first session 04.00 – 07.00 then clean up and breakfast and end of Nyüng Nä 0.700 – 8:30
- Clean up the Gompa
- Pot luck breakfast together at the Center
Rejoice!
About Venerable Rita Riniker
Born in 1950, Ven Rita grew up in Switzerland. She ran her own restaurant business for many years, then traveled to Nepal where she met Buddhism at Kopan Monastery in 1990.
Ven Rita has been ordained for over 12 years – she took ordination in 1991 with her main teacher, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. Since then she has been based primarily in India at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, initially studying at the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives for 6 years and more recently offering service as one of the centre’s primary teachers of Tushita’s famous “Introduction to Buddhism” courses.
Ven Rita has led and guided many retreats including five 3-month Vajrasattva retreats, Green Tara retreats and a 2-month Lam Rim Chen Mo retreat with teachings by Yangsi Rinpoche in 2000. Ven Rita is especially well known for leading Nyung Naes, having completed more than 80 consecutive Nyung Naes over a period of 6 months in 1998.
Rita has also been teaching in Europe for many years and has made several teaching tours to Israel and more recently the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Listen to some of her teachings here.
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