General Spiritual Director
News from the post Fall Festival retreats
Nov 13, 2024
News roundup April 14, 2019
Most of the news this week is devoted to the special fasting and purification retreat practiced at hundreds of centers around the world at this time during which we make offerings, prostrations and requests to Thousand Armed Avalokiteshvara the Buddha of universal compassion.
Here is a selection of posts from centers with some quotes from participants sharing what the experience means for them.
manjushri KMC
'With his thousand arms and thousand eyes Buddha Avalokiteshvara looks out for and cares for all the beings of this world. He is the very embodiments of compassion, and I love to prostrate to him.'
'I love this practice because it really increases my compassion and as a result my mind feels very pure.'
kmc france
'For me it is a collective impulse. We often meet to meditate but not necessarily to do prostrations. Fasting is not always easy, but I find that it is afterwards that we reap the benefits of the retreat and it all makes sense. It increases my faith.'
'I love this retreat: combining prostrations with beautiful chanted prayers and starting with the precepts early morning, recalling our bodhichitta motivation - such a wonderful way to purify our body, speech and mind.'
kmc florida
'This purification retreat is a powerful heart-opener. I'm grateful for this opportunity to clean up past negativity - and inspired to improve.'
'This recent Buddhist fasting retreat, nyungnay, was a powerful opportunity to purify negative karma and accumulate merit. It opened the door to bring greater joy, compassion and ease into my everyday life as well as to deepen my spiritual practice.'
'Nyungnay purification is not austere, it's a practice that helps align all our actions, to accomplish our deepest wishes.'
kmc london
'The power of this practice really shows me what my mind turns to in order to escape painful feelings!'
'I think day two is really where the power of this practice lies - with no one or nothing to distract you from receiving the powerful blessings from a most powerful source - Arya Avalokiteshvara's Compassion. You get a glimpse of your potential to become just like him. Like it's just you and him and he is there with you carrying you to his enlightened world.'
KMC Chicago
'I love the Nyungnay puja. Especially the prayer we say as we prostrate about the thousand arms and eyes of Avalokiteshvara watching over us. This is especially beautiful. It is very empowering to consider the depth of purification at least once per year that the Nyungnay retreat offers us.'
'One of the reasons I like this retreat so much is because of the beautiful prayers we do that sometimes keep resonating in my mind for weeks after the end of the retreat. I also like how light and clear my mind feels at the end of the retreat.
kmc deuachen
'I am feeling very blessed.'
'It is such a pacifying practice.'
'At the end I feel so light.'
kmC australia
Nyungnay is an incredible purification retreat that really helps you to dedicate a very pure practice for yourself or others ... and helps us to understand and feel huge compassion for those suffering throughout the world.'
'While doing the prostrations I definitely felt that I received the blessings of Guru Avalokiteshvara the Buddha of Compassion, feeling a sense of lightness and peace. Although at times it was physically challenging, it is helpful to know this is all part of our purification practice. It means so much to be part of such a wonderful Kadampa family and I will happily take part in this practice in the future.'
kmc campinas
'A profound, transforming, and meaningful practice. The fasting made me feel light and made my mind strong during the retreat. My thoughts became stable and it was easy to connect with the meaning of the prayers.'
'This practice was a very blessed experience. The fasting made me realize my daily attachment to everyday things. On the other hand, the practice made me realize, once again, how our beloved Geshe-la Guide and the Buddhas, give us their blessings all the time. Thank you very much for your great kindness, Geshe la!'
kmC mahabodhi
'It was really wonderful and blessed following the beautiful words of the sadhana. It feels like you have found a real method to solve human problems.'
'It's a great opportunity to pay attention to my thoughts and practice compassion for all living beings.'
kmc glasgow
‘This is the first time I’ve taken part in Nyungnay retreat. I learned a lot today about compassion, purification and how we can create causes for our own and others future happiness through this practice. I intend to do it again in the future as it felt very blessed and powerful.'
kmC berlin
Nyungnay retreat offers a wonderful opportunity to engage in purification practice, accumulate great merit and come closer to the Buddha of compassion - all at the same time. And all within two days! I love the prayers of this practice and the rain of blessings pouring down on us.'
'I really like purification practice because I believe in it. For me, this weekend was very powerful.'
kmc perth
'I feel delighted and joyful to take Mahayana Precepts today and to deepen my understanding of the significance of this practice. I’m especially pleased and grateful to be a Buddhist; to havea beautiful meaningful practices; to step off of the ‘samsaric treadmill’ briefly so as to fast and engage in negative karma purification and make prostrations to beloved Avalokiteshvara, Buddha of Compassion. I feel a drop of nirvana bliss today.'
'A little like stepping into the unknown, but very pleasant all the same – in fact joyful. Very peaceful and liberating feelings. To at least try. To make at least some small effort to purify negative karma; to improve moral discipline in the future; to try to improve myself to benefit others.'
'Nyungnay is a lovely opportunity to take a break from daily life and focus on our practice and purify. After Nyungnay I always feel refreshed and re-energised for my daily life.'
kmC texas
Meanwhile in Texas, they continued their celebrations of 25 years since Venerable Geshe-la first brought Kadam Dharma to Texas with a Tara empowerment and teachings on powa from Resident Teacher Gen Menla.
The meditations were guided by two senior teachers, Carol Salerno and Fatin Kratchovil.
The day started out with tornado-like weather but we considered it a blessing from Tara, the purified wind element!
kmc hong kong
And at KMC Hong Kong we followed up our emptiness weekend with a retreat guided by Gen Dornying, Resident Teacher at KMC Australia.
'It was a mind-blowing meditative experience.'
'Gen Dornying has such a beautiful style of teaching, using simple words and analogies to make very profound concepts easy to understand and visualize. While his words are simple, if I take them to heart, they can really transform my practice.'
'Really grateful and blessed to be able to attend this retreat. A great reminder for me from Gen Dornying: There is only one ultimate truth - emptiness!'
