How did ancient Buddhists read and interpret the Buddha's words? In Voice of the Buddha, Maria Heim reads the early Buddhist scriptures with Buddhaghosa, the principal commentator, editor, and translator of the Theravada intellectual tradition. Buddhaghosa considers the Buddha to be omniscient and his words "oceanic." Every word, passage, bookindeed, the corpus as a wholeis taken to be "endless and immeasurable." Commentarial practice thus requires disciplined methods of expansion, drawing out the endless possibilities for meaning and application. Heim considers Buddhagohsa's theories of scripture and follows his practices of exegesis to yield fresh insight into all three collections of the early Pali texts: Vinaya, the Suttas, and the Abhidhamma.
Voice of the Buddha is a study of the theories of scripture described and practiced by the 5th-century thinker Buddhaghosa, the principal commentator of the Theravada intellectual tradition. By bringing to the fore Buddhaghosa's theories of texts and commentarial practices, Heim casts new light on early Pali texts and the commentarial system Buddhaghosa's work represents.
