[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [勅修百丈清規](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025) › [The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk) › 7.74 # 勅修百丈清規 7.74 The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations 7.74 - **Language:** English ### [7.74](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7.74) properly attired, is requested to attend the service of chanting sutras. A tablet announcing the sutra chanting is posted at each quarters of the temple. The next day, after the morning rice gruel, the dual order officials and the abbot are informed when the preparations have been completed in the Buddha hall. Starting from the practitioners’ quarters, the wooden sounding block is sounded to relay the signal to the wooden sounding blocks of all corridors of the temple, ending with that of the abbot’s office. When the abbot comes out of his office, this is signaled by three strikes of the metal gong at the kitchen hall, followed by the sound of the large bell, the prac- tice hall bell, and the Buddha hall bell all at once. Arriving at the altar of the Buddha hall, the abbot burns incense, offers tea and sweet hot water to the Buddha, and takes his place mid-hall. Thereupon, the attendants play the cymbals, and the director of practitioners’ affairs greets the abbot and the dual order officials, signaling them to offer incense in successive pairs from each order. (According to the Ancient Regulations, there is no performance of prostra- tions by the practitioners \[at this moment in the ceremony\]; however, recently it has become customary for practitioners to perform three prostrations. During this time, the abbot kneels, left knee up and right knee on the ground, before the incense burner and makes the respectful gesture of joining his palms together. This same propriety is performed in the ceremonial proceeding for the prayer of imperial longevity and the commemoration of the Buddha’s birthday. It is not known for certain which patriarch may have started this tradition. In tracing the origin of this propriety, it may be said that the practitioners’ act of prostration and the abbot’s kneeling down, as well as the reading of the word of tribute, clearly point to the sense of celebration for imperial longevity and to the sense of gratitude and dis- charging of indebtedness to Śākyamuni Buddha. These meanings must really be emphasized by strict adherence to the proprieties. On the other hand, the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs prayer service is essentially meant to be a prayer on the part of the practitioners for the successful completion of the summer retreat. Hence, the proprieties in question must be inappropriate for this kind of ceremony, and it is best to omit them here and follow the Ancient Regulations.) After the Verses of Adoration for the Buddha is recited and the word of tribute is read, the ceremonial leader invokes the presence of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas to the place of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs prayer service, with the practitioners’ accord. The ceremonial leader then recites the Sanskrit verse and continues to recite the introductory passage of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs. He initiates the prayer service by intoning the esoteric verses, and upon completion utters the phrase “Mo-he” (“Hurrah to the Great Vehicle!”), with which the practitioners again accord in unison. Thereupon, the director of practitioners’ affairs gives the following invocation of merit transference: The merit accrued from chanting the sutra is dedicated to the goal of absolute truth (bhūta-tathatā; zhenruo) and absolute reality (bhūta-koṭi; shiji), and also thereby to enshrine the state of supreme enlightenment (bodhi; puti) that follows the realization of Buddha-nature (buddha- phala; foguo). May this deed help us discharge our obligation resulting from the four kinds of indebtedness, help those who abide in the three worlds to equally realize enlightenment, and together with all sentient beings of the Dharma world, reach the perfect realization of omniscient knowledge (sarvathā-jñāna; zhongzhi). Veneration to the Buddhas in the ten directions and the three periods \[of time\], and so on. Each day, the practitioners take a short recess after the morning rice gruel. When the practitioners have changed into ceremonial robes, the practice hall office attendant notifies the dual order officials and then the abbot. After that, the attendants begin striking each of the wooden sounding blocks located throughout the corridors of the temple three times. The kitchen metal gong is sounded three times when the abbot comes out \[of his office\]. If \[the abbot does not come out\], the metal gong and the large bell should not be sounded; however, the practice hall bell and the Buddha hall bell should be tolled every day in any case. When the practitioners have gathered in the hall and the chanting of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs has been completed, the ceremonial leader intones the verses of universal invocation of merit transference, chanted by the practitioners in unison. If this ceremonial session coincides with the first day of the month or the mid-month day, the director of practitioners’ affairs should express celebration of imperial longevity in his invocation of merit transference. On the thirteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the ceremonial fulfillment of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs prayer service should be conducted (this propriety is identical as before). The only difference is that the ceremonial leader is required to intone the ending passage that comes after the sacred prayer verses, followed by the invocation of merit transference by the director of practitioners’ affairs, after which all leave the hall. The Universal Invocation of Merit Transference 1152a The foregoing chanting of the sacred Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs has been intoned by the sacred assembly of bhikṣus. The merit thereby accrued is dedicated to the deva and nāga guardians of the Dharma, to the local earth spirits and the gods of the temple building, the creators of things. May those suffering in the three worlds of existence and of the eight kinds of diffculties be freed. May the four kinds of benefactors and the three worlds of existence be fully rewarded. May the state be in peace while armed revolts are quelled. May the wind and rain be properly ordered so that people have well-being and ease. May this assembly, well disciplined, wish to accomplish an advantageous advance. May everyone traverse through the ten bodhisattva stages with no diffculty. May the temple main- tain its serenity, transcending all unexpected disasters. May the patron devotees uphold their devotion and increase in fortune and wisdom. Ven- eration to the Buddhas in the ten directions and the three times, and to all bodhisattvas, mahāsattvas, and Mahāprajñāpāramitā. 1. The Word of Tribute for the Inauguration of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs Prayer Service Because iron is the essence of tempering and grinding, its edge can never become dull; and because the mirror borrows the luster of a well-pol- ished gem, its reflection can never become darkened. Therefore, our pre- ceding sages (i.e., patriarchs) manifested their capacities, sometimes sup- pressing and other times enhancing such qualities in order to shatter even the tiniest speck of delusion for the sake of sentient beings. The episode of Mātaṅgī and Ānanda tells how marvelously an illicit magical power was intimidated, and Śākyamuni and Mañjuśrī especially revealed the esoteric means of conversion. From analytical study of the forms of teaching and the method of introspection taught by the Buddha throughout his lifetime career, one may find the doctrines and practices; and yet from the point of view of the esoteric revelation of practice and realization, there is neither realization distinct from practice, nor is there practice separate from realization. It reveals the absolute insight (zhenjian) and terminates multiple illusions (zhuchen). An empty flower has no stem. Abiding in right concentration, one restrains every inner movement. Still water creates no waves. In reflecting upon the descendants, it may be asked: How many of us understand this? Chanting the words left by our predecessors, we admonish ourselves. May we earnestly wish to reduce myriads of kalpas, as many as the sands of the Ganges River, into a single moment of thought, for there is no distance between now and then. May we also wish to identify all the lands of the ten directions as a single abode of existence, so that all may universally attain supreme enlightenment. 2. The Word of Tribute for the Fulfillment of the Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs Prayer Service Glancing back at this monastic community, we see it as if it were the Jetavana Monastery, where innumerable bhikṣus assembled like an ocean. At the great assembly of the disciples, where all in stern dignity gathered at Vulture Peak, the grand universe of three thousand great universes was embraced within a speck of dust, and the three different dimensions of time dissolved into a single moment of thought. Having reposed upon the voluntary self-reflection at the end of the summer retreat, one neither restrains oneself not to transgress, nor does one exert one’s effort; rather, one is totally harmonious and interdependent with the myriads of phenomena as a whole. Irrespective of whether one is mundane or transmundane, \[there being no distinction,\] each individual’s wondrous enlightenment, reflecting each moment of great illumination, manifests myriads and myriads of bodies and surpasses all the fifty-seven stages of realization. The use of a finger is meant to exemplify the truth that it is not the finger \[but what it points to\], and thus this finger also ceases to be \[merely a finger\] simultaneously with its being \[that which it points to\]. While it resembles emptiness (śūnyatā) and contains it within, it is yet juxta- posed with emptiness, and thus emptiness \[and form\] are reciprocal. Thus, out of his compassion for those of limited understanding, the Buddha especially encouraged those whose minds are slow and dull. We have steadfastly adhered to this teaching bequeathed by the Buddha during the period of the summer retreat. Since there has been no obstacle throughout the period of the retreat, may we earnestly hope that our practice of concentration and insight (śamatha and vipaśyanā) prevails over the gates of all senses and intellect, and that the tran- scendent faculty (dayong) arises as often as it may \[within phenome- nal faculties\] and thereby lead them equally to enter into the ultimate state of the śūraṃgama samādhi. The Śūraṃgama-dhāraṇīs Prayer Service Seating Chart Buddha Altar incense incense incense candle candle candle candle candle candle burner burner burner 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 47 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 49 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Śūraṃgama director of 51 ceremonial master practitioners’ affairs 52 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 54 practi- training primary abbot head head practi- tioners officials seat admin. assistant tioners 55 official official 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 Front 6. The Tablet of Ordination Ages Officials of the practice hall office, the assistant office, and the practitioners’ quarters get together beforehand to draw up the tablet of ordination ages by copying \[the ordination record book\]. In the afternoon of the fourteenth day, these tablets must be placed in the higher-ranking section of the outer practice hall, in the lower-ranking section of the Dharma hall, and in the practitioners’ quarters. Each office sets up a table equipped with an incense burner and candle stands as well as various alms offerings. The practitioners each burn incense, perform prostrations with opened sitting cloth, and then take down their respective tablets in order to place them at their assigned seats. - [Previous: 7.68](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7.68) - [Next: 7.87](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7.87) - [Up: 7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-mt.7.74) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [勅修百丈清規](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025.7.74) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7.74](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2025~en-bdk.7.74) · Pramāṇa