NYUNGNE སྨྱུང་གནས།

In Norlha's home of Ritoma, Nyungne is a practice performed over two days in the month of June.

This practice is often referred to as Tsok Sum - literally, “The Three Heaps” - symbolising the complete offering of body, speech, and mind. It is a profound method of accumulating merit and wisdom, purifying obscurations, and making vast offerings to all enlightened beings.

Buddhists believe that every sentient being possesses the potential for enlightenment, though this innate nature is veiled by impurities accumulated over countless lifetimes. As human beings, we have a rare and precious opportunity: the capacity to shape our destiny through a mind capable of engaging in practices that purify our mental continuum and free us from the cycle of birth and death (samsara). However, the mind cannot be purified through thought alone. True transformation requires integrated practices of body, speech, and mind.

Nyungne  ཉུང་གནས་ is one such popular practice. During the first day, the practitioner eats one vegetarian meal and maintains silence from noon onward, while engaging in prostrations and prayers. On the second day, they observe a complete fast and silence, continuing the practice with unwavering devotion. These cycles can be repeated continuously over many days.

Through intense devotion and surrender, the practitioner visualises Buddhas and Bodhisattvas while performing full-body prostrations, paying homage and generating faith. Fixating the mind on a pure object - such as a field of merit - while engaging the body in physical exertion becomes a powerful vehicle for the purification of negative karma and the accumulation of virtue.