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5. Inauguration of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs

Prayer Service

This ceremonial session must be inaugurated on the thirteenth day of the fourth lunar month. The practice hall official copies the ceremonial chart (format given below) beforehand, referring to the records of the practitioners’ ordination seniority. He posts this chart along with all other charts in front of the Buddha hall on the day of bathing the statue of the infant Śākyamuni (i.e., the day of the Buddha’s birthday celebration), and requests the secretarial official to compose a word of tribute. The director of practitioners’ affairs appoints beforehand someone endowed with a good voice to be the ceremonial leader of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs prayer service and accompanies him to the abbot’s office and the administrative office to introduce him. Both offices invite the ceremonial leader for a snack, with the director of practitioners’ affairs as a participant.

On the appointed day, the director of practitioners’ affairs copies [a special] sacred verse to include in the universal invocation of merit transference directed toward all beings. (The verse, composed by Zen Master Zhenxie Qingliao [ca. eleventh to twelfth century], is given below.) The verse is posted on the right and left pillars of the Buddha hall. In some monastic temples, a tablet on which the verse has been inscribed is hung on the pillars. The evening before the day [of the ceremony], the practice hall office attendants notify the practitioners:

After breakfast tomorrow morning, the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs prayer

service is scheduled to be inaugurated at the Buddha hall. Every one,