勅修百丈清規 5.69

5.69

In great monasteries the assembly is large, and venerable elders are dignified and grave; there is no etiquette of frequent, ordinary meetings. Newly arrived monks must wait until there are many people, and each should go in advance to the attendant office to register their names to hold the audience together as one group. The attendant reports and fixes the time, either at the beginning of the ninth month, or before winter, or at the New Year festival. The assembly selects a prominent monk who is capable of affairs or familiar with the monastery to be the travel leader. On that day, he leads the assembly to stand in line in the sleeping hall. The attendant invites the abbot to emerge. The travel leader steps forward and says, "We invite the upādhyāya to sit cross-legged." The abbot speaks words [of instruction], and after the travel leader has made his response, he steps back together with the assembly, greets with folded hands, inserts incense, and unfolds the mat in ceremony. Next, they thank the attendant. The following morning, they attend tea at the abbot's quarters to seek hospitality, and await the issuance of the notice (the form appears below) sent down to the hall office. Their being escorted into the hall is entirely the same as before. The abbot returns their courtesy together when they give thanks for hospitality.