The service is often credited as one of the greatest rituals in Chinese Buddhism, as it is also the most elaborate and requires the labor of monastics and temple staff and the financial funding of lay Buddhist sponsors.
The ritual combines pre-Tang Chinese operatic text as well as ceremonial procedure inspired by Taoism and Vajrayana such as circumambulating, reciting sutras and repentance.
Lastly, tables are set out for the monastics and sponsors to use, complete with kneelers, the ritual text for reference, a handheld censer, and plates with flowers to use when inviting beings.
When a ritual session begins, apart from any pressing emergencies, no one is allowed to leave the shrine until its completion, as it is considered disrespectful to the invited beings.
Offerings of food, beverages and incense, chanting and reciting of secret mantras and various sutras, transmitting precepts and bowing in repentance on behalf of the higher and lower beings are the core procedures in the inner shrine.
The Emperor Liang Repentance, the foundational text for the liberation rite, (traditional Chinese: 梁皇寳懺) is also recited multiple times.
Before such ceremony can take place, a purification of the entire temple or monastery space must be completed, usually presided by the abbot or elder monastics.