Abstract

Despite more than two hundred years of modern academic study of the Pali literature, Pali commentaries still remain understudied. We know very little about the reading practices of the traditional Pali commentators and philosophers themselves. Maria Heim is one of the very few scholars invested in filling this major lacuna in Buddhist studies. Heim’s 2014 publication, The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency, already illuminated the philosophical acumen of Buddhaghosa, the foremost Pali commentator of the fifth century CE, whose name is intertwined with Theravada Buddhism itself. In her recent publication, the Voice of the Buddha: Buddhaghosa on the Immeasurable Words, Heim continues...