四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 1.538

1.538

Second, the procedure for four persons or fewer, down to face-to-face [pravāraṇā]. They must assemble from the entire boundary, and receiving chanda is not permitted. Four persons face one another, and each individual states: "Let the venerable ones focus their thoughts! Today the saṃgha performs pravāraṇā; I, bhikṣu so-and-so, am pure. (Thrice)" The others also recite as above. If two persons are face to face, they only say, "Let the venerable one focus his thoughts," the rest of the phrasing being the same as before. If one has committed an offense of pāyattika or below, whether confessed by oneself or brought up by others, one must repent beforehand and then perform pravāraṇā. If one has committed an offense of thullaccaya or a saṃgha rite [offense] requiring four or more persons, it is merely included in the confession of thullaccaya down to saṃghāvaśeṣa, since there is no mechanism for penalizing it. If applied according to the Daśādhyāya-vinaya, after moving to suspend, one should wait until the assembly is complete to deal with it according to the Dharma, and it should not obstruct pravāraṇā. The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya states: During upoṣadha recitation, if one reports one's committed offense to the saṃgha, fearing that it might disrupt the upoṣadha recitation, one is made to disclose it mentally, after which one may hear the precepts. Since both are pure practices and the efficacy of group disciplinary control is equivalent, applying this by analogy presents no problem. In principle, one must specify the offense committed; because the assembly is incomplete, it cannot yet be penalized; the rest are pure. As for the oral statement here, if it is untrue, an offense is incurred, entailing three pāyattikas according to the transgression; unlike the false silence during upoṣadha recitation, where the offense is incurred based on the concealed transgression.