Graduate Theological Union
Institute of Buddhist Studies: Dean and Professor of Buddhist Studies
Core Doctoral Faculty Member

At GTU since 1995

Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union
M.A., Nyingma Institute
B.A. and M.A., San Jose State University

Phone: 650/938-7192
E-mail: rkpayne@earthlink.net

Current Research and Teaching Interests

• Tantric Fire Ritual
• Ritual Studies—Ritual Historiography and Ritual Structure

Selected Publications

• "The Tantric Transformation of Puja: Interpretation and Structure in the Study of Ritual," in the Festschrift Staal (London: Kegan Paul, and Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, 1998).
• "Ajikan: Ritual and Meditation in the Shingon Tradition" and "Introduction to Re-Visioning 'Kamakura' Buddhism," ed. Richard K. Payne, in Re-Visioning "Kamakura" Buddhism, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism, No. 11 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998).
• "Tongues of Flame: Homologies in the Tantra Homa," in Roots of Tantra, ed. Katherine Harper (Albany: State University of New York Press, forthcoming).
• "Shingon Services for the Dead," in Religions of Japan in Practice, ed. George Tanabe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
• "Votive Fire Offering Dedicated to Manjusri,"in Tantra in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
• Language Conducive to Awakening: Categories of Language Use in East Asian Buddhism with Particular Attention to the Vajrayana Tradition, Buddhismus-Studien monograph series no. 2 (Düsseldorf: Haus der Japanischen Kultur München: Iudicium Verlag, 1998).