四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 1.372

1.372

First: whether the recipient has obtained the Dharma or not. What is explained in the four Vinayas is that the ten precepts must precede, and only afterward is one permitted to receive the full [precepts]. In the text, if one does not confer the ten precepts, the assembled saṃgha incurs an offense. The Sarvāstivāda-vinaya-vibhāṣā states: 'The reason the ten precepts are instituted is to imbue and familiarize one with the Buddha's Dharma, not like the tīrthikas who receive them all at once. The Buddha's Dharma is not like that; it is like the great ocean, gradually deepening and gradually entering.'