Scholars have long been intrigued by the Buddha's defining action
(karma) as intention. This book explores systematically how intention
and agency were interpreted in all genres of early Theravada thought. It
offers a philosophical exploration of intention and motivation as they
are investigated in Buddhist moral psychology. At stake is how we
understand karma, the nature of moral experience, and the possibilities
for freedom.
In contrast to many studies that assimilate
Buddhist moral thinking to Western theories of ethics, the book attends
to distinctively Buddhist ways of systematizing and theorizing their own
categories. Arguing that meaning is a product of the explanatory
systems used to explore it, the book pays particular attention to genre
and to
the 5th-century commentator Buddhaghosa's guidance on how to read
Buddhist texts. The book treats all branches of the Pali canon (the
Tipitaka, that is, the Suttas, the Abhidhamma, and the Vinaya), as well
as narrative sources (the Dhammapada and the Jataka commentaries). In
this sense it offers a comprehensive treatment of intention in the
canonical Theravada sources. But the book goes further than this by
focusing explicitly on the body of commentarial thought represented by
Buddhaghosa. His work is at the center of the book's investigations,
both insofar as he offers interpretative strategies for reading
canonical texts, but also as he advances particular understandings of
agency and moral psychology. The book offers the first book-length study
devoted to Buddhaghosa's thought on
ethics.
Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency, Maria Heim, Oxford University Press, Paperback, 272 Pages, $64.00
Maria Heim is Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies
at Amherst College. Her work focuses on moral psychology, emotions, and
agency in South Asian intellectual history.
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One: Constructing Experience: Intention in the Suttas
Chapter Two: The Work of Intention: Mental Life in the Abhidhamma
Chapter Three: Culpability and Disciplinary Culture in the Vinaya
Chapter Four: Making Actions Intelligible: Intention and Mind in Stories
Conclusion
Bibliography
Notes
Index
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