The practice-ritual of the Three Grounds of Vinaya is the foundation for the thorough purification/cleansing of all the vows. It is concerned with the many instructions Buddha gave to his ordained disciples about what to adopt and what to refrain from hence, it is one of the main practices to be actualised. This ritual has been existing from a long time ago until now in most of the monasteries of both India and Tibet. Here, at the main monastery of the Ngorpa school also, this sacred ritual exists perfectly in an unbroken manner, due to the great kindness of the late His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche.
Of the three, the first one is known as the So-Jong or Posadha in Sanskrit. The main purpose of this is to bless any gross and subtle downfall or failure of monastic vows so that they do not expand further, and it is also a method to thoroughly purify any transgressions incurred.
This practice needs to be performed twice a month: once on the waxing moon and the other on the waning moon. If we are to think about it in the context of a year, there are altogether six 14th So-Jong and 18 fifteenth So-Jong. These are referred to as So-Jong with certainty of time. There are So-Jongs that are not restricted by certainty of time: Calm Abiding So-Jong and Conducive So-Jong. The practice of the So-Jong is performed in the following manner: Outside of the temple, two groups of the fully ordained monks confess their failures/downfalls between themselves after that they enter the temple where preceded by their chanting Gyun Chag Sumpa or the Third Event of the Day, they chant sutras such as Tsultrim Yangdhag gi Dho or Vishuddha Sheela Sutra and other sutras concerned with discourses and phampa or defeats etc. This is then concluded by the dedication of merits with chants such as, ‘by chanting individual liberation’, etc.
The primary purpose of the summer retreat is to abandon habits that cause harm to living beings, ney ralpa thang drumpa or remain in a particular place with established boundaries. This should be observed annually in the early part of summer in the sixth Mongolian month or from the 16th of the seventh months for three months even though in practice there is the tradition of it being observed for 45 days. The key disciplines to be maintained in summer retreat are no discussion about and remembrance of downfalls, not distribution of things and without the performance of blessings do not remain outside the boundaries overnight.
This relates to the summer-retreat where the summer disciplines are completed and it’s permitted to discuss, see and raise doubts/suspicions about the downfalls and substance share/divide and are allowed to travel outside the boundaries. This is conducted in the evening of the 29th and on the Namgang or the 30th new moon is observed. Removal of what was prohibited and restricted during the summer retreat is done on the 1st and there is the tradition of roaming in the country known as Jong-Gyu. This is a brief account of The Three Grounds.