"Buddhaghosa's Literary Sensibility," a talk by Maria Heim

Please join Cornell's Society for Buddhist Studies for a virtual talk by Prof. Maria Heim, the George Lyman Crosby 1896 & Stanley Warfield Crosby Professor in Religion at Amherst College.

Prof. Heim will argue that Buddhaghosa in the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, and in particular, his commentarial elaboration of the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, appreciates the literary beauty of the sutta and further embellishes it. His literary expansions of the weeks, days, and hours of the Buddha's final nirvana employ rich imagery, shifts of perspective, foreshadowing, and other literary devices to heighten the acute emotional power and beauty of the narrative.

The talk is sponsored by the GPSA-FC and the Department of Asian Studies, and is open to all interested.