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The beautiful nyung nä altar at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor people who make a serious commitment to practice such as doing 1,000 nyung näs. Nyung nä practice is an intensive 2-day purification retreat that includes fasting, precepts, prostrations, prayers, mantra recitation, and offerings. Nyung nä is based on the deity Thousand-Arm Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, and is extremely powerful for healing illness, purifying negative karma, and opening the heart to compassion. Lama Zopa Rinpoche highly praises this practice as a supreme method for transforming the mind. One does four 2.5 hour sessions of well-structured practice that includes meditation, prostrations, and mantra recitation each day. It is a powerfully effective experiential practice that can be done by anyone with respect and faith for the practice.
Upon hearing about Rinpoche’s vision, Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY), France, quickly picked up the project of hosting these retreats which take more than nine months to complete. Amazingly, in 2020 IVY completed the nine consecutive year of hosting 108 nyung näs and is now planning the tenth set from mid-November 2020 to mid-June 2021.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, IVY had to face a big challenge as the nyung nä retreats were becoming more popular and the wish to continue was strong as these retreats are at the heart of the annual agenda. Before the lockdown, the sessions included 20 to 25 people who had the option to come and practice for a session. Unfortunately, the external conditions forced IVY to announce the end of this option because of the safety measures decided by the government.
Nyung nä retreat leader Ven. Charles with retreatant Diana Secuya at Institut Vajra Yogini.
Everyone was asked to leave the center during the recent set of 108 led by Ven. Charles. In order to not completely stop the retreat, and also because some of the long-term retreatants were not able to go back home due to the airport shutdown, the IVY team offered some of the retreatants a safe place to stay and included them in the lockdown plan. Five long-term retreatants stayed and have continued with three sessions a day during this difficult period in the world, using the time to do this powerful practice practice and pray for all beings. Incredibly, 1,093 individual nyung näs have already been accumulated during this set of 108 that started in mid-November. On average, 10 to 18 people have been participating in each session. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been sponsoring up to ten people each year, and through the Practice and Retreat Fund we have been able to do this for the last nine years.
Please enjoy this video of three retreatants from the previous years sharing their experience about the life-altering retreat hosted by IVY:
The next set of 108 Nyung-Näs is scheduled for November 15, 2020. The Practice and Retreat Fund is again offering sponsorship for up to 10 people who are able to commit to 100 nyung näs through IVY. The retreat will be led in French but people can follow simultaneously in English or any other language.
Everybody is welcome to join for one or more nyung näs and can contact Institute Vajra Yogini to enter any number of these retreats (1-100) when they begin the next set.
Contributing to the sponsorship of these retreats or completing one or more yourself is directly contributing to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision.
“Nyung näs are a most powerful, most beneficial and quickest way for you to develop bodhichitta, to collect extensive merit to quickly achieve enlightenment, to become Chenrezig, to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsara suffering,and bring to enlightenment. This is an extremely powerful practice, it is an incredible way to develop bodhichitta.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche
You can learn more about the news and activities of Practice and Retreat Fund as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.