That particular practice is encorporated into a fasting purification practice and is done four times a day.
No food. On the last 24 hours, no water either.
Prostration, confession, sitting meditation and fasting.
The practice is called nyungne.
The Nyungne Retreat is a Tibetan Buddhist practice designed to purify negative karma and accumulate merit and wisdom. It involves two and a half days of practice centering on the strict keeping of vows (including a day and a half of complete fasting from food and drink); the generation of the Bodhisattva attitude; and the recitation of the sadhana (meditation practice) of the 1000-arm form of Chenrezig, Bodhisattva of compassion. Additional commitments include strict silence and abstinence from intimate contact.
The Nyungne Retreat is comprehensive in that it combines practice methods from all three Yanas, or Vehicles, of Buddhism. The vows reflect the rigorous discipline of the Common Vehicle, the generation of the Enlightened Attitude reflects the Greater Vehicle, and the actual practice of 1000-Armed Chenrezik reflects the Vehicle of Secret Mantra.
