1046 richard k. payne
Interiorization of Ritual
The transition from Vedic ritualism to tantric yoga is often equated
with the interiorization of ritual (Payne 2002). This process began in
India very early; references to it are found in the Upaniṣads. Accord-
ing to Yael Bentor, the Vedic fire ritual already had an internalized
form by the time homa was adapted into a tantric Buddhist context
(Bentor 2000, 595). Ritual practices may be interiorized in a variety
of ways (Bentor identifies five, 596), including homologies between
human physiology (such as bodily heat or gtum mo, and the digestive
processes) and the votive fire, and a mentally visualized performance
of a ritual. While in some Indic interpretations this internalized ritual
became not only an acceptable substitute but was even more highly
valorized than a physical performance of a ritual, in at least Yixing’s
understanding the physical performance was preferable (Strickmann
1983, 443).^9
Integral Ritual Technology: Mudrā, Mantra, Mind, and Mandala
It has been argued convincingly that while the doctrinal system of
tantric Buddhism does not differ significantly from mainstream
Mahāyāna Buddhism, the ritual technology oft the former does dis-
tinguish the two. Conceiving of the cosmos as a mandala and one’s
performance of mudrā along with their attendant mantra and visual-
izations as the three mysteries (sanmitsu ), that is, the identity of
the practitioner’s body, speech, and mind with the body, speech, and
mind of the deity, constitutes not simply a list of characteristic tantric
ritual elements but a coherently organized whole. This is why, when
looking at the continuities of the ritual culture, we are dealing with
something other than a collection of characteristics.
Additionally, by focusing on ritual as an organic, integrated whole,
we can avoid the problems involved in attempting to define tantra in
terms of particular elements, as has been the common practice in the
(^9) In the psychologized religious culture of the contemporary West, it is all too easy
for interiorization to be misperceived as a kind of tantric psychology. However, this
involves a suppressed interpretive step. When, for example, the “winds” (prāṇa, chi,
ki ) are interpreted into a broader “proto-psychological” category such as “energy,”
which is then itself given psychological valence, the middle step is usually elided. Eso-
teric physiology is, therefore, a distinct category and it usually employs very different
metaphors for internal processes.