Friday, April 15th-Sunday, April 17th, 7:00 pm - 6:15 pm

Celebrate Buddha’s Enlightenment Day with a Special Weekend Retreat!

Friday

Purifying Negativity: finding true happiness

By refraining from engaging in negative and harmful actions, we will naturally experience happiness. In this special Friday night talk, you will learn how to live a happy life by purifying your negative actions and cultivating pure intentions towards others.

This Friday night talk serves as an introduction to the Nyungne Compassion and Fasting Retreat, but can also be attended as a stand alone class.  If you are planning to attend the Compassion and Fasting Day Retreat it is highly recommended to attend this introductory talk.

Saturday and Sunday

Nyungne – Compassion and Fasting Weekend Retreat

Celebrate Buddha’s Enlightenment day with one of our most blessed practices, also known as Nyungne. During this two-day retreat, we vow to hold the eight Mahayana precepts and engage in three sessions of prostration and prayer to the Buddha of Compassion, Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara. The blessings we receive from this practice are immensely powerful, giving us the fuel we need to continue along the spiritual path.

Nyungne is a special fasting and purification practice performed in conjunction with prostrations and prayers to Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. This is a very powerful method for purifying negativity of body, speech, and mind, and for pacifying delusions such as strong attachment and anger. It is also a special way of improving our minds of love, compassion, and receiving the compassionate blessings of Avalokiteshvara.

The Nyungne retreat is done over two days, beginning with the Mahayana precepts session at 7am. In order to attend any of the Nyungne retreat sessions during the day you will need to attend Precepts in the morning. On the first day it is customary to abstain from all meals apart from lunch. On the second day we engage in a complete fast, abstaining from all food and drink for 24 hours. On both days, we do three sessions of meditation from a ritual prayer, Drop of Essential Nectar, combining prostrations with chanted meditation. Those who are unable to engage in a complete fast on the second day can repeat the same type of fasting as in the first day.

It is highly recommended that you attend the Friday evening introduction if you have never engaged in this retreat before.

About Precepts

Please note that, in order to engage in the Chanted Prayers and Prostrations it is necessary to attend and take the precepts in the 7:00am sessions.

The practice of taking and keeping the eight Mahayana precepts is a special practice of moral discipline that is performed with bodhichitta intention, the compassionate wish to realize our spiritual potential for the benefit of all beings. The essence of this practice is taking eight precepts and keeping them purely for twenty-four hours. When we take precepts, we explicitly promise to abstain for twenty-four hours from eight actions which include: (1) killing; (2) stealing; (3) sexual activity; (4) lying; (5) taking intoxicants; (6) eating after lunch (meaning we only eat lunch); (7) sitting on high or luxurious thrones or seats; (8) wearing ornaments, perfume, singing & dancing.

Because this practice is motivated by bodhichitta it is especially powerful for purifying negativities, accumulating merit—a positive strength of mind—and creating the cause for us to attain the unsurpassed happiness of enlightenment.

If you have any questions about this retreat, please contact us at info@meditationinsarasota.org.

Walk Ins Welcome!

Pre-register for In Person using the booking form below on this page

Live Stream is NOT available for the weekend retreat

To Live Stream the Friday Night Introduction click here

The schedule for this events is as follows:

This event is taught by Gen Kelsang Dorje. Gen Dorje has been studying and practicing Buddhism for over 20 years under the guidance of his teacher Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, the founder of the New Kadampa Tradition. Gen Dorje is admired for his warmth and humor in making Buddha’s teachings relevant to the modern world. He is an inspiring example of how to integrate Buddha’s teachings into a joyful life.

The cost per person for this event is as follows:

This event is FREE for members
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Event Tickets

Accommodations (Two-night minimum)