四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 1.423

1.423

Next is conferring the six recollections (derived from the text of the Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya). The first recollection is knowing the day and month. One should say: 'This morning is the first to the fifteenth day of the bright fortnight.' Because it is purely a long [month], one does not speak of long or short. In the case of the dark fortnight, since there are long and short ones, one must divide them into two: 'This morning is the long dark fortnight, the first to the fifteenth day,' or 'Today is the short dark fortnight, the first to the fourteenth day.' This means knowing how far or near one is from the poṣadha. The methods and standards for days and months among the renunciants are like this. According to the Vinaya text, this is so that when laypeople ask, one can make them understand; and when entering a village, one first knows the reckoning of days and months. According to this land [of China], one does not speak of bright or dark. If answering laypeople, one may only speak in general terms, saying: 'The first month is short; today is such-and-such day.' That both monastics and laity understand this together is appropriate. The second recollection is knowing the place of food, in which there are three cases. If one does not accept invitations at all, one says: 'Today I eat my own food.' Some say: 'I eat the regular food of the saṃgha.' Some say: 'I regularly beg for food.' If one accepts invitations, one says: 'Today I eat my own food; there is no place of invitation.' Or one says: 'Today I eat saṃgha food; there is no place of invitation.' Or one says: 'Today I beg for food; there is no place of invitation.' If there is an invitation, there are cases of turning away from it or not turning away. One should say: 'Today there is an place of invitation, and I intend to go myself.' If one turns away from it (referring to conditions such as the Kārttika month, illness, and the distribution of robes), one says: 'Today there is such-and-such a condition, so I may turn away from the invitation.' (If there is no condition and on a single day there are numerous invitations, one should say to another person): 'Today there are many invitations; I personally accept one invitation, and the rest I bestow upon the venerable one at such-and-such place.' (One should seek members of the five assemblies to relinquish them to; if no person is present, one relinquishes them mentally): 'I, so-and-so, this morning have been given formal food by a dānapati, which I transfer and bestow upon the bhikṣu so-and-so; the dānapati holds no expectation of me, and I may eat as I please.' (Spoken three times. This method of mental recollection refers to five situations: living alone, dwelling in an araṇya, traveling far, long illness, and living dependent on relatives in a time of famine. The Daśādhyāya-vinaya allows it.) The third is knowing the rainy seasons and seniority since receiving the precepts, saying: 'On such-and-such year, month, day, and time, when the shadow of the one-foot wooden rod was such-and-such, I received upasampadā; I now have zero rainy seasons.' Later, when one has them, one states them according to the rainy seasons. The fourth is knowing whether the robes and bowl are present and whether they have been determined as pure, saying: 'My three robes and bowl are complete; if there are extras, they have already been determined as pure.' (Later, according to whether one has them, for robes, bowls, medicines, and so forth, as they are present, one recollects and determines them as pure.) The fifth is recollecting communal or separate eating, saying: 'I now eat relying on the assembly.' (If there must be a separate saṃgha, nine conditions are allowed accordingly.) One says: 'I now have such-and-such a condition, so I should eat separately from the assembly.' This is explained at length in the 'Subsequent Characteristics' chapter. The sixth is recollecting health or weakness, saying: 'I am without illness and capable of practicing the Path' (if ill, one resolves to treat and cure it).