天台菩薩戒疏 2.34

2.34

Twenty-eighth, the precept against issuing private invitations to monks. Whenever one seeks superior merit, one must rely on the fertile field of the saṃgha in regular turn; when the mind has no devious partiality, the giving is equal. Now, privately inviting acquaintances and discriminating against and rejecting others not only lacks the universal mind of Dharma offerings, but is a devious flattery of the mundane world; both self and other incur faults, and therefore it was instituted. It has six specific conditions: (1) oneself being a donor, (2) holding an assembly, (3) there being an assembly of monks, (4) intentionally inviting privately, (5) acting out of favoritism, and (6) presenting the goods; then it is violated. If it is outside the turn of the saṃgha or compelled by another's power, demanding that one invite privately, there is no violation. In the text there are three parts: first, it lists the persons who invite monks, who should seek instruction and guidance; next, from 'the administrator' below, it directly explains the method of invitation; third, from 'If privately' below, it concludes the offense for defying the regulation. The first part adduces their three categories; the offense is restricted to the two assemblies and all dānapatis. Those who have not received the precepts gain merit by following the teaching, and if they violate it they incur no sin. In the second passage, as for 'one immediately obtains the worthy and noble monks of the ten directions': the mind is universal and the principle is pervasive, so one includes all. As for 'Yet worldly people' and so forth: thus the Upāsakaśīla Sūtra says: 'Mṛgāramātā privately invited five hundred arhats; Mṛgāra sent Ānanda to deliver food to the Buddha; the Buddha asked Ānanda: Did Mṛgāra invite a single person by the turn of the saṃgha? Ānanda said: Foolish person! Although she invited five hundred arhats, it does not equal one person invited in the turn of the Buddha.' In the third part, concluding the offense, as for 'this is a dharma of outsiders': what is outside the Buddha Dharma is called a dharma of outsiders; it does not mean non-Buddhists outside. The Vinaya permits the acceptance of private invitations for śrāvakas; hence we know that the seven Buddhas all ruled that for hearing bodhisattvas there is no dharma of private invitation. The seven Buddhas all manifested traces of response and transformation in this land; within a hundred kalpas, the long-lived devas all witnessed them, and they are frequently cited as evidence so that believers may have something to rely upon. That is to say, ninety-one kalpas ago in the past, the first Buddha was named Vipaśyin, also called Weiwei; in the intervening kalpas there were no Buddhas; arriving at the thirty-first kalpa, two Buddhas appeared: one named Śikhin, also called Shi, and the second named Viśvabhū, also called Duoye. In this ninety-first, the Bhadrakalpa, a thousand Buddhas are due to appear, and four Buddhas have already passed: first, Krakucchanda; second, Kanakamuni; third, Kāśyapa; fourth, Śākyamuni.