The Nyung Na 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 Na 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. The 2015 revised version has many updates advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including the addition of more prayers to Chenrezig and the stories of the Nyung Na lineage lamas. Contents include: -Calling the Guru from Afar -The Preparatory Ceremony -Taking the Restoring and Purifying Ordination -Requesting the Lineage Gurus -Invocation of the Merit Field -The Practice of Prostrations to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas -Meditation on the Self Generation -Meditation on the Front Generation -The Principal Practice of Praise -Offering the Tormas -Praises to the Dharma Protectors -Offering an Ablution -Verses of Auspiciousness Appendices: 1. Arranging the Essential Bases 2. Notes about the Mahayana Ordination 3. Alternate Prayers for the Beginning of the Session 4: Mudras for the Nyung Na Practice 5. Modes of Meditation 6. Notes on Mantra Recitation 7. How to Perform the Offering Bath 8. Instructions 9. Avalokiteshvara 10. Stories on the Nyung Na Lineage Lamas 11. Notes on the Long Dharani 12. Dedication and Long Life Prayers 13. Chantable Prayers 231 pages, 2015 edition.

The eight Mahayana precepts are best taken for the first time from someone qualified to pass on the lineage of the practice. For example, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given certain FPMT teachers permission to grant the eight Mahayana precepts. However, since this person becomes one’s guru, if you are not ready (or confident) to make that commitment, it is permissible to take the precepts in front of an image or statue of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. This is also the case when a qualified person is not available to pass on the lineage. However, when the opportunity arises, it would be best to receive the actual lineage. The eight Mahayana precepts can also be taken before you have officially taken refuge. Compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The eight Mahayana precepts are special one-day vows based on the Mahayana motivation of bodhichitta. “Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is another way to make life meaningful, to take its essence all day and night, by taking vows,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches. “It is so simple. It is just for one day. Just for one day. It makes it so easy. It’s not for a lifetime.” The eight Mahayana precepts can be taken on any day of the year, but their karmic effects are particularly powerful on merit-multiplying days, such as the four annual Buddhist festivals (the first fifteen days of the first Tibetan lunar month—the Fifteen Miracle Days of Chotrul Duchen; the fifteenth day of the fourth month—Saka Dawa Duchen; the fourth day of the sixth month—Chokhor Duchen, the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma; and the twenty-second day of the ninth month—Lhabab Duchen, Buddha’s Descent from the God Realm of the Thirty-Three), full moons, new moons, and solar and lunar eclipses. 24 pages, 2020 edition.

LYWA director Nick Ribush writes: The story behind this book is that in the early Kopan Monastery courses, Lama Zopa Rinpoche would start his day’s teachings by quoting a verse from Shantideva’s or Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s seminal texts, giving a short teaching on it and then suggesting that students use it to generate a bodhicitta motivation for the day’s activities (mainly teachings, meditations and discussion groups but also ordinary activities such as eating, talking, walking around and so forth). Since those days I’ve always thought that a compilation of these short teachings would make a great book, and finally, here it is. Editor Gordon McDougall has assembled Rinpoche's teachings into two parts, sorted by author of the verses and arranged thematically. In Part One, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on selected verses from Khunu Lama Rinpoche's Jewel Lamp, now published as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises, "Understanding and constantly reminding ourselves of the skies of benefits that bodhicitta brings is unbelievably worthwhile. This is the overall purpose of Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s book, to cause us to feel inspired and joyful that such a mind is possible." In Part Two, Rinpoche teaches on verses from the first chapter of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. These verses describe the amazing benefits of developing the precious mind of bodhicitta, the supreme cause of happiness for all sentient beings.

The Tibetan Buddhist practice of Nyungne (“nyoong-nay”) has been gaining increased attention in Buddhist centers across North America. Participants say the practice purifies them both physically and spiritually. This volume is the only comprehensive treatment in English of these powerful teachings. Nyungne is a profound, two-and-a-half-day practice, a length of time especially helpful for people whose schedules cannot accommodate long-term retreat. It involves the keeping of strict vows; the second day is devoted to complete silence and fasting. The meditation centers on the recitations, mantras, and guided visualizations of the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ loving-kindness and compassion. Translated as “abiding in the fast,” Nyungne is said to be effective in the healing of illness, the nurturing of compassion, and the purification of negative karma.

Nyung nä means “abiding in the retreat.” In other words, you are retreating from negative karmas of body, speech and mind. When you hear, say or think of the word “nyung nä” don’t think only of fasting, of the physical practices involved. Don’t think a nyung nä is only about not eating—there is a much vaster meaning to think about. Doing a nyung nä means your body is abiding in retreat, your speech is abiding in retreat and your mind is abiding in retreat. The essential meaning of retreat is retreat from nonvirtuous actions of body, speech and mind. Abstaining from negative karmas that harm others is the fundamental tantric practice. - Lama Zopa Rinpoche Abiding in the Retreat is a commentary to a nyung nä sadhana composed by Kälzang Gyatso, the Seventh Dalai Lama. Nyung nä is an intensive two-day retreat that combines meditation on Thousand-Arm Chenrezig and recitation of Chenrezig’s mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, with prostrations, fasting and silence. In this book, editor Ven. Ailsa Cameron has skillfully combined teachings on nyung nä practice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from 1984 through to 2009. The book contains the benefits of nyung nä retreat and of various practices within the retreat, stories of Chenrezig, Bhikshuni Lakshmi and the lineage lamas, and actual instructions on how to do a nyung nä. This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery, multimedia titles and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there. Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website at http://www.LamaYeshe.com.

The eight Mahayana precepts are special one-day vows based on the Mahayana motivation of bodhichitta. "Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is another way to make life meaningful, to take its essence all day and night, by taking vows," says Lama Zopa Rinpoche. "It is so simple. It is just for one day. Just for one day. It makes it so easy. It’s not for a lifetime." Lama Zopa Rinpoche further quotes this passage from the King of Concentration Sutra: “For ten billion eons equaling the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean, if one offers umbrellas, flags, garlands of light offerings, food and drink with a calm mind, or offers service to one hundred billion times ten million buddhas, when the holy Dharma has become extremely perished and the teachings of the Gone to Bliss One have stopped, if somebody who is enjoying (living in) one vow for one day or night, this merit is particularly exalted than having made all those offerings.” Previously published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, this ebook contains the precepts ceremony with commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche, and Gen Lamrimpa. 36 pages, 2009 edition.

Orgyan Chokyi (1675-1729) spent her life in Dolpo, the highest inhabited region of the Nepal Himalayas. Illiterate and expressly forbidden by her master to write her own life story, Orgyan Chokyi received divine inspiration to compose one of the most forthright and engaging spiritual autobiographies of the Tibetan literary tradition. Her life story is the oldest of only four Tibetan autobiographies authored by women. It is also a rare example of writing by a pre-modern Buddhist woman, and thus holds a unique place in Buddhist literature as a whole. Translator Kurtis Schaeffer prefaces the text with an illuminating study of the life and times of Orgyan Chokyi and an extended analysis of the hermitess's view of the relation between gender, suffering, and liberation. Based almost entirely on primary Tibetan documents never before translated, this fascinating book will be of interest to those studying Buddhism, gender and religion, and the culture of the Tibetan world.