Pravarana
pravarana
自恣 (Skt; Pali pavarana; Jpn jishi )
Also, pravarana. A ceremony performed by monks in India on the last day of the rainy-season retreat,in which they publicly confessed their offenses and repented their errors. Pravarana in Sanskrit means fulfillment of a wish. During the three months of the Indian rainy season in summer, monks ceased to move about the countryside and stayed in one location, where they devoted themselves to study and practices such as meditation. This is what Buddhist texts refer to as the rainy-season retreat, the summer retreat, or the three-month retreat. On the last day of this retreat, all the monks at that location assembled to engage in voluntary mutual confession and repentance of their monastic errors and improper acts. Today, the custom of the annual retreat and the pravarana ceremony is still practiced in Theravada Buddhist countries.
see also; Vassa
