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Buddha's Enlightenment Day Celebration

A Special Fasting Retreat (Nyungnay)

About this Retreat

Our annual celebration of Buddha Shakyamuni’s enlightenment and the extraordinary benefit he has brought to countless people over centuries, generation after generation, to the present day.

April 15th marks the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni demonstrating the attainment of enlightenment in 589 B.C.E. and is an extremely important day in the Buddhist calendar because our actions are 100,000 times more powerful than on other days.

Find out more about Buddha’s Enlightenment Day

What is Nyungnay?
We spend the day with Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara making offerings, praises, and prostrations. In this retreat we accumulate huge merit, purify vast negativity for ourselves and others, and receive powerful blessings to propel ourself swiftly along our path to enlightenment.

Wrapped within the practice of Mahayana Precepts, it involves fasting (only one meal for the day, lunch) and making three sessions of prostrations, with the practice “Drop of Essential Nectar.” Everyone is welcome to join us for this special retreat.

Please Note: In order to attend any of the Nyungnay retreat sessions during the day you will need to attend Precepts in the morning at 6:45am. We do three sessions of meditation from a ritual prayer, Drop of Essential Nectar, combining prostrations with chanted meditation. 

Schedule

***6:45-7:15 Precepts (A Pure Life Sadhana) 
(must attend precepts to participate in the rest of the day)

7:30-9:00 Drop of Essential Nectar Session 1

10:30-11:30 Drop of Essential Nectar Session 2

1:30-2:30 Drop of Essential Nectar Session 3

What are precepts?

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.

Saturday, April 13 

6:45am*** — 2:30pm

Cost: Free / By Donation

Location

Mahamudra Kadampa Meditation Center
500 6th St, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

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Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

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info@meditateinthesouthbay.org

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