Religion (1999) 29, 215–229Article No. reli.1998.0179, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of RitualSyntax

R K. P

Ajikan is a ritualised meditation in which the practitioner visualizes the syllable A.Popular in the Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradition of Shingon since mediaeval times,this practice is rooted in classic Indian religious culture. The symbolism of the syllable(originary, universal and eternal) is based on its uses in Sanskrit. This essay examines theritual syntax of the Ajikan practice, comparing two ritual manuals, one premodern, theother modern. This analysis seeks not only to understand the structure of this particularritual but to develop a diagrammatic technique that will allow meaningful comparisonsof rituals from differing religious traditions. ? 1999 Academic Press

IntroductionFrits Staal has shown convincingly that it is heuristically fruitful to consider the ways inwhich rituals are organised as analogous to the syntactic structures of language.1 Inaddition to the theoretical and methodological concerns regarding considering rituals tohave a syntactic structure analogous to that of sentences, Staal’s work on ritual hasinitiated a technique of diagramming the structure of rituals.2 Just as syntactic studies oflanguage have benefited from the development of the now widely used techniques ofdiagramming sentences, so also ritual studies can benefit from a consistently useddiagramming technique.

Visualising the syllable A, known in Japanese as Ajikan, is one of the most commonpractices of the Japanese sect of esoteric Buddhism, the Shingon sect (lit. ‘true word’,referring to mantra).3 In the following, two versions of the Shingon Ajikan practice willbe described.4 One of these is from an early Tokugawa era (1603–1867) manual. Theother is from a modern manual. The syntax of each will then be diagrammed, and thesyntactic structures of the ritual discussed.

This essay intends first to present information on the Ajikan and the patterns of ritualsyntax which structure it. Second, it intends to further the development of adiagrammatic technique for the syntactic analysis of rituals comparable with that used forthe syntactic analysis of sentences. Finally, some theoretical considerations of therelations between cognitive science and ritual studies will be explored.

There are two related aspects of ritual syntax that diagramming can assist in analysing.First, the rules by which rituals are organised are themselves ordered. Second, there aremeta-rules. Staal has summarised these two factors, saying ‘ ‘‘Meta-rules’’ ’ are simplyrules about rules. ‘‘Rule order’’ is easiest understood in the ritual context: the rulesabout lighting the fire have to operate before those that describe how oblations are madeinto it’.5 Rule ordering and meta-rules were both discovered by Vedic ritualists andform part of the analogy Staal makes between ritual and language. In addition, it seemsclear from my own work on Shingon rituals that ritual structuring employs elementsanalogous to phrases.

The importance of ritual phrase structure is that it can contribute to an understandingof cognitive structures in the same way that the analysis of linguistic phrase structuresdoes. According to Steven Pinker, it is the phrase structure with its ability to utilize thesame kind of phrase in a variety of locations, that allows for the incredible variety andadaptability of human language: ‘Once a kind of phrase is defined by a rule and given

? 1999 Academic Press0048–721X/99/030215+15 r30.00/0

its connector symbol, it never has to be defined again, the phrase can be plugged in

216 R. K. Payne

anywhere there is a corresponding socket’.6 Pinker goes on to point out the cognitiveimplications of linguistic phrase structures, maintaining that ‘restriction in the geometryof phrase structure trees . . . is a hypothesis about how the rules of language are set upin our brains, governing the way we talk’.7 Analysis of ritual phrase structures should inthe same way contribute to an understanding of how the rules of structured activity are‘set up in our brains’. Although structured activity includes more than ritual—forexample, games and dramatic performances—ritual may be one of the most extensivelyrule bound of such behaviours.

For contemporary linguistics, the concept of rule has shifted from a generativenotion—that is, people form sentences according to the (either inherent or learned)rules—to a descriptive one. A ‘child acquires a certain linguistic skill, which linguists candescribe in the form of a rule’.8 Thus, when it is asserted that ritual is a rule-boundbehaviour, the assertion is not that the rituals were created in accordance with a set ofrules which are necessarily consciously known by their authors. Rather, the rule-boundcharacter of rituals is that there are certain consistent patterns which can be generalisedas rules. Based on his anthropological analysis of the strategies of honour in Algeriansociety, Pierre Bourdieu notes that ‘The science of practice has to construct theprinciple which makes it possible to account for all the cases observed, and only those,without forgetting that this construction, and the generative operation of which it is thebasis, are only the theoretical equivalent of the practical scheme which enables everycorrectly trained agent to produce all the practices and judgments of honour called forby the challenges of existence’.9 However, because the patterns are consistent, the rulesas generalisations must exist in some kind of isomorphic relation with cognitivestructures.

While analysis of rule ordering, meta-rules and ritual phrase structures can be donenarratively, making the structures visible in diagrammatic form can show the results ofsuch analyses much more clearly. The application of a diagramming technique is basedon an analogy between language and ritual as rule-bound behaviours. Other analogiescould be made, the exploration of which might prove fruitful. For example, theapproach of performance theory seems to be based on the analogy of ritual to theatre.10

The analogy with language made here for analytic purposes is also to be distinguishedfrom the question of what activities provide the model for the ritual in its creation. Asdiscussed further infra, the metaphor of feasting an honoured guest provides the basicmodel for organising many of the rituals which derive from Vedic origins.11 Thisalimentary model is important for understanding the logic, or metaphoric entailments,12

of many Shingon rituals. While understanding the founding metaphor is important, it isstill a separate issue. The benefit of the heuristic analogy with language is the possibilityof appropriating the well developed analytic tools of linguistics.

This should not be taken, however, as a suggestion that language holds a position ofcognitive primacy. Although an extended discussion of the issues involved goes beyondthe scope of this essay, it is my own belief that rule-bound behaviours do form a generalcategory which includes language, games, theatre and ritual. Determining whether thisis the case will require the application of common analytic techniques.

Ajikan: Visualising the Syllable AThe Shingon tradition of tantric Buddhism in Japan maintains a large corpus of rituals.The Ajikan is a ritualised meditative practice in which the practitioner visualises the

syllable A as written in one of the medieval Sanskrit scripts, Siddham. The history of this

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 217

practice goes back to the development of ‘seed syllables’ (Skt.bıja mantra) in medievalIndian tantric traditions, and the practice was carried through China to Japan. Thepractice continues to be propagated by Shingon masters in the present.

Symbolically, the syllable A represents three related concepts: originary, universal andinexpressible. These symbolic associations follow from three functions of the syllable inSanskrit. It is the first syllable in the Sanskrit syllabary, hence the symbolism of origin.It is the ‘vowel’ component of each of the Sanskrit syllables, hence the symbolism ofuniversality. And, it is used as a negative prefix, hence the symbolism of inexpressibility.

By contrast to many other Shingon rituals, the Ajikan is relatively simple. Kukai, thefounder of the Shingon tradition in Japan, gives a brief verse summary of the practice inhis ‘Precious Key to the Secret Treasury’:

Visualize: a white lotus flower with eight petals,[above which is a full moon disc] the size of a forearm in diameter,[in which is] a radiant silvery letter A.Unite your dhyana [meditation] with prajna [wisdom] in an adamantine binding;Draw the quiescent Prajna of the Tathagata [i.e., Enlightened One] in [-to yourmind].13

Following Kukai, several Shingon masters continued to transmit and propagate thepractice. For example, during the Kamakura era both Kakuban and Dohan wrote severalworks on the Ajikan. The process of transmission and propagation meant an ongoingproduction of new manuals describing the practice.

During the early years of the Tokugawa era the Priest Zoei14 compiled a manualentitled ‘Procedures for Visualising the Syllable A, of the Chuin Lineage’,15 ( Jpn. AjikanSaho Chuin-ryu).16 Zoei’s text provides a relatively full description of the ritual. This isin contrast to many of the Shingon ritual manuals, which assume that the reader is aninitiate and express themselves in such abbreviated form and technical terminology as tobe incomprehensible to the unitiated. Zoei’s manual is still in use, and it sets out theAjikan ritual in eleven steps:

1. Prostrations2. Take One’s Seat3. The Syllable HU– M*4. Practice [Sadhana] for the Protection of the Body5. Five Great Resolutions6. Five Syllable Womb Realm [Garbhadhatu17] Mantra7. Visualise the Chief Deity: The Syllable A

a) In one’s heartb) In front of one’s eyes and in one’s heartc) Expanding to fill the entire cosmos [dharmadhatu], contracting andreturning to one’s heart

8. Practice [Sadhana] for the Protection of the Body9. Return of the Buddha

10. Stand Up and Prostrations11. Thought of Great Compassion

These steps in the visualisation can be briefly described as follows:

1. Prostrations. The practitioner performs three full prostrations, that is, touching the

218 R. K. Payne

five points—knees, elbows and forehead—to the floor. With each prostration thepractitioner recites the following ‘Universal Homage’ mantra:

Skt: om sarva-tathagata-pada-vandanam karomiJpn: ON SARABA TATAGYATA HANA MANA NAU KYAROMI

2. Take One’s Seat. The practitioner next sits down in half-lotus posture, and formsthe mudra of contemplating the entire cosmos (Dharmadhatu Samadhi Mudra). Thedirections which follow this are virtually identical with those given for Zen-stylemeditation18: ‘Line up your ears and your shoulders, and your nose with your navel, andfocus both your eyes on the tip of your nose. Your tongue should touch the top of yourmouth, and your breath will thus naturally become calm. Your hips should not be toofar back, nor too far forward. Rather, sit straight up and in this way aid your circulation.When you have done this, then move the body two or three times to the front andback, and to the left and right’.19

The practitioner then takes a rosary20 and rubs it two or three times, reciting the‘Universal Homage’ mantra one more time.

3. Syllable HU–M* . The practitioner forms the thunderbolt (vajra anjali ) mudra bybringing the hands together, palm facing palm, cupped so that there is a slight gapbetween them, with the tips of the fingers interlaced, fingers of the right hand on top.The practitioner then recites the seed-syllable (bıja mantra) HU– M* (Jpn. UN) 10 times.

4. Practice (Sadhana) for the Protection of the Body21—an action also known asDonning the Armour of the Tathagatas. The practitioner makes the inner fist threepronged thunderbolt mudra22 and recites the mantra

Skt. om vajragni pradıptaya svahaJpn. ON BAZARA GINI HARACHI HATAYA SOWAKA

five times, visualising the mantra going to the five places on the body: forehead, left andright shoulders, chest and throat.

23

5. Five Great Resolutions, with the thunderbolt mudra . The practitioner recites:

Sentient creatures are innumerable; I vow to save them all.Meritorious knowledge is innumerable; I vow to accumulate it allThe Teachings of the Dharma are innumerable; I vow to master them all.The Tathagatas are countless; I vow to serve them all.Bodhi is unsurpassed; I vow to attain it.May I and others in the Dharmadhatu receive equally the ultimate benefit.

6. Five Syllable Womb Realm Mantra. The practitioner next recites the mantra of themain Buddha of the Shingon sect, Dainichi Nyorai (lit. ‘Great Sun’, Skt. MahavairocanaTathagata),

Skt.: om a vı ra hum khamJpn.: ON A BI RA UN KEN

one hundred times.

7. Visualise the Chief Deity. The Syllable A.

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 219

a) In one’s heart: ‘First visualise the syllable A, a lotus, and the disk of a full moon withinyour heart. Imagine that within your heart there is a full moon, bright shining and whitein colour. In the middle of this full moon there is a white lotus flower. The syllable Ais resting on the surface of this open lotus flower’.24

b) In front of one’s eyes and in one’s heart: the practitioner alternately visualises thesyllable A in front and in the heart. The size of the syllable is to be about 40 cm. Thisis to be repeated several times.c) Expanding to fill the entire cosmos (dharmadhatu), contracting and returning to one’sheart: the syllable A is visualised as expanding to fill the cosmos. At this point the syllablecontracts to its former size and is then placed within the practitioner’s heart. Thepractitioner is advised to ‘forget the differences between your body and your heart, andabide for a while in the state of non difference’.25

8. Practice for Protection of the Body. The practitioner repeats the actions described innumber 4, above.

9. Return of the Buddha. Bringing the hands together in front of the chest, thepractitioner is directed to ‘imagine that the Buddha that you invited to attend yourmeditation is now returning to his Pure Lands, and that the Buddha of your own heartis now returning to his palace in your heart’.26

This is initially a rather confusing direction, as there was no specific invitation of anyBuddha enjoined in the first half of the visualisation. However, since the ‘Five SyllableWomb Realm Mantra’ is the mantra for the Buddha Dainichi Nyorai, perhaps for Zoeirecitation of it functioned as an evocation of Dainich Nyorai. Hence, at the end of theritual, the direction to return the Buddha to his Pure Land.

10. Stand Up and Three Prostrations. The three prostrations are accompanied by thesame mantra as in the opening of the practice, one recitation per prostration.

11. Great Compassion. Zoei closes with advice concerning the practitioner’s state ofmind outside of the practice session per se:

abide in the thought of Great Compassion, and perfect this thought in respect toyourself and in respect to all other persons and living beings. In all of your actions, bethey walking, standing still, sitting or lying down, try to remember that this syllable Ais within your own heart. If you are able to do this, then what knowledge you haveand what ignorance you have will altogether be one in their Dharma-nature [i.e., justas they are in actuality], you will understand that your own heart and the syllable A areidentical and during this present lifetime of yours you will soon attain to theunsurpassed state of Enlightenment, Bodhi.27

In the present era the Shingon priest Miyata Taisen28 has compiled an Ajikan manual,describing the practice in 15 steps29:

1. Enter the shrine2. Prostrations3. Take one’s seat

4. Purify the three karmic actions

220 R. K. Payne

5. Generate the mind of enlightenment6. Recite the vow mantra7. Five great vows8. Recite the five syllable mantra9. Control the breath

10. Proper visualisation11. End the meditation12. Recite the Stanza of the Three Powers13. Make personal aspirations14. Don the armor15. Exit the shrine

In summary:

(1) Enter the Shrine. The practitioner comes into the hall of practice

(2) Prostrations. The practitioner makes three prostrations facing the portrayal of thesyllable A, which is used as the object of meditation while reciting the mantra

Skt.: om sarva tathagata pada-vandanam karomiJpn.: ON SARABA TATAGYATA HANA MANA NAU KYAROMI

(3) Take One’s Seat. The practitioner then sits down cross legged and takes a few deepbreaths to relax himself, and allows his attention to settle into the solar plexus.

(4) Purify the Three Karmic Actions. The practitioner then purifies the actions of body,speech and mind by reciting the mantra

Skt.: om svabhava suddha sarva-dharma svabhava-suddha hamJpn: ON SOHA HANBA SYUDA SARABA TARAMA SOHA HANBA SYUDOKAN

five times, making the lotus bud mudra and directing the recitations to what arecalled the five places of the body, i.e., the forehead, right and left shoulders, chest andthroat.

(5) Generate the Mind of Enlightenment. With the thunderbolt mudra the practitionergenerates the mind of enlightenment, i.e., bodhicitta, by reciting the mantra

Skt.: om bodhicittam utpadayamiJpn.: ON BOCHI SHITTA BODA HADA YAMI

seven times.

(6) Recite the vow (samaya) mantra. With the same mudra, the practitioner recites thevow mantra

Skt.: om samayas tvamJpn.: ON SANMAYA SA TO BAN

seven times.

(7) Five Great Vows. Continuing to hold the same mudra, the practitioner recites the

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 221

five great vows:

‘Living beings are innumerable; I vow to save them all.‘Merit and knowledge are innumerable; I vow to accumulate them all.‘The teachings of the Dharma are innumerable; I vow to master them all.‘The Tathagatas are innumerable; I vow to serve them all.‘Enlightenment is unsurpassed; I vow to attain it’.30

(8) Recite the Five Syllable Mantra. Still retaining the thunderbolt mudra, thepractitioner recites the Five Syllable Mantra of Dainichi Nyorai:

Skt.: om a vi ra hum khamJpn.: ON A BI RA UN KEN

seven times.

(9) Control the Breath. Folding his hands into the meditation mudra, the practitionercloses his eyes, exhales through his mouth twice and then calmly breathes through thisnose for the duration of the meditation.

(10) Proper Visualisation. The practitioner then slightly opens his eyes, looks at therepresentation of the syllable A, closes his eyes, creates a mental image of the syllableresting on its lotus blossom against the ground of a clear, full moon in the space in frontof his body. Once he has a clear image of the syllable A visualised, he then visualises itslowly entering into his body, holding the image in his solar plexus. The image is thenreturned out of the body to the hanging representation of the syllable.

(11) End the Meditation. Keeping the eyes closed, the practitioner then takes two orthree deep breaths, lightly rubs the hands over the body, from head to foot. Opening theeyes, the practitioner returns to normal breathing.

(12) Recite the Stanza of the Three Powers. Still holding the meditation mudra, thepractitioner recites the Stanza of the Three Powers:

Through the power of my merit, the power of the Tathagata’s empowerment, and thepower of the Dharmadhatu, I abide in a universal offering.31

(13) Make Personal Aspirations. With the thunderbolt mudra, the practitioner nowexpress any personal aspirations, imagining that they will be (effortlessly) accomplishedthrough the intent of Mahavairocana Buddha.

(14) Don the Armour. The practitioner then makes the inner fist of the three prongedthunderbolt mudra, and consecrates the five places of the body (as above), reciting themantra:

Skt.: om vajragni pradiptaya svahaJpn.: ON BAZARA GINI HARACHI HATAYA SOWAKA

five times.

(15) Exit the Shrine. The practitioner then bows once while seated, giving rise to the

222 R. K. Payne

mind of compassion, rises, performs the triple prostration (as above) and leaves theshrine.

Ajikan as Ritual and Meditation: A Syntactic Analysis

Zoei’s AjikanThe linear description of a ritual practice may be compared with the syntactic surfacestructure of a sentence. Previous research into the syntactic structures of other Shingonritual practices leads to the expectation of symmetry around the visualisation of identityof the practitioner with the deity evoked. Here it is not a deity who is evoked in thecourse of the practice but rather identification with the syllable A forms the central actof the practice. This centrality is the metaphoric centrality of ‘most important’, and alsosyntactically central to the symmetry of the practice, despite its being number 7 of 10items.

The visualisation of identity, item 7, is bracketed by two clusters of actions. Numbers3, 4, 5 and 6 form the preceding cluster (labelled á in the following diagram). Numbers8 and 9 form the subsequent cluster (labelled á’ in the diagram). Each of these clustersis itself made up of two elements, and displays repetitive symmetry—that is, thesymmetrical repetition of the elements in the same order—in contrast to the mirrorimage symmetry, in which the order is reversed. The five syllable mantra (item 6, alsolabelled C in the diagram) and the return of the Buddha (item 9, also labelled C* in thediagram) are functional equivalents. As a result of terminal abbreviation, items appearingin abbreviated form in the second part of the ritual, the syllable HU– M* , protection of thebody and the five great resolutions (items 3, 4 and 5, also labelled B in the diagram) aresymmetrically represented only by the repetition of protection of the body (item 8, alsolabelled B* in the diagram).

The opening actions of prostrations and taking one’s seat (items 1 and 2, also labelledA in the diagram) are mirror images symmetrical with the two actions which end theritual practice: standing up and prostrations (items 10a and 10b, also labelled A* in thediagram). Figure 1 is a way of showing these relations visually.

Miyata’s AjikanMiyata’s text demonstrates the same symmetry around identification with the syllable A,in this case ten of the fifteen items. Clearly items 9 and 11 are symmetrical to thevisualisation, being the entry to and exit from the visualisation. Turning to the outeredge of the ritual, we find that although leaving the shrine is identified as a single item,it in fact involves three actions, in mirror-image symmetry with the first three items:entering the shrine, triple prostrations and taking one’s seat. This abbreviation is in thewriting of the manual and not an abbreviation of the ritual actions per se.

Items 4 and 14 symbolically match each other. Item 4, purifying the three karmicactions, prepares the practitioner to enter into the practice freed from any negativekarma. Item 14, donning the armour, prepares the practitioner to leave the ritualpractice, protected by the mercy and compassion of the Tathagatas.32 Furthermore, inmore complex Shingon rituals, the votive fire ritual (Skt. homa, Jpn. goma), putting onthe armour, is performed both at the beginning and at the end of the ritual.33 It wouldappear that in the case of this particular version of the Ajikan, the first donning of thearmor could be deleted because of the symbolic similarity between donning the armourand purifying the three karmic actions, as conditioned by the entry into and the exitfrom the ritual itself.

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 223

Figure 1. Eleven Steps of Zoei’s Ajikan.

Likewise, there is a similarity between items 5, 6 and 7, generating the mind of

enlightenment, vow mantra and the five great vows, and item 13, personal aspirations,since both have to do with the expression of the practitioner’s intent. However, thisorder is the same as that found in more complex rituals. Generating the mind ofenlightenment, vow mantra, and the five great vows are found in the first part of theritual,34 whereas any aspirations specific to the practitioner will be expressed after ritualidentification.35 In much the same way, item 8, reciting the five syllable mantra, anditem 12, reciting the stanza of the three powers, are symbolically symmetrical as relatingthe practitioner to higher powers. In the second diagram Mahavairocana Buddha in onecase, the practitioner’s own merit, the power of the Tathagata and the Dharmadhatu inthe other.

The grouping of these elements can be done in two different fashion, as shown in the

224 R. K. Payne

following two diagrams. In the first diagram, items 5, 6 and 7 are grouped together(labelled C in the first diagram) while item 8 is separate (labelled ;

;;; in the first diagram).

Items 12 and 13 (labelled C* and ;;;; in the first diagram) stand in repetitive symmetry

with items 5, 6, 7 and 8. In the second diagram, items 5, 6, 7 and 8 are grouped together(also labelled C in the second diagram), while items 5, 6 and 7 form a subgrouping ofC (labelled á in the second diagram). Items 12 and 13 display the same grouping andsubgrouping (labelled C* and á* in the second diagram). At this time in the developmentof the syntactic analysis of rituals there is not enough comparative material on the basisof which a decision between these analyses can be made.

Syntactically, then, we have Figure 2. In addition to these syntactic similarities, thereare content similarities between this practice and other Shingon ritual practices as well,which might be referred to as semantic similarities. Most important is the central actionmentioned previously, that of the identification of the practitioner with the deityinvoked. With few exceptions, ritual identification characterises both Buddhist andHindu tantra.36

The most important differences between this practice and other members of theShingon ritual corpus are two: the absence of the metaphor of feasting an honouredguest, and the symbolism of identification through the body. The majority of Shingonrituals employ the metaphor of feasting an honoured guest for the purpose of structuringthe ritual process. This metaphor derives directly from the Vedic ritual system, in whichthe fundamental metaphor for the sacrifice is that of making food offerings to the deitiesas honoured guests. Other kinds of metaphors have been used in different ritualtraditions. For example, the Taoist rituals usually employ the metaphor of petitioning abureaucratic official as the means by which the ritual process is structured.37

The practice of visualising the syllable A, however, does not employ this metaphor.Despite the syntactic similarities, and the similarity of identification between thepractitioner and the chief deity ( Jpn. honzon), no offerings are made to the syllable.Indeed, expressing it this way sounds absurd: it hardly makes sense to think of offeringmusic, incense, food, perfumes and lights to a syllable. There are two possible reasonsfor the absence of the feasting of an honoured guest metaphor. First, the practice is avery short one, requiring such extensive abbreviation that this symbolism has beenexcised. Second, the use of a syllable as the chief deity imposes a semantic constrainton the ritual. Unlike a Buddha, a syllable does not eat food, drink water, appreciatemusic or enjoy incense. The semantic shift of the chief deity from an anthropomor-phic entity to the syllable A has produced other kinds of semantic changes in theritual performance.

The often noteworthy difference between this visualisation of the syllable A and othermembers of the Shingon ritual corpus is the character of the identification between thepractitioner and the chief deity. Many of the Shingon rituals employ visualisation ofthe three mysteries ( Jpn. sanmitsu): the mysteries of body, speech and mind. Thepractitioner identifies his own body with the body of the Buddha by making theappropriate mudra, identifies his own speech with the speech of the Buddha by recitingthe appropriate mantra and identifies his own mind with the mind of the Buddha byentering into the appropriate meditative state (Skt. samadhi).38 In the practice ofvisualising the syllable A, however, identification is performed by visualising the syllableA as entering into and residing within one’s own body. I suspect that again it is thesemantic character of the syllable A as the chief deity which produces this differencebetween Ajikan and other ritual practices in the Shingon corpus. Syllables do not have

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 225

Figure 2. Syntactic Structure of the Contemporary Ajikan Meditation.

anthropomorphic bodies with which we can identify our own bodies, they do notspeak, and they do not have a mind. However, in chanting the syllable A, we can feelthe vibrations arising from the solar plexus.

226 R. K. Payne

ConclusionIn conclusion, I draw four theoretical aspects of this essay: first, the importance ofsyntactic analysis of ritual as providing a baseline for common discourse about ritual;second, the syntactic effects of semantic change; third, the continuity of syntactic andsymbolic aspects of ritualised meditative practice; and fourth, the implications for acognitive theory of ritual practice.

First, the study of ritual has been hampered by the lack of any agreed upon analytictechnique. A variety of perspectives have been developed, but little interaction ispossible between them in the absence of a common analysis as a basis for discussion. Thesituation is much like that of linguistics prior to Saussure. Saussure insisted upon thesynchronic analysis of language as a means of providing a control to the otherwiselargely speculative theories concerning language which were being promoted in his day.In the same way, a systematic synchronic analysis such as that provided by a syntacticapproach to ritual can provide a common basis for discussion of ritual.

Second, the syntactic examination of the Ajikan shows the effect of semantic changeon the syntax. Without returning to a referential understanding with its implicitneo-Platonism,39 recognition of the mutual relation between semantics and syntax mayneed to guide research on the structures of ritual.40 The development of this approachto the study of ritual will require much additional work, both specifically within theShingon ritual corpus and also more broadly in other Buddhist and Tantric rituals aswell. This work is needed in order to establish the kind of body of information necessaryfor testing differing analyses.41

Third, Zoei’s and Miyata’s versions of the Ajikan show how this visualisation kind ofmeditation practice is organised according to ritual structures which are in fact commonto a wide variety of Shingon rituals: mirror image and repetitive symmetry, and terminalabbreviation. These ritual structures are found in Shingon rituals dating from before theKamakura up to the present. At the same time this ritual text shows how the symbolicvalues of the syllable A which originated in India—beginning, universal andinexpressible—were put into practical application in Buddhist ritual practice.42

Fourth, the use of ritual as a means of revealing cognitive structures implies a view ofcognition which asserts that there are neither isolated cognitive systems—one forlanguage, one for ritual, one for games, one for music, and so on, nor a single cognitivesystem at the base of or governing all such capacities. Rather, it seems that there are avariety of systems, overlapping and interconnected, which come into play in differingcombinations to produce different kinds of activities. Thus the same structures thatallow for the workings of generative grammar in the production of language can, incombination with other cognitive structures, also be at play in the production of ritual.This final question will also require much additional collaborative research.

Notes1 Frits Staal, ‘The Meaninglessness of Ritual’, (1979), partially reprinted as ch. 13 of Rules Without

Meaning: Ritual, Mantras and the Human Sciences, Toronto Studies in Religion, vol. IV NewYork, Peter Lang 1989. An argument may be made that the relation between the syntax oflanguage and ‘ritual syntax’ is more than simply heuristically useful. One form that thisargument may take is that both are products of the same organising principles of humanconsciousness, or that they represent examples of the same tendency to create rule-boundsystems of behaviour. This essay is not, however, the place to develop these arguments.

2 ‘Ritual Syntax’, in M. Nagatomi et al. (eds.), Sanskrit and Indian Studies: Essays in Honour ofH. H. Ingalls, Studies of Classical India, vol. II Dordrecht, Reidel 1980; revised versionreprinted as ch. 12 of Rules Without Meaning.

3 For a fuller discussion of the history and symbolism of the Ajikan, see my ‘Ajikan: Ritual and

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 227

Meditation in the Shingon Tradition’, in Richard K. Payne (ed.), Re-Visioning ‘Kamakura’Buddhism, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism Honolulu, University of HawaiiPress 1998, pp. 219–48. For detailed information on the establishment of the Shingon sect inJapan, see David Lion Gardiner, ‘Kukai and the Beginnings of Shingon Buddhism in Japan’dissertation, Stanford University 1995.

4 As per the recommendation of Frits Staal to ‘never study one ritual in isolation’ (personalcommunication, 16 October 1992).

5 Frits Staal, ‘Concepts of Science in Europe and Asia’, Leiden, International Institute for AsianStudies 1993, p. 23.

6 Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, New York, HarperPerennial 1995, pp. 99–100.

7 Ibid., p. 108.8 Keith Devlin, Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind,

New York, J Wiley 1997, p. 131.9 Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard Nice, Cambridge Studies in Social

Anthropology, No. 16, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1977, p. 11. Bourdieu adds thequalification ‘and only those’ to his description of the principle constructed by the science ofpractice. In linguistics, one of the tests for the descriptive adequacy of the proposed rules iswhether the application of them creates a sentence which a native speaker judges to be‘ungrammatical’. To the best of my knowledge there have been no tests for the limits ofacceptable ritual, though an interesting test case is provided by a ritual created by C. M. Chen,a Taiwanese tantric Buddhist master. This ritual is a votive fire offering (Skt. homa, Jpn. goma)devoted to Jesus and other Christian figures. (Lin, Yutang (ed.), A Systematised Collection ofChenian Booklets, Nos. 101–49, vol. III, nos. 115–25, El Cerrito, CA: Yutang Lin 1993, includes‘A Ritual of Fire Sacrifice to the Five Saints of Christianity’ No. 122, pp. 421–44.) While therituals appear to be ‘well-formed’ in the sense that the structures employed are those of othertantric Buddhist homas, the choice of chief deities (Jpn. honzon) makes them marginal. It is likea sentence in which the subject, adverb and direct object are all from another language. Or, aswith Jabberwocky, one can determine from the context which part is which and there is afamiliar, recognisable order, but one is not sure whether it is something one would oneself wantto say.

10 See, for example, Richard Schechner and Willa Appel (eds), By Means of Performance: InterculturalStudies of Theatre and Ritual, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1990.

11 For a discussion of the alimentary metaphor in the Indic context, see Charles Malamoud,‘Cooking the World’, in his Cooking the World: Ritual and Thought in Ancient India, trans. DavidWhite, Delhi, Oxford University Press 1996, pp. 23–53.

12 See George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, University of ChicagoPress 1980), and George Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal aboutthe Mind, Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1987.

13 Yoshito S. Hakeda, trans. Kukai: Major Works, New York, Columbia University Press 1972, p.220. Hakeda, whose translation I have quoted, notes that the direction to unite meditation (Skt.dhyana) and wisdom (Skt. prajna) can be understood in two ways. First, it can be understood asdirecting one to ‘enter into the state of unshakable concentration in the oneness of body(dhysna) and mind (prajna)’. Second, it can be understood as directing one to make the vajranjalimudra: ‘one should unite the right thumb (dhyana) with the left thumb (prajna) and form the[thunderbolt, Skt. vajranjali] mudra’. (p. 220, n. 230).

14 Also known as Kukan and as Rikan, 1635–93.15 The Chuin lineage is one of the main lineages within the Shingon sect.16 Zoei: Ajikan Sahoo Chuin-ryu. Reprinted, together with commentary by Suda Doei, by Matsuda

Doei, Kyoto, Rokudai Shinpo Press 1934. Miyata Taisen (ed.), Ajikan: A Manual for the EsotericMeditation, Sacramento, Northern California Koyasan Church 1979).

17 The ‘Womb Realm’ refers to the quiescent wisdom of the enlightened state. It is matched in theShingon tradition by the ‘Thunderbolt Realm’ (Skt. Vajradhatu), which refers to the activecompassion of the enlightened state. While the pairing of wisdom and compassion is foundthroughout the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, in the Shingon sect it takes the perhapsunique form of a pair of mandalas representing the entire cosmos as seen by an enlightenedbeing.

18 For example, Dogen directs the practitioner to ‘Sit upright, with the back of your head straight

228 R. K. Payne

above your spine, not leaning to the left or right, or to the front or back. Your ears should bein line with your shoulders and your nose in a line with your navel. Place your tongue againstthe roof of your mouth with teeth and lips closed. Keep your eyes open, not too wide or toonarrow, without eyelids covering the pupils. Your neck should not bend forward from yourback. Just breathe naturally through your nose, not loudly panting, neither [trying to breathe]long nor short, slow nor sharp. Arrange both body and mind, taking several deep breaths withyour whole body so that you are relaxed inside and out, and sway left and right seven or eighttimes’ (Taigen Daniel Leighton and Shohaku Okumura (trans.), Dogen’s Pure Standards for theZen Community: A Translation of Eihei Shingi, Albany, State University of New York Press1996, p. 72.

19 Miyata, Ajikan, p. 3.20 Jpn. nenju, ‘thought beads’ (Hisao Inagaki, A Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Terms, Union City,

CA, Heian International 1989, s.v., ‘nenju’), that is, beads used for recollection of the Buddha(Skt. anusmr*ti).

21 Although usually Zoei gives full explanations, in this instance he gives only the name of theritual action to be taken, apparently assuming that the practitioner already knows what isintended from prior training; the expansion given here is based the action as it is known in otherShingon rituals, such as the four training rituals. See Richard K. Payne, Tantric Ritual of Japan,Suata-Pit*aka Serviea, number 365, New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture 1991,p. 146.

22 This is done by folding the hands together with the tips of the fingers inside, right handuppermost. The middle fingers are then extended and touch at the tips, while the forefingersextend out around the middle fingers.

23 Again, the manual only gives the names of this action and the accompanying mudra. For themudra, see Payne, Tantric Ritual of Japan, p. 144.

24 Miyata, Ajikan, p. 3.25 Ibid., p. 4.26 Ibid.27 Ibid.28 Currently Bishop of the Koyasan Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles.29 The divisions of the practice as enumerated are those of the ritual manual itself.30 Ibid., pp. 2–3.31 Ibid., p. 4.32 See Payne, The Tantric Ritual of Japan, p. 146.33 Ibid., pp. 285, 321.34 Ibid., p. 287.35 Ibid., p. 181.36 The exception seems to be linked with a strongly dualist ontology, for example, that of the Suaiva

Siddhanta tradition.37 We expect that this will be discussed in some of the forthcoming posthumous publications of

Michel Strickmann.38 Minoru, Kiyota. Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice, Los Angeles and Tokyo, Buddhist Books

International 1978, pp. 69–71. See also his ‘Glossary of Technical Terms’, s.v. ‘tri-guhya’.39 See Staal’s ‘The Meaninglessness of Ritual’ for the failure of the referential theory of meaning

as applied to ritual practice.40 While it is not being claimed that ritual is language, the application of linguistic models to the

study of ritual has begun to provide a means of performing significant comparative studies ofritual. The efficacy of applying linguistic analyses to ritual may be grounded in the fact that bothlanguage and ritual are the cultural products of human beings with a fundamentally similarmental capacity for structuring experience and action. Future applications of linguistic analysesto ritual may borrow from such recent developments in linguistics as ‘cognitive grammar’,which ‘claims the inseparability of syntax and semantics’. Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations ofCognitive Grammar, Stanford, Stanford University Press 1987, I, p. 1.

41 For a corollary, see David M. Perlmutter and Scott Soames, Syntactic Argumentation and theStructure of English, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979).

42 The durability of the interpretation as transmitted through China to Japan is noteworthy, given

The Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of Ritual Syntax 229

that the meanings attributed to the syllable A are so deeply connected with Sanskrit. See my‘Ajikan: Ritual and Meditation in the Shingon Tradition’.

RICHARD K. PAYNE’S research focuses on the ritual practices of the Shingon sect ofJapanese Buddhism. He is the Dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies and a memberof the doctoral faculty of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.

Institute of Buddhist Studies, 650 Castro Street, Suite 120–202, Mountain View, CA 94041,U.S.A.