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At the beginning of April 2019, Guru Vajradhara the 12th Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa bestowed in Delhi the empowerment and instructions related to the Nyungne practice. Following this transmission, over two hundred fifty disciples travelled to Palpung Sherabling Monastic Seat to attend an eight-set Nyungne fasting retreat organised by the Palpung Institute of Buddhist Studies. On April 17 at dawn, headed by the senior chanting master Lama Dönme, the participants began the practice of the Nyungne Sadhana of the Gelongma Palmo tradition in the presence of the sacred mandala of the supreme noble Avalokiteshvara, the embodiment of compassion of all Buddhas, which was set up at the majestic main temple of the Palpung Sherabling Monastic College. The retreatants began by taking the eight Nyungne vows along with the practices of refuge and bodhicitta, which are the foundations of renunciation and compassion, followed by the seven branch prayer. They practiced austerity of body by enduring hunger and thirst, austerity of speech by maintaining silence and austerity of mind by avoiding negative thoughts, as well as performing cleansing and purification rituals, thus taking everything onto the path of practice like the continuous flow of a river of virtue. The Nyungne retreat was auspiciously concluded on May 3.
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