釋氏要覽 1.372

1.372

At the Jetavana in India, the monk Ruci requested the Buddha to establish an altar to confer the precepts upon bhikṣus. The Tathāgata set up an altar to the southeast of the outer courtyard of the park; this was the beginning. In this land, it began in the seventh year of the Yuanjia reign of the Song (gengwu), when the Indian monk Guṇavarman (rendered in Liang as 'Gongdekai') arrived at the capital of Yang[zhou] and erected an altar in front of the bamboo grove at Nanlin Monastery to confer the precepts upon bhikṣus. What is now called the 'Vaipulya Altar' is explained in the Sengshi lüe: Because the ordination altar originally came from the Hīnayāna teaching, in the Hīnayāna teaching, the candidate, the saṃgha, the boundary, and the procedure must all strictly accord with the Vinaya; if there is the slightest infraction, the recipient does not obtain the precepts, and those at the altar commit an offense. Now, the Vaipulya method belongs to the Mahāyāna teaching: it does not restrict defective sense faculties or imperfect conditions; if one only produces the great mind and receives it, one attains the precepts. It can be described as vast, equal, and all-pervading; therefore it is called 'Vaipulya'. It is also called the 'Amṛta Altar', for amṛta is a metaphor for nirvāṇa; because the precepts are the initial gateway to enter nirvāṇa, it is named after its fruit. Now, the terms 'altar' (tan) and 'arena' (chang) are not the same: an altar is raised from the earth with a foundation; an arena is cleared ground made level. They are now used interchangeably, which is an error (if you wish to know the altar specifications, please consult the Illustrated Scripture [on the Ordination Altar]).