Sed Gyued Monastery
Yarney Puja
Yarney Puja
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Summer Retreat
This is one of the three basic rituals of the Vinaya. It refers to taking a three-month pledge during the first or the second summer retreat not to venture beyond the retreat boundary, not to trigger fight among sanghas, to put effort in study, contemplation and meditation, to engage in the renovation of the damaged parts of the monastery, and so forth.
Its benefits and purposes in brief are:
Firstly, on the basis of what argument did the summer retreat come into
being?
Sutra says:
That time the Buddha was residing in Shravasti. For the Buddhist monks who go out in the country and do not observe the summer retreat and do not remain indoors in summer, the non-Buddhist monks complained: The sanghas of the son of the Shakya have not refrained from the act of killing. In summer roaming around the country many sentient beings get stamped and killed.
Even the swallow birds silently remain in their nests for four months in the summer, but these bald heads they don’t even know how to take the pledge, who will offer them alms? When such criticisms were made, the Buddha laid down the rules for the first summer retreat. Again when fear occurred when the summer retreat was being held in a monastery at a mountain side, monks came to Sravasti without releasing the retreat pledge and the Buddha again laid down the rules following the second summer retreat. So from these reasons or events, you could understand the benefits and the purposes of the summer retreat.
To explain in simple terms, the Vinaya says:
Observing the summer retreat helps to prevent the faults of not doing the summer retreat, to avoid harming the sentient beings which are in large numbers on the ground in summer, to avoid disrespect and abuse from others such as the non-Buddhists mentioned in the discourse, to avoid threats to one’s body and life because in summer the rain water escalates and at such
times there are potential threats to one’s body and life, to enhance the study and contemplation and meditation as they relinquish many other works and activities and abide in the summer retreat with less works and activities, to renovate the worn out and damaged dwellings because in summer rain water damages the house, and finally, it allows to place restrictions.
