釋氏要覽 1.445

1.445

The Nanshan chao says: "This ceremony was arranged by Dharma Master Dao'an." The Damamūka-nidāna Sūtra says: "For the sake of a snake, gold was given and a vegetarian feast was hosted, and someone was ordered to pass incense into the hands of the monks." The Ekottarika-āgama says: "When a donor hosts an offering, holding an incense burner in hand, he announces, 'The time has arrived.' The Buddha said: 'Incense is the messenger of the Buddha, therefore it must be burned.'" The Puda wang jing says: "Formerly, the Buddha was the son of a prominent family; for his father's sake he made offerings to the Three Jewels, and the father ordered his son to pass the incense." (Thus we know that distributing incense did not begin only in the present age.) The Dayijiao jing says: "When a monk wishes to eat, he should burn incense and chant three hymns (bhāṇā) for the donor, praising the offering." (Like the present recitation of the three-section text on 'The Tathāgata's Wondrous Physical Form' from the Śrīmālādevī-sūtra, nowadays called the 'Incense-Distributing Chant'.) In the Vinaya, receiving incense while sitting is not permitted. The Sanqian weiyi jing says: "When distributing incense for women, fearing that physical contact may give rise to defilement, they are permitted to receive it sitting." The Verse for Receiving Incense says: "The fragrance of morality, meditation, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision [of liberation] / Always diffuses fragrance throughout the realms of the ten directions. / May the smoke of this incense likewise / Perform Buddha-works without measure or bound." (As for calling the fivefold dharmakāya 'fragrance': the Ekottarika-āgama says: "The Buddha said: 'There are three kinds of wondrous fragrance: the fragrance of morality, the fragrance of learning, and the fragrance of giving. These three kinds of fragrance diffuse both against the wind and with the wind; they are the most extraordinary and wondrous, without equal.' Now, examining this: the fragrance of morality is the cause, which can generate the two fragrances of meditation and wisdom; the two fragrances of liberation and the knowledge and vision of liberation are the fruits. They are named after their cause.)"