Religion (1999) 29, 215229the 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 theArticle No. Reli.1998.0179, available online at onThe Shingon Ajikan: Diagrammatic Analysis of RitualSyntaxRichard K. PayneAjikan 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.
Ajikan is a ritualised meditation in which the practitioner visualizes the syllable A. Popular in the Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradition of Shingon since. Ritual syntax of the Ajikan practice, comparing two ritual manuals, one premodern, the.
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 diVering religious traditions.?