Practicing the “Threefold Mystery”: Rethinking a Shingon Ritual from Dichotomy to Dialectic

Summary

Academic study of Buddhism has long prioritized doctrine over practice, but the relationship between them remains poorly understood. A common but flawed assumption treats tantric practice as a separate, autonomous ritual technology independent of doctrinal formulation. This essay argues that dichotomizing doctrine and practice is methodologically dysfunctional and proposes instead a dialectical relationship, illustrated by the Buddhist image of "the two wings of a bird." The argument is explored through a specific tantric ritual, the Shingon homa, showing how doctrine and practice are mutually constitutive.

Study at a glance

Abstract

After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously. The effect that dichotomizing doctrine from practice has on the study of contemplative practices is considered in this essay, which first introduces the trope and then explores its supports in Western intellectual culture. Despite its prevalence, the dichotomous representation of doctrine and practice is methodologically dysfunctional. As an alternative, it is proposed that the relation between doctrine and practice is better understood as dialectical, sometimes represented in Buddhist literature by the image of “the two wings of a bird.” This relation is explored by examining a particular tantric ritual, a Shingon homa.