四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 1.247

1.247

問：世中時有白讀羯磨，作法成不？答：不成是定。雖無明決，可以義求。然羯磨戒本，作法相似；戒本必令誦之，羯磨豈得白讀？故《四分》、《僧祇》：半月無人誦戒，應差向他處誦竟，還本處說之；不得重說；乃至一人說一篇竟，更一人說。若不能誦者，但說法誦經而已。準而言之，若得讀者，執文即得，何須如此？止不讀之。又俗中呪術之法，讀文被事，皆不成就。但以法貴專審，令背文誦持，心口專正，加事便易；必臨文數字，出口越散。故佛法中，呪術誦者，加物遂成，未聞讀呪而能被事。羯磨聖教，佛制誦持，況於呪術，律序自顯。必不誦者，終身附人。余親問中國三藏京輦翻經諸師，云：從佛滅度來，無有此法。

Question: In the world, it sometimes happens that a karman is read aloud from a text. Is the ritual accomplished or not? Answer: It is definitely not accomplished. Although there is no explicit determination, it can be deduced through principle. The karman and the prātimokṣa are similar in their ritual procedure; if the prātimokṣa must be recited from memory, how could a karman be read from a text? Thus the Dharmaguptaka and Mahāsāṃghika Vinayas state: 'If for half a month there is no one who can recite the precepts from memory, one should be dispatched to another place; having finished reciting them, he returns to his original place to recite them; they must not be recited a second time; down to: one person recites one class of offenses, and another person recites [the next]. If they are unable to recite from memory, they only expound the Dharma and recite sūtras.' Drawing an analogy from this: if reading were permissible, holding the text would suffice; why would such measures be necessary? Reading is simply disallowed. Furthermore, with secular spells and incantations, if the text is read to affect matters, none succeed. It is only because the rite values focused concentration that one is made to chant and hold it from memory: with mind and mouth focused and upright, applying it to affairs becomes easy; if one must face the text and count characters, what comes out of the mouth becomes divergent and scattered. Therefore, in the Buddhadharma, when spells are recited from memory, their application to things is accomplished; one has never heard of reading a spell being able to affect matters. The noble teachings of the karman were prescribed by the Buddha to be recited and maintained from memory; how much more so than spells, as the Vinaya preface clearly shows. If one definitely cannot recite from memory, one must depend on others for life. I personally asked Tripiṭaka masters from India and the translation masters in the capital; they said: 'From the Buddha's parinirvāṇa onward, there has never been such a practice.'