འདལ་བ་གཞ intro.109

intro.109

After the Buddha convinces Kapphiṇa to attend the restoration, the two of them go together to where the other monks have gathered. There, the Buddha teaches the assembled monks how to demarcate the boundaries of a monastic “site” or precinct. Once the matter of sites and boundaries has been thoroughly clarified through a series of prescriptions and supplementary prescriptions, prohibitions, and consents,²⁵ the Buddha explains that the entire Prātimokṣa Sūtra does not need to be recited during the restoration rite. Instead, the reciter must recite the opening narrative to The Prātimokṣa Sūtra.²⁶ After that, the reciter can choose whether to communicate the heading—that is, to name only the class, e.g., the four defeats, the thirteen saṅgha remnants, and so on—or to individually recite each offense in a class. Once the reciter has begun to recite the individual offenses that comprise a class, he must continue reciting to the end of that class or the recitation will be considered improper.²⁷ In short, The Prātimokṣa Sūtra must be recited in one of five ways, whether reciting classes simply by heading or in full. At its simplest, a proper recitation of The Prātimokṣa Sūtra may therefore be a very abbreviated recitation in which the opening narrative is recited in full followed by the recitation only of the classes’ names, with no mention of individual offenses.