Nyung Näs

Nyung Näs

Enjoy the Purification
Date of Advice:
June 2022
Date Posted:
August 2024

Rinpoche gave this advice to students who had contracted COVID19 during a nyung nä retreat hosted by the Dharma center.

Please tell the people with COVID who are doing the nyung näs that there are different levels of purification, and these have different signs.

The top sign is that our past heavy negative karmas get completely purified. There is nothing left to experience, so after that we have success and whatever.

Next, we experience the past heavy negative karmas in this life in the form of sickness and some obstacles, and by doing so, all those eons of negative karma that would result in being born in the lower realms, those heavy negativities, don’t have to be experienced. Some sickness or small harms, even experienced in dreams, purify the heavy negative karma that would result in rebirth in the lower realms for eons. Also, if someone scolds us, then we become totally free and don’t have to experience [the result].

Next, we experience the result in the lower realms, but it’s like a stone hitting another stone, “tak.” It gets finished [quickly] like that.

Next, we get born in the lower realms but it is much lighter.

So for those who study and practice Dharma, any obstacle is a sign of purification. Signs like that are very good, positive, so we should be happy and enjoy. Many ordinary people think it is bad and it makes them depressed. It’s best to realize like this and enjoy [the sickness or obstacle]. There’s no way to be depressed.

In nyung nä there are many hardships, like feeling tired, sick, etc. However many hardships we experience, that many eons [of negative karma] get purified. We must recognize that.

I just heard from a monk here at Kopan who leads the prayers. He told me that the night before last, he was memorizing Madhyamaka. He memorized the text for two hours in the morning, then in the evening he revised his memorization from the morning. One time he was doing the evening part while going around the prayer wheel, but there was one prayer in particular that he couldn’t remember. He even expressed how difficult this was when he was in the West. 

Then at this time, at the prayer wheel, a small monk appeared speaking Tibetan. (At Kopan the small monks don’t speak Tibetan. they only speak Nepali. They learn Tibetan later.) This small monk said, “You forgot and have difficulty; you need purification.” The older monk then followed the young monk, but he disappeared. I said that it could be Lama Tsongkhapa or Chandrakirti, the author of Madhyamaka. It could be them, I told him. Also it could be His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He followed the young monk, who then disappeared. He couldn’t catch him. It’s unbelievable that he could help.

In Tibet, after Serkong Dorje Chang completed his Geshe Lharampa degree, he lived an ascetic life with a secret mother and attained a high level of realization, clear light. His Holiness had advised him to take a secret mother in order to complete the practice but he felt shy. He was told two or three times to do this, then he took the secret mother and completed the tantric path. For him, at one time, an ordinary monk appeared and recited the text A Good Explanation of the Definitive and Interpretative Meanings1 then disappeared. It seems it was Lama Tsongkhapa. Then Tsenshab Serkong was born from that [previous incarnation] and went on to help and assist His Holiness in debate. Then His Holiness took teachings from him.

A few times I had the opportunity to take teachings from Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, but I didn’t. The name Serkong Dorje Chang indicates the manifestation of an aspect of the Buddha.

I requested [the lung of A Good Explanation] from Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche but he only gave it to Alex Berzin, who received it twice. The reincarnation of Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche took the lung from Alex Berzin and I took it from Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche. I also received it from His Holiness and other lamas, so it’s a close lineage from Lama Tsongkhapa.

The main story is that the little monk came to tell the other monk about purification, and he was speaking in Tibetan, however no little monks spoke Tibetan. So for you people, whatever the purification, it’s so incredible and worthwhile. So please enjoy.

In following the virtuous friend, doing nyung nä, there are so many mandalas and prostrations, therefore so many harms to the body and mind in this life, even in dreams, get purified.

Lama Tsongkhapa explained, from the Ksitigarbha Sutra text, that innumerable, ten million eons of wandering in the lower realms—the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms—get finished by experiencing contagious disease in this life, also famine, being scolded, experiencing some harm to body and mind, and even some discomfort in our dreams. All that negative karma gets finished. We don’t have to experience the result at all, by following the virtuous friend and fulfilling their wishes and advice.

Please pass this message to everyone. Thank you very much.

Notes

1 དྲང་ངེས་ལེགས་བཤད་སྙིང་པོ། (Tib: drang ne lek she nying po; Wyl: drang nges legs bshad snying po) The text title is also translated as The Essence of True Eloquence or Essence of Eloquence: A Treatise Distinguishing between the Provisional and the Definitive Meaning. [Return to text]

Unable to Complete 108 Nyung Näs
Date of Advice:
March 2019
Date Posted:
August 2023

A student had to stop after doing 40 consecutive nyung näs because he felt too dizzy and could not sleep. He was planning to complete 108 nyung näs. The student asked Rinpoche for advice.

You need this:

  • Chab trü puja: to be done twice by Geshe-la.
  • Ven. Charles needs to read the Diamond Cutter Sutra five times for him.
One Thousand Nyung Näs Before Long Retreat
Date of Advice:
October 2021
Date Posted:
June 2023

A student had a great wish to do a three-year retreat and asked Rinpoche what practices they should do to prepare for the retreat.

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,

Thank you for your kind letter.

My suggestion is you could do one thousand nyung näs. This would be extremely good. Then you don’t have to worry about going to the lower realms and whenever death comes, you will go to the pure land. And not only that, you develop compassion for all the sentient beings—this is special, I think with Chenrezig—and you will achieve enlightenment much quicker.

My root guru mentioned that at least you will achieve enlightenment. Just by doing nyung näs, you will achieve enlightenment within sixteen years.

When you do nyung nä practice, you are following the eight Mahayana precepts, like that, so you will have to prepare well for one thousand nyung näs. One hundred nyung näs don’t take even one year; so many people do one hundred nyung näs.

At Kopan, we have one nun who did more than two thousand nyung näs in Tsum before she came to Kopan. Some nuns come to do consultation with her. She is very inspiring, even for the Western nuns to know her, especially for the Western nuns. It’s really, really unbelievable if you can do [nyung nä practice] like that.

You are most welcome to enlightenment, without taking much time, and as well, welcome to the pure land. I will help in whatever way I can.

Yes, life is very short. It looks like we’re going to live for a long time, but actually it’s not long. It’s like one second that we have a human rebirth, in this life, and in the future when we die it will be like last night’s dream. One second, then gone, the human life is gone. We hallucinate [and tell] ourselves that we’re going to live long.

Also, by doing these nyung näs, it will make the nunnery in Mongolia so worthwhile.

With much love and prayers ...

The Real Women’s Liberation
Date of Advice:
July 2018
Date Posted:
December 2021

A student had completed 200 nyung näs and asked whether they should do another 108 nyung näs or volunteer for a project in India.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, I was very happy to receive it.

No, it didn’t come out beneficial for you to go to work for the project in India but then I checked and it seems there are some obstacles, both for you to go there and also for the next set of 108 nyung näs.

I checked what can be done and you should recite Amitayus Long Life Sutra (Tse dö) 500 times. You can read it and others can read it too; your friends to help you.

Also make 500 long-life tsa tsas. You can do this and also your friends can help you.

After you have done that, if you can, go to Bodhgaya and go around stupa, and do some retreat to do purification. Then after that it comes out best to go to the project in India and also best to do the nyung näs.

Thank you so much for the 200 nyung näs that you have already done. I am so happy with what you have already been able to accomplish. 

In the West they talk about liberation, like women’s liberation, etc., but what you are doing is the real women’s liberation. Please tell other women that this is the real women’s liberation, so then they can achieve enlightenment, because they have generated compassion for all sentient beings in order to free them from samsara. The final women’s liberation is enlightenment, I want to say this, and you can tell others that this is the real meaning of women’s liberation.

Thank you very, very, very much. It’s incredible, incredible, incredible, I like it very much. You have become an example to other women to achieve liberation, the final liberation. You are most welcome to buddhahood, in order to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s sufferings and bring them to enlightenment.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim, then to live your life with bodhicitta motivation. This is the best.

With much love and prayers ...

A Billion, Zillion Thanks for Nyung Näs
Date of Advice:
September 2013
Date Posted:
November 2020

A student had completed 375 nyung näs and planned to do one thousand. The student’s letter and Rinpoche’s response are below. Rinpoche suggested sharing the student’s letter, for rejoicing.

Thousand-arm Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara). Photo courtesy of FPMT.
Student’s letter

Dear Lama Zopa Rinpoche,
I wish to share with Rinpoche the fact that I have completed 375 nyung näs. I offer Rinpoche the 375 completed nyung näs.  I hope to return to the practice within the next week and believe that I shall be well into the 400s by December. I am deeply in love with the practice and hope to devote the rest of my life to doing it.

Your grateful student …

Rinpoche’s response

My most dear, most precious, most kind one,
Please enjoy, enjoy more with bodhicitta. Doing the nyung näs as I wished is incredible, thank you very much. A billion, zillion, numberless thanks, that is incredible. I have nothing much to offer you, but I want to send you some robes.

With much love and prayers …

Removing Life Obstacles Prior to Nyung Näs
Date of Advice:
July 2018
Date Posted:
October 2020

A student with life obstacles wrote to ask Rinpoche about doing 108 nyung näs. Rinpoche advised animal liberation and several pujas to remove the obstacles. He also emphasized the importance of meditating on lamrim and guru devotion every day.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I checked and it seems you have some life obstacles if you go to nyung näs at this time, but if you do these pujas first, then it comes out best for you to do the nyung näs. All the pujas will have to be done before going to do the nyung näs.

1. Four Namgyalma long-life pujas: these can be done at Serkong Dorje Chang's monastery in Swambhunath or Drubtob Rinpoche’s monastery in Nepal. Either of these monasteries can do these pujas.

2. You need to liberate one hundred animals. This is mainly for your long life, but also for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all your gurus; for all the Sangha who preserve the Dharma and spread Dharma; for the benefactors of the Sangha and the teachings; for all those in FPMT—all the staff, all the students, all the benefactors and all the volunteers; for all evil beings to meet Dharma, to renounce negative karma and create good karma; and also for all beings.

You need to know how to do animal liberation, according to my advice. There is a book that explains how to set up the altar and how to take the animals around it, the mantras to recite and so forth. [See the FPMT ebook Liberating Animals. A short version is also available as a PDF.]

A very quick way to liberate many animals, for instance, is by getting 1,000 crickets in one bag from the shop. These are animals that are otherwise going to be killed or fed to another animal. You take the 1,000 crickets around the holy objects that you have set up (stupas, tsa tsas, relics of the Buddha) and each time it creates the cause of enlightenment for each insect, worm and so forth. [You also can liberate] worms, which are used as fishing bait. People put wire through the body of the worm, which must be unbelievably painful because the worm is not dead and is still moving.

You can also liberate bigger animals that are in danger of being killed. But please do read the book on how to liberate animals and maybe you discuss it with the center. They should know how to do it, how to follow my book, which explains the ways to benefit the animals with mantras, blessed water and going around holy objects.

3. You need the puja mamo trü kang done five times. You can request Kopan to do the puja, and if many monks attend the puja then you can count each monk that does it as one time. So if there are many monks then it is better. If many monks attend, then it gets done many times, so it’s better to do that quickly.

4. The Kopan nuns need to read zung du [Collection of Dharanis] and dedicate for you.

In terms of practice, this human life is just one time. We have this perfect human rebirth just this time, so we can use it to practice Dharma.

One practice to do every day is the daily motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). This also has the blessing of the speech and daily mantras.

It is very important to meditate on the lamrim every day. This is very important. You can also recite one lamrim prayer every day, reading it slowly and going over the meaning. Lamrim is what you need to actualize, no matter how long it takes, so please put your effort there.

You should do the lamrim meditation during your guru yoga practice. Stop before the guru absorbs into you and meditate on whatever section of the lamrim you are up to.

One meditation that you must try to do every day is on guru devotion. If you miss it sometimes that’s OK, but then just continue. There is no question of how much time you should take; it is up to you, what fits.

Then continue with whatever lamrim topic you are up to, doing the meditation every day and going through the subjects slowly. Whatever meditation you did in the morning, you can continue with that mind during the day, so that way your mind is in lamrim all day.

Please try to meditate on the lamrim based on guru yoga and on this basis you will get all the realizations and the most success in your life. It is important to try to achieve all the realizations in order to actualize enlightenment. This is in order to liberate numberless sentient beings and enlighten them. That’s the real project, the real goal of our life.

After you generate bodhicitta, you can practice tantra. There is generation stage—first the gross generation stage and then the subtle generation stage. You can also do some meditation on the completion stage, just to leave positive imprints for realizations.

So please practice as much as you can. Life is not long, and the nature of this life is impermanent. Death can happen at any time. This is the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings, and this was the last advice the Buddha gave before showing the aspect of passing away.

Don’t worry so much about finishing or not finishing; just do it continuously. That is the most important thing, to practice as best you can.

What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim and to live your life with bodhicitta motivation. This is best.

After the pujas are done, it is very good to do the nyung näs. Thank you very, very much for having that wish.

You also need to recite the Golden Light Sutra once a month and continue in your life this way. You can recite a bit each day or do it all at once.

With much love and prayers ...

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