Listening to the Dharmabhan.

aka:
The Buddhist Preacher
in and of the S
utra of Utmost
Golden Radiance

The self-referential discourse that characterizes the subgenre to which

the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance (Suvarn.a-( pra)bhasottama
S
utra) belongs has led scholars to posit a cult of the book focused on
the written s
utra as potent object. While Buddhists in various times
and places have certainly revered the material text, the central role
many such s
utras accord to the dharmabhan.aka (the Buddhist
preacher) demands that greater attention be paid to the role of oral
performance in the actualization of the s
utras self-proclaimed transformative potential. Through an examination of both what the s
utra has
to say about its preacher, and how the preachers performance changes
the meaning of the text, this article argues for the centrality of oral
performance and aural reception in the s
utras normative vision, and
for the importance of deriving an interpretive methodology from that
normative vision.

A CERTAIN EXTRAVAGANT self-referentiality might be taken as

the defining feature of the prominent subgenre of Mahayana s
utras to
which the Suvarn.a-( pra)bhasottamas
utra (S
utra of Utmost Golden
*Natalie D. Gummer, Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511, USA. E-mail:
gummern@beloit.edu. I am grateful to Charles Hallisey for feedback on an earlier draft of this
article, as well as to the JAAR readers who offered such kind comments and excellent suggestions.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 2012, Vol. 80, No. 1, pp. 137160
doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfr089
The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of
Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

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Natalie D. Gummer*

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

1
The s
utra circulated in something resembling its extant Sanskrit form before the fifth-century
CE. The terminus ante quem of the s
utra is provided by the earliest extant Chinese translation,
traditionally attributed to the Central Asian monk Dharmaks.ema and dated to 414 CE. Extant
versions are partially or wholly preserved in Tibetan, Khotanese, Sogdian, Tangut, Mongolian, and
Old Uighur as well as Sanskrit and Chinese. I have included references both to Skjaervs edition
(2004) of the Sanskrit text, on which I rely, and to Nobels edition (1937). Skjaerv has consulted
manuscript remains that were not available to Nobel; his edition provides the most complete
information we currently have on the text of the s
utra. At the same time, Skjaervs edition is not
readily available, while that of Nobel will be accessible to most researchers. Moreover, since
R. E. Emmericks English translation (1996) provides cross-references to Nobels edition, readers
can also use the references to Nobels edition in order to consult the translation. All references to
Skjaervs edition are to volume 1, and to the chapter, section (if applicable), and passage numbers
assigned by Skjaerv. References to Nobels edition are to page and line. All translations of the
s
utra are my ownand in light of the argument made in this paper, I have privileged sound and
rhythm over extreme literalism.
2
Variations on this formula are found in several s
utras of the subgenre, such as the
Vajracchedika, the Saddharmapun.d.arka, and the Vimalakrtinirdea. In the S
utra of Utmost
Golden Radiance, see, e.g., Skjaerv (2004: 10.7010.77) and Nobel (1937: 126.13127.6).
3
Teiser and Stones succinct summary of historical interpretations of the Lotus S
utra (2009:
1719) illustrates some of these approaches.
4
Until the 2005 American Academy of Religion panel at which an earlier version of this study
was presented (see also Nance 2008; Drewes 2010), the only extended consideration of the role of
the Buddhist preacher in Mahayana literature was that of MacQueen (1981, 1982).

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Radiance)1 belongs. According to one frequently encountered formulation, for instance, beings who hear even one verse of the s
utra in
question and respond with thankful joy will reap tremendous rewards
incalculable mountains of merit, rebirth among the gods, beauty,
health, wealth, and so on.2 Even this, the simplest form that selfreferentiality takes in these s
utras, situates the reader on the horns of a
hermeneutical dilemma: where is the s
utra that the s
utra praises so
profusely?
Such self-referential statements have led interpreters, ancient and
modern, in quite different directions. Some readers have looked inward
to the apparently empty core of the text, variously interpreted as a
space meant to be filled by its audiences or as a skillful enactment of
the Buddhist concept of emptiness (
unyata).3 Others have turned
toward the exterior, to the material text that contains that emptiness.
On the basis of such self-referential statements, many of which explicitly enjoin readers to copy and revere the s
utra, Schopen (1975) has
posited the cult of the book in the Mahayanaand indeed, evidence
that Buddhists located the potency of these s
utras in their material
manifestations is abundant, especially in East Asia. Less frequently
explored are interpretations of these s
utras as texts for oration,4 no
doubt in part because of the evanescence of actual performances.
Unlike the material text, the oral text leaves only secondary traces in the
historical record: tales of accomplished preachers, annals that mention

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

139

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the recitation of a given s

utra in a court ritual, passing references to
oral performance of the s
utra in histories, dramas, or fictional works.
And yet the self-referential s
utras themselves share a pronounced preoccupation with their own oration. The dharmabhan.aka, the Buddhist
orator or preacher, figures prominently in a number of Mahayana
s
utras, including several in the prajaparamita literature and the
Saddharmapun.d.arka (the Lotus S
utra), among others. The S
utra of
Utmost Golden Radiance is unusually explicit, however, about just what
happens in the ideal context of oral performance and aural reception;
its ubiquitous self-referential passages present a strong normative vision
of the conditions under which its transformative potential is actualized,
and therefore provide an exceptionally rich resource for clarifying the
interpretive frameworks posited by this and related s
utras. It is my
contention that listening to the dharmabhan.akaboth in the sense of
attending carefully to what the s
utra says about him, and in the sense
of imagining how it would be to hear his performance of the s
utra
demonstrates the centrality of oral performance to the normative vision
of the s
utra, and offers new (and on some level, I want to suggest, very
old) avenues for the interpretation of the self-referential s
utra. Listening
to the dharmabhan.aka has the potential to transform our understanding of this body of Mahayana literature and its function.
My argument is in part methodological. The s
utra makes claims on
its audiences in no uncertain terms. What might we fail to recognize
about what a s
utra is and does if we do not at least imagine that the
s
utrathat the dharmabhan.akaspeaks, and speaks to us? In arguing
that the imaginative exercise of listening to the dharmabhan.aka reveals
the centrality of oral performance to the normative vision of the s
utra,
then, I am also arguing that the normative vision of a text can suggest
modes of interpretation quite different from those favored by contemporary academics, and that we ought to explore the potential of those
modes of interpretation to transform our understanding of the materials
we study. The oral s
utra might expose and challenge contemporary
scholarly assumptions in profoundly significant waysif we are able to
hear it.
I begin by examining the depiction of the dharmabhan.aka in the
S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance and situating it in relation to other
bodies of South Asian discourse that, I argue, deeply inform that representation. This line of inquiry, by making abundantly clear the centrality of oral performance and aural reception to the s
utras normative
vision of its own efficacy, urges readers of the s
utra to become listeners,
and perhaps even orators. I take up this dictate in the second section of
the article through the imaginative exercise of listening to the

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

dharmabhan.aka preach this s

utra in which he figures as a central character. But the oral s
utra also encourages listeners to become speakers; I
take up the implications of this final transformation in conclusion, and
assess the implications of listening as a mode of interpretation for our
understanding both of this influential subgenre of Mahayana Buddhist
literature and of preaching practices more broadly.

THE DHARMABHN.AKA IN THE STRA

5
These are chapters six (The Four Great Kings), seven (Sarasvat), eight (r), ten
(Dr.d.ha), eleven (Sam
. jaya), and thirteen (Susam
. bhava).
6
The vision of kingship in the s
utra shares much with broader South Asian conceptions,
including the emphasis on the profound interconnection of polity and cosmos. See, for instance,
Gonda (1956).

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The Sanskrit S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance makes explicit reference to its own orator some forty times; he is the central focus of six
(almost consecutive) chapters.5 In the first five of these chapters, a
series of deities rise before the Buddha to promise the dharmabhan.aka
their aid, protection, and veneration, and to prescribe rituals and potent
formulae (mantras and dharan.s) for ensuring his effective performance
of the s
utra. The remaining chapter dealing with the dharmabhan.aka is
a jataka tale (a story of a previous birth of the Buddha) in which just
such an eloquent and efficacious performance and its astonishing transformative effects upon an audience are exemplified. Ensuring the transformative efficacy of the dharmabhan.akas performance is the primary
concern of the deities who rise in succession to offer their aid.
According to these deities, the oration of the s
utra in an appropriate
ritual context by a dharmabhan.aka who possesses inspired eloquence
( pratibhana) not only causes extraordinary human flourishing, but also
initiates and sustains a cycle of cosmic flourishing that extends to the
heavens and permeates deep into the earth.
The Four Great Kings (caturmaharajas, or lokapalas, world-protectors) are particularly concerned with articulating the ideal
relationship between the dharmabhan.aka and the king of humankind
(manus.yaraja) in this interconnected cosmos. The king must rule
according to dharma in order to ensure the harmony and well-being
not only of the realm but also of the cosmos as a whole6and in the
S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance, ruling according to dharma especially entails listening joyfully to the dharmabhan.aka preach the s
utra,
as well as revering and protecting all those who uphold this most sovereign of s
utras (s
utrendraraja). The Four Great Kings are loquacious in

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

141

their descriptions both of the remarkable benefits that accrue to the

king who fulfills this vision of righteous rule and of the horrific results
of neglecting or rejecting the s
utra and its orators. These consequences,
experienced not only by the king but by his entire realm, occur because
the Four Great Kings, without whose aid the earthly king is unable to
maintain peace, righteousness, and harmony in his realm, are themselves avid auditors of the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radianceand for
good reason. As they announce to the Buddha,

Listening to the dharmabhan.aka is a profoundly embodied experience

that infuses the Four Great Kings with the qualities of vitality, strength,
and luminosity. Not surprisingly, the king of humankind, who responds
joyfully to the s
utra, offers protection to its orators and upholders, and
dedicates the mass of merit accumulated thereby to the Four Great
Kings, is said to experience the same effects (Nobel 1937: 82.1083.6;
Skjaerv 2004: 6.3.666.3.71). Moreover, whenever the s
utra is
preached, the Four Great Kings, together with many hundreds of thousands of millions of gods, come to the palace of the sponsoring king to
hear the dharma, their bodies invisible. The cosmos itself responds by
generating sweet-smelling canopies of vines and golden-hued lights
above the heavenly palaces of the deities. When the deities have been
sated with the liquid essence of the immortalizing nectar of the dharma
(dharmamr.tarasena sam.tarpitah.), they will cause the king and his
realm to thrive with their protection and blessings (Nobel 1937: 91.6
92.13; Skjaerv 2004: 6.5.26.5.12).
This cycle of cosmic flourishing is the primary focus of the chapter
on the earth-goddess Dr.d.ha. Like the Four Great Kings, she too is sated
by the liquid essence of the immortalizing nectar of the dharma,
although her response is more generalized than that of the Kings, who
naturally take a special interest in the crucial role of the ruler in the
cycle. Dr.d.ha promises to come, her body invisible, to any place

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Most Illustrious Lord, when this Utmost Golden Radiance, most

sovereign of s
utras, is being fully elucidated in an assembly of those
who uphold the noble s
utrathen, through hearing the dharma,
through the liquid essence of the immortalizing nectar of dharma
(dharm
amr.tarasa), the divine bodies of us Four Great Kings, along
with our armies and retinues, will flourish with abundant vital fluid
(ojas). Vigor (vrya), strength (bala), and fortitude (sthama) will be
generated in our bodies; luminous energy (tejas), splendor (ri), and
luster (laks.m) will permeate our bodies. (Nobel 1937: 65.618, 65.11;
Skjaerv 2004: 6.1.126.1.16)

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

7
Ritual preparations are by no means incumbent upon kings alone; very early in the s
utra, any
listener is enjoined to bathe and don clean, white garments (Nobel 1937: 3.33.6; Skjaerv 2004:
1.91.10).

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whatsoever, be it a village, a city, or a cave in the mountains, where the

s
utra is uttered. She will lay her head at the feet of the dharmabhan.aka
a gesture of extreme respect, even submissionand will joyfully soak
up the liquid essence (rasa) of the dharma that he preaches. After rejoicing and worshipping, she will cause the rasa of the earth itself to
increase tremendously, as a result of which all vegetation will swell with
vital fluid (ojas) and grow most luxuriantly. Beings who then partake of
the fruits of the earth will themselves flourish; like the Four Great Kings
and Dr.d.ha, they will glow with luminous energy (tejas) and swell with
strength (bala). These healthy, happy, beautiful beings will live in peace
and plenty, and, perceiving the considerable benefits of listening to the
S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance, will entreat the dharmabhan.akas to
preach the s
utra for the benefit and happiness of all beingsand so the
cycle continues (Nobel 1937: 121.3124.11; Skjaerv 2004: 10.210.49).
The oration of the s
utra by the dharmabhan.aka is thus a ritual performance through which the cosmos as a whole is rendered prosperous
and peaceful. The ritual procedures, described in some detail in the
chapter on the Four Great Kings, emphasize the exalted status of the
dharmabhan.aka. The oration should take place in the finest palace of
the king, which should be thoroughly cleaned, sprinkled with scented
water, and strewn with flowers. The king should erect a lofty dharmathrone from which the dharmabhan.aka will preach, and should adorn
the throne and the palace with rich ornaments, parasols, banners, and
pennants. A lower seat should be provided for the king himself, who is
instructed to bathe well and to don clean, new white garments and
various ornaments.7 When the king has seated himself below the dharmabhan.aka, he must not be intoxicated with the liquor of sovereignty,
must not cling to lofty kingly rule, must hear this Utmost Golden
Radiance, most sovereign of s
utras, with a mind devoid of any arrogance, conceit, or haughtiness, and must conceive the notion that the
monk before him, the dharmabhan.aka, is his teacher (Nobel 1937:
78.778.10; Skjaerv 2004: 6.3.186.3.20). He should stand reverently
before the dharmabhan.aka, filled with profound joy (Nobel 1937:
79.8; Skjaerv 2004: 6.3.26).
The Buddha augments these ritual injunctions in a manner that
clarifies the implications of the dharmabhan.akas role as the teacher of
the king. When the preparations for the oration are complete, the king
should walk out to meet the dharmabhan.aka with white umbrellas and

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

143

all the accoutrements of royalty (indicating the high esteem in which he

holds the preacher). Why? With every step he takes toward the dharmabhan.aka, he multiplies the copious benefits he will receive, including
kingly rebirths, fabulous palaces, long life, eloquence, fame, power,
strength, beauty, and encounters with other buddhas. Therefore, the
king should willingly walk a leagueno, a hundred, a thousand leagues
to meet the dharmabhan.aka (Nobel 1937: 79.1081.3; Skjaerv 2004:
6.3.286.3.45). The Buddha instructs the king to think,

According to this normative vision, the king (and by extension, any

prospective auditor) should imagine that the dharmabhan.aka is
akyamuni himself, and should anticipate the attendant spiritual and
material effects of abiding in the very presence of the Buddha. This
very day, the passage continues, the king will, through listening to the
dharmabhan.aka preach the s
utra, worship hundreds of thousands of
millions of buddhas, will ensure his own rebirth as Brahma and akra
in hundreds of thousands of millions of incarnations, will liberate
beings and amass an immeasurable amount of merit, and will ensure
the protection and prosperity of his entire realm (Nobel 1937: 81.9
82.9; Skjaerv 2004: 6.3.546.3.65). Clearly, the dharmabhan.aka is no
ordinary speaker.
In fact, this passage clearly indicates that the dharmabhan.aka takes
on the role of the Buddha in the dramatic ritual of oration. As the
speaker of buddhavacana, the words of the Buddha, the dharmabhan.aka is functionally equivalent to the Buddha himself; through a
sort of ritual ventriloquism, he makes manifest the voice of the Buddha.
Several other passages make clear that this functional equivalence has
ontological significance, both for the dharmabhan.aka and for his audience. The dharmabhan.aka is, by virtue of his dramatic enactment of
the role of the Buddha-as-preacher, assured of becoming a buddha
himself. Indeed, he receives a prediction to buddhahood from all the
buddhas in the cosmos speaking in unison (Nobel 1937: 89.1091.3;

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This very day, akyamuni, the tathagata, the arhat, the perfectly awakened one, will enter right here in my royal palace! This very day,
akyamuni, the tathagata, the arhat, the perfectly awakened one, will
partake of a meal right here in my royal palace! This very day, I will
hear the dharma of akyamuni, the tathagata, the arhat, the perfectly
awakened one, which is spurned by the entire world! This very day,
through hearing the dharma, I will attain the state of a non-returner
from unsurpassed, perfect awakening! (Nobel 1937: 81.481.9; Skjaerv
2004: 6.3.506.3.53)

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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Skjaerv 2004: 6.4.486.4.66). And, as the above passage and numerous

others suggest, his auditors, too, will not only reap copious material
benefits from listening to the dharmabhan.aka, but will also make
lightning-speed progress on the Buddhist pathas long as they respond
appropriately to his performance, that is.
That response depends in part on the quality of the dharmabhan.akas performance. Accordingly, other deities arise from the
assembly surrounding the preaching Buddha to bestow upon the dharmabhan.aka the inspired eloquence ( pratibhana) necessary in order for
listeners to undergo the transformative experience that the s
utra so
explicitly offers them. Sarasvat promises to provide inspired eloquence
in order to adorn the speech of the dharmabhan.aka monk and to
bestow dharan. to prevent the loss of memory (Nobel 1937: 102.16
102.17, 103.5103.6; Skjaerv 2004: 7.2, 7.8). Indeed, she will furnish
the dharmabhan.aka with whatever words and syllables might come to
be lost or forgotten from this Utmost Golden Radiance, most sovereign
of s
utras, words and syllables that must, of course, be well-spoken
(sunirukta). Sarasvat imparts these qualities of eloquence and mnemonic virtuosity to the dharmabhan.aka through a bathing ritual
detailed in a versified list of medicaments and mantras with which the
learned bathe, in addition to some rather obscure instructions for constructing a ritual space and conducting the ritual (Skjaerv 2004: 7.23
7.38; Nobel 1937: 104.5107.3). In the ensuing chapters, two more
divine figures, r and Sam
. jaya, likewise rise in turn to offer the
preacher protection, eloquence, wisdom, and fervency. Such heavenly
assistance ensures that the dharmabhan.aka will preach the s
utra with
maximal potency, thereby transforming his listeners and their world,
and guaranteeing the continued oration and circulation of the S
utra of
Utmost Golden Radiance.
At the heart of this normative vision is the productive conflation of
several areas of South Asian discourse. As we have seen, the s
utra
describes its oral substance as rasa, taste, flavor, sap, or liquid
essence. A central term in cosmological, medical, and alchemical discourse, rasa also figures prominently in South Asian works on drama
and aesthetics. The liquid and transformative properties of rasa as a
physical substance, which underlie the use of the term in dramatic literature (Schwartz 2004: 710; Gerow 1977: 245; Seneviratne 1992), are
clearly invoked in the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance (Walter 1979;
Mrozik 1999; Gummer 2000: 204215). Indeed, the multivalence of
rasa is central to the s
utras representation of its performance by the
dharmabhan.aka, its reception by the audience, and its transformative
effects. Rasa is the liquid essence that pervades and circulates through

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

145

8
The Nat.yaastra, a work on Sanskrit drama attributed to the sage Bharata, is roughly
contemporaneous with the great flowering of dramatic and other literature under the patronage of
the Gupta kings (4th6th centuries), although aspects of the work may date back to the secondcentury BCE (Gerow 1977: 245). The S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance was circulating in a form
very close to the extant Sanskrit text by the early fifth century, although portions of it were very
likely composed and compiled at a considerably earlier date. The two texts would thus appear to
be (very approximately) coeval. It is also generally acknowledged that the Nat.yaastra draws on and
synthesizes earlier traditions, as does the s
utra.

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the cosmos, providing the basis of life, energy, and well-being

(Zimmerman 1982: 89); it is both the flavorful nutritive essence
extracted from food in the process of digestion and the taste of that
essence. Progressively refined in the fires of digestion, it is transformed
into ojas, vital fluid, the depletion of which causes sickness and death,
and the replenishment of which prolongs life. This vivifying essence
generates tejas, luminous energy, evident in the golden radiance that
emanates from those possessed of an abundance of ojas (Seneviratne
1992: 180181; Gonda 1952; Inden 1990: 235238). And in alchemy,
rasa is mercury, which is thought to render the ingester immortal,
transforming a body of bone and blood into a golden or adamantine
body. No wonder, then, that the rasa of the oral s
utra is also designated
amr.ta, the divine nectar that confers immortality upon its imbiber. Like
mercury, the rasa of the immortalizing nectar of the dharma enters its
listeners and transforms their bodies into immortal, golden buddhabodies (White 1996: 6, 13), as we will see.
But it is the dharmabhan.aka who actually produces this rasa
through preaching the s
utra; the rasa of the s
utra flows forth in a fundamentally performative context. Several key aspects of performance
and reception articulated in the s
utra find correlates in the Nat.yaastra8
and later South Asian works on drama and aestheticsthe reception of
the performance by the audience, the ritual setting and function of the
performance, the role of the dharmabhan.aka. While the s
utras representation of each of these aspects is distinctive, employing specifically
Buddhist paradigms and terminology, it also clearly participates in and
draws upon broader South Asian dramatic traditions. At the center of
those traditions (and later, of South Asian aesthetic theory more
broadly) is the notion of rasarasa as the flavor both conveyed by a
drama and enjoyed by its audiences.
The ambiguity of rasa in naming both substances (sap, liquid essences, mercury) and experiences (the tasting of a flavor) remains at play
in its dramatic connotations. The term comes above all to designate the
experience of the audience who tastes the rarified emotional flavor
of a dramatic performance. The range of meaning ascribed to rasa in

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

WHEN THE DHARMABHN.AKA SPEAKS

When we imagine listening to the dharmabhan.aka utter the words
that we read on a printed page, our understanding of the s
utra and its
performative efficacy undergoes a quite remarkable transformation.
Take, for instance, the moment in the s
utra when the earth-goddess
Dr.d.ha rises from the assembly surrounding the Buddha and promises
him that every time the s
utra is performed, she will appear before the
dharmabhan.aka with her invisible body, and will lay her head at his
9
Siegel (1991: 43), cited in Schwartz (2004: 9). Other scholars of South Asian aesthetic theory
argue that rasa signifies a private experience (Masson and Patwardhan 1970: 25), an external
factor to the drama, seen as a work of art: a medium of experience, emotional awareness, taste
that is first and foremost in or of the audience (Gerow 1977: 247). The s
utra, however, clearly
preserves the subjective and objective senses of taste in its use of the term rasa.

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the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance clearly incorporates such a
heightened emotional consciousness or awareness; the ideal auditor of
the dharmabhan.aka experiences emotional states of the highest order
as well as astonishing physical transformations. At the same time, the
frequent and explicit invocation of the medical, consecratory, and
alchemical connotations of rasa in the s
utra preserves the multivalence
of the term; rasa in the s
utra is at once an inner and outer quality as
the object of taste, the taste of the object, the capacity of the taster to
taste that taste and enjoy it, [and] the enjoyment, the tasting of the
taste.9
That the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance represents itself primarily as a work meant for performance can hardly be doubted at this
point. That being the case, however, reading the S
utra of Utmost
Golden Radiance as though it were a treatise on how to interpret and
appreciate the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance, as I have done thus
far, very much misses the point. The passages we have been examining
are not just about the s
utra: they are the s
utraand the s
utra envisions
not a silent reader before a text, but an attentive audience before an eloquent preacher. Imaginatively listening to the dharmabhan.aka, as the
s
utra itself urges us repeatedly to do, significantly alters and complicates
our interpretation of this text. In that sense, the foregoing excursus
on what the s
utra tells us about its own performance is but a prolegomenon to an engagement with the text as performance. To that imaginative exercise I now turn. In doing so, we have occasion to investigate
further the correlation of the s
utras normative vision of its own performance and reception with other South Asian dramatic theories.

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

147

10

The following paragraphs summarize chapter 13 of the Sanskrit s

utra.

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feet. A silent reader might note the extreme reverence accorded to the
dharmabhan.aka in this passage, such that a goddess would so humble
herself before him. But imagine hearing a dharmabhan.aka preach the
s
utra. He utters the following words of Dr.d.ha: Wherever, Gracious
Lord, a dharmabhan.aka . . . shall fully reveal this Utmost Golden
Radiance, most sovereign of s
utras . . . I, approaching the dharmathrone with my invisible body, will lay my head at the soles of the feet
of the monk who is uttering the dharma (Nobel 1937: 121.11121.15;
Skjaerv 2004: 10.810.12). As he utters this phrase, Dr.d.has invisible
body appears at the feet of the dharmabhan.aka. Her future-tense
promise is fulfilled even as the dharmabhan.aka utters it. As she (and
he) goes on to describe the cycle of cosmic flourishing that is initiated
when she sates herself with the marvelous rasa of the dharma that is
flowing from the mouth of the preacher, plants begin to look more
lush; the auditors take on a certain healthy golden hue. The time of
oration that the figures in the s
utra speak about is the present
momentany present momentin which the preacher speaks; the
conditions under which the transformative effects of the s
utra are said
to be realized have come to pass, as long as the audience responds with
joya not unreasonable response to the shock of recognizing that the
present is the moment of transformation.
Passages of this kind, which are ubiquitous in the s
utra, are the simplest instances of what might be called a presencing effect that takes
utra is preached. If the confounding self-referentiality
place when the s
and ambiguity of the s
utra might be interpreted as a kind of performance of emptiness, of absence, the actual performance of the s
utra by a
dharmabhan.aka makes the missing s
utra manifest, and in the process
collapses past and present, and dismantles the boundaries between the
narrative world within the s
utra and the world in which the s
utra is
preached and heard. The dharmabhan.aka and his listeners find themselves located in a now in which past promises become self-fulfilling
prophesies. In a crucial way, the s
utra becomes most fully present and
potent when it is preached and heard.
Nowhere are the complex performative dynamics that constitute the
relationship between the preaching dharmabhan.aka and his listeners
10
more fully evident than in the story of King Susam
. bhava. In verse,
the Buddha narrates a story of a previous life (a jataka) in which he
himself was this king, whose name means something like Auspicious
Originan apt appellation, indeed, as we will see. One day, King

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Standing with hands clasped in reverence, the king

expressed his thankful joy (anumodita) with all his heart;
eyes shedding tears from the fine dharmas force (saddharmavega),
his body became suffused with delight ( prtisphut.a).
(Nobel 1937: 151.14151.17; Skjaerv 2004: 13.21)

The king is so emotionally and physically moved by the preaching of

the dharmabhan.aka that he causes a rain of jewels, ornaments, fine
food, drink, and clothing to fall from the sky. Thereupon, he bequeaths
the four continents filled with jewels to the Buddhist community of
that time (Nobel 1937: 152.9152.10; Skjaerv 2004: 13.25).11 So ends
the tale. In characteristic jataka fashion, the narrating Buddha proceeds
to trace the trajectory of the figures in the story through subsequent
lifetimes. We learn that the dharmabhan.aka Ratnoccaya became the
Buddha Aks.obhya, thereby confirming the prediction to buddhahood
offered earlier, in the chapter on the Four Great Kings, to the dharmabhan.aka of the s
utra. As for King Susam
. bhava, we know already
11
The story is set just after the final nirvan.a of the Buddha Ratnaikhin. It is to his followers that
the king gives the jewel-filled world.

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Susam
. bhava falls asleep in his palace, which also has a significant
name: it is called Jinendraghos.a, the Voice of the Buddha. In a
dream, he sees the dharmabhan.aka Ratnoccaya (Jewel-Cluster)
standing, shining, in the midst of the sun / uttering this most sovereign
of s
utras (Nobel 1937: 147.5147.6; Skjaerv 2004: 13.5). He awakens
from the dream, his entire body suffused with delight ( prti-sphut.a),
and immediately sets out to find Ratnoccaya. The dharmabhan.aka is
seated in a cave, studying the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance and
glowing with the golden hue that the s
utra imparts to its orators and
auditors. Upon his consent to the kings fervent request that he preach
the s
utra, all the deities rejoice. King Susam
. bhava then prepares the
space in which the dharmabhan.aka will preach, just as the Four Great
Kings stipulate earlier in the s
utra. Innumerable deities who have come
desirous of dharma (dharmakama) shower first the dharma-throne
and then the entering dharmabhan.aka with divine flowers; celestial
music sounds from the heavens. Ratnoccaya, his body well-bathed
(susnata-gatra), ascends the throne. Generating compassion for all
beings, he preaches the s
utra to the king. Upon hearing the s
utra,
Susam
. bhava reacts in a manner that represents the ideal response of
any auditor:

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

149

that he eventually becomes the Buddha akyamuni. But the most striking aspect of the Buddhas explanation is the direct causal link he posits
between hearing the s
utra in this past life and his own attainment of
buddhahood. The relevant verses shed considerable light on the relationship between the Buddha, the s
utra, and the dharmabhan.aka:
Since I heard this s
utra then, and since I
expressed my thankful joy with all my heart
through that beneficial action alone,
and through my joyful s
utra-hearing,

So measureless was my great merit-mass

since I heard and rejoiced in this s
utra,
That, just as desired, awakening was mine,
and I gained the body of good dharma.
(Nobel 1937: 152.19153.5, 153.14153.17; Skjaerv 2004: 13.28, 13.29,
13.32)
The Buddha himself became the Buddha simply by listening to a dharmabhan.aka preach the s
utra and responding with thankful joy (anumodita). His life as King Susam
. bhava was an auspicious origin, indeed. This
claim has astonishing implications for other auditors of the s
utra: if they
hear and respond joyfully, then surely they, too, will become goldenbodied buddhas. The tale of King Susam
. bhava thus exemplifies the normative vision of the act of preaching the s
utra that is set forth in the preceding chapters and offers the ultimate testimony to its efficacy.
Consider, now, how the oral story would soundfirst, to the
king himself, who listens to a dharmabhan.aka preach this s
utra
twice in this story: once while dreaming in his palace called Voice
of the Buddha, and once after making the appropriate ritual preparations. Does the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance heard by the
king include the story of King Susam
utra provides no
. bhava? The s
definitive answer to this question, but it certainly provokes its audiences (whether readers or listeners) to ask it. If King Susam
. bhava
hears the story, then he learns that, through listening to the S
utra of
Utmost Golden Radiance and responding with thankful joy, he will
become the Buddha who preaches the S
utra of Utmost Golden

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I gained a gold-colored body, marked with

one hundred merits, always dear to sight,
eye-pleasing, lovely for people to view,
enrapturing one thousand million gods.

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

they were overwhelmed by wonder, overwhelmed by awe, overwhelmed

by elation. Moved by the force (vega) of the dharma, tears suddenly
flowed from their eyes, their bodies roused, their limbs tingling, filled
with unimaginable delight ( prti), bliss (sukha), and pleasure (saumanasya). (Nobel 1937: 101.19102.4; Skjaerv 2004: 6.6.266.6.29)

Such passages might be taken as descriptions of the ideal response to

the s
utra by the sensitive auditorthe receptive person that the

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Radiance. In other words, his hearing of the s

utra is foreseen by his
future self, from whom he receives what amounts to a prediction of
buddhahoodand the origin of that future self is found precisely in
King Auspicious Origins own listening and rejoicing. Time collapses.
No wonder he weeps from the shock.
Moreover, when we entertain (as the s
utra compels us to do) the
possibility that the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance heard by the
Buddha-to-be is precisely this s
utra, of which he becomes/is the paradigmatic preacher, the story of King Susam
. bhava begins to resemble a
hall of mirrors. Each instance of oration contains within it a seemingly
infinite number of other preachings, since each dharmabhan.aka tells
this story in which the preaching Buddha tells of how he heard the
s
utra (including this story?) from a dharmabhan.aka who tells the story
in which the preaching Buddha tells of how he heard the s
utra . . . and
so on. But while this infinite regress can be interpreted as a performance of emptiness, of absence, the spoken s
utra generates for both
speakers and listeners a presencing effect rendered all the richer by
the temporal impossibilities that constitute it. The dharmabhan.aka who
preaches the story of King Susam
. bhava thereby reproduces precisely the
conditions for transformation of which he speaks. As listeners learn of
King Susam
utra-hearing and its extraordinary results,
. bhavas joyful s
they find themselves undergoing much the same experience, and thus
receiving what amounts to a prediction to Buddhahoodas long as
they respond as he did.
The response of King Susam
utra is typical of
. bhava to hearing the s
the auditors described in the s
utra. He experiences thankful joy (anumodita), weeps from the force (vega) of the dharma, and is suffused
with delight ( prtisphut.a). The Four Great Kings experience a similar
emotional and physical response to the s
utra at the end of the chapter
that bears their name. Upon hearing the Buddha heap praise upon the
s
utra that he is in the process of preaching,

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

151

12
The Nat.yaastra states, As gourmets (sumanas) are able to savor the flavour of food prepared
with many spices, and attain pleasure, etc., so sensitive spectators (sumanas) savor the primary
emotions suggested (abhivyajita) by the acting of the various bhavas and presented with the
appropriate modulation of the voice, movements of the body and display of involuntary reactions,
and attain pleasure, etc. (translated in Masson and Patwardhan 1970: 4647). In the passage just
cited, the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance employs a derivative (saumanasya) of the same term.
13
On the origins of this term in South Asian aesthetic theory, see Masson and Patwardhan
(1977: 289290).
14
Note that the term ojas also figures prominently in aesthetic and poetic discourse; see Gonda
(1952: 3744).

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Nat.yaastra calls sumanas (sensitive-minded)12 and that later aesthetic

theorists term the sahr.daya, the connoisseur, one whose heart
(hr.daya) accords with the dramatic performance or work of art.13 Just
as nutritive rasa generates vital fluid (ojas) in the heart, so artistic
enjoyment fills the heart with pleasure . . . and suffuses the entire body
with its thrill (Seneviratne 1992: 184).14 And it is tempting to connect
this joy and wonder to the presencing effect of the self-referential
s
utra: within the s
utras narrative, the Four Great Kings hear the
Buddha praise the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance, but his verses of
praise are none other than the s
utra itself. The simultaneous elusiveness
and immediacy of the s
utra that the Buddha praises/preaches might
well generate surprise and elationespecially when praised/preached by
the dharmabhan.aka to an audience that finds itself suddenly within the
s
utras narrative, as well, listening to the Four Great Kings vow with
tears of joy that they will stand by the monk who preaches the dharma
constantly, in order to protect and defend that dharmabhan.aka (Nobel
1937: 102.8102.9; Skjaerv 2004: 6.6.31). The dharmabhan.aka, in
making the past words of the celestial kings manifest, brings them into
the present moment; they are standing by his side, protecting him from
harm, and weeping with joy at his eloquent performance of their dialogue with the Buddha.
The emotional-aesthetic terminology employed in such descriptions
of the ideal response to hearing the s
utra is highly significant for our
understanding of the potential effects of the oral/aural s
utra. The use of
the term vega (force, excitement) in these contexts clearly correlates
with the widespread Buddhist use of the close synonym sam
. vega to designate a sudden and intense emotional response that, while it may be
pleasant or unpleasant in and of itself, is conducive to the realization of
higher truths. A. K. Coomaraswamy renders the term as aesthetic
shock, and notes that this shock is regularly followed by an experience
of delight (Pali pti; Sanskrit prti), accompanied by the dawn of understanding (1977: 180181). Coomaraswamy examines an especially

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provocative passage in the Visuddhimagga that directly connects the

thrill of sam
. vega not only with prti, but also with rasa: In [sam
. vega]
there is much radical intellection, leading to the full-awakening aspect
of delight ( pti) or contentment (tut.t.hi) with the flavor (rasa) of the
chosen support of contemplation that has been grasped; body and
mind are flooded or suffused (181). The ideal auditor of the s
utra
undergoes precisely this sequence of bodily and emotional experiences.
And, as we have seen, listening to the dharmabhan.aka preach about the
power of his own preaching might indeed provide cause for the radical
intellection that prompts this thrilling realization of the implications
of what are strictly speaking only the aesthetic surfaces of phenomena
(Coomaraswamy 1977: 182).
Although the experience of sam
. vega involves both overwhelming
emotion and intense physical response, it is nonetheless disinterested
aesthetic contemplation, an experience of the beauty or awesomeness
or horror of the object of contemplation as such, rather than by ones
particular and personal relation to that object (Coomaraswamy 1977:
182184). Later South Asian aesthetic theorists (especially
Abhinavagupta) posited aesthetic distance as the very heart of rasa.
Masson and Patwardhan (1970: 35) describe the emotion experienced
at a drama as meta-feelinga mode of emotive experience in which,
as Abhinavagupta puts it, all of ones own normal preoccupations
(sam
. sarikabhava) have been completely forgotten, and one is lost in
aesthetic rapture (carvan.a) (translated in Masson and Patwardhan
1970: 33). This transcendent and blissful state is rasa, and is explicitly
connected (though not identified) with the experience of moks.a, the
highest spiritual realization. While the experience of rasa is temporary,
it shares with moks.a several crucial characteristics: in aesthetic experience, as in yogic trance and in final release, subject and object disappear, and one transcends all desires and limited, ego-bound
perceptions (Wulff 1986: 677). The presencing effect of the spoken
s
utra, in which the boundaries between the preacher and audience
inside the narrative and those preaching/listening to that narrative collapse, could certainly be conceived of as an experience in which
subject and object disappear. The distinction between audience and
performance, between dharmabhan.aka and Buddha, and between past
and present is erased in the moment of oration.
Thus, while the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance contains nothing
so explicit as later theoretical reflections on the precise nature of the
experience of rasa, the ideal response to the s
utra emphasizes a
similarly transpersonal and transformative experience, not only in the
aesthetic shock (sam
. vega) and delight ( prti) that it generates, but also

Gummer: Listening to the Dharmabhan.aka

153

15
Note, however, that, in a paradox very commonly articulated in Buddhist literature, the
unselfish experience of anumodan
a is repeatedly asserted, both in the s
utra and in the
prajaparamita literature (Streng 1989: 4547), to bring the rejoicer great merit.
16
Gonda (1984: 318348) surveys the use of pratibha (including the closely related noun
pratibhana) in a wide variety of South Asian literature, while MacQueen (1981, 1982) argues that
the notion of inspired speech ( pratibh
ana) served to legitimate the creation of Mahayana s
utras.
With regard to its usage in Buddhist texts, Braarvig argues that [t]he Chinese translations . . .
establish its meaning unequivocally as eloquence, and that [t]ranslations of pratibhana as
inspiration, intuition, etc. are taken from its use in kavya literature, but this does not seem to suit
the context in question (1985: 23). It is unclear to me why a Chinese translation should
definitively fix the meaning of an South Asian term, and I hope this study demonstrates that the
use of the term in poetic theory is very likely of direct relevance to its use in the S
utra of Utmost
Golden Radiance, and quite possibly in other s
utras, as well.

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in the ubiquitous references to rejoicing thankfully (anu-mud,

pra-mud) upon hearing the s
utra. The verb anu-mud and its derivatives (especially anumodana) occur with great frequency in Buddhist literature in the technical sense of joyous acquiescence in another
persons good fortune, a form of thanksgiving used throughout the
tradition to undermine a slavish preoccupation with ones own individual welfare (Eckel 1985: 58). In the Vinaya, anumodana designates the
formal monastic practice of offering joyous thanks for alms received,
wherein the merit gained by the donor is the cause of the emotional
response; similarly, in the prajaparamita literature, bodhisattvas are
prescribed the practice of rejoicing thankfully in the good acts of all
beings (Streng 1989: 4447). This form of thankful joywhich, as the
s
utra repeatedly states, must be experienced in order for the transformative benefits of listening to become manifestdistinctly deemphasizes
self-interest.15 Like sam
. vega, anumodana is a depersonalized emotional
experience. Listening to the dharmabhan.aka preach the s
utra, then,
enables the ideal auditor to transcend his or her normal worldly consciousness and, as the emotional and physical responses of the Four
Great Kings and King Susam
. bhava make clear, to experience a state of
aesthetic rapture and thankful joy.
In order that the sensitive listener might weep with awe and delight,
the dharmabhan.aka himself must perform with pratibhana, inspired
eloquence, a gift strongly associated with poetic inspiration and illumination in South Asian discourse.16 In Buddhist texts, it has an especially
close association with speech, indicating that those who possess it are
both inspired speakers and gifted in conveying that inspiration to
others (Gonda 1984: 318, 323325). The source of the inspiration
varies: some speakers, of whom the Buddha is the paradigmatic
example, are inspired speakers because of their state of constant
clarity (MacQueen 1981: 313); some gain their inspiration through

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

CONCLUSION: FROM LISTENING TO SPEAKING

Such is the normative vision of the experience of hearing the S
utra
of Utmost Golden Radiancea vision that, when eloquently preached
by a dharmabhan.aka, is also the putative cause of that experience. And
it is in this productive conjunction of normativity, self-referentiality,
and orality that the real performative work of the s
utra takes placethe
work that might actually move auditors to tears, suffuse them with
delight, and transform them, like King Susam
. bhava, from listeners into
speakers. However transformative the experience of listening might be,
the mark of final transformation is to become a speaker, an agent of
your own and others transformation. Indeed, the distinction between
listening and speaking is arguably what distinguishes the ravakayana,
the vehicle of the listeners, from the Mahayana, the great vehicle, the
vehicle that promises to lead all beings to buddhahood. One of the key
features that distinguishes a buddha from other awakened beings is the
fact that he not only realizes the dharma himself, but also teaches it to
others; he not only hears, but also speaks the transformative s
utraand
this he shares with the dharmabhan.aka, who is assured of his own
future buddhahood in the very act of preaching. Moving from listening
to speaking is a crucial and transformative step in the process of
becoming a buddha.
In this respect and several others, the dharmabhan.akas performance is not unlike that of the evangelical Christian preacher engaged in
the practice of witnessing: it initiates a process of acquiring a specific
religious language or dialect through which an unsaved listener

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others (1982: 5657). In the S

utra of Utmost Golden Radiance, the
dharmabhan.aka receives inspiration from the divine supporters of the
s
utra (especially Sarasvat, who is often identified with the goddess Vac,
Speech), but he is also inspired by the Buddha when he recites the
s
utraquite literally: he is filled with the voice, the breath, of the
Buddha. And the inspiration of the dharmabhan.aka in turn offers
inspiration and transformation to his listeners. As Gonda writes of
Abhinavaguptas view, the creative intuition ( pratibha) is the force
which makes the conversion of the feelings or passions into rasa possible, freeing them from the limitations of space and time (1984: 344).
The pratibha of the poet enables the connoisseur to experience the transcendent state of rasa (345). The same can surely be said of the dharmabhan.aka represented in the s
utra, whose inspired eloquence fills
his auditors with the luminous rasa of the s
utraand transforms their
experience of space and time.

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begins to appropriate in his or her inner speech the saved speakers language and its attendant view of the world (Harding 2000: 34)that is,
of moving from the position of listener to the position of speaker
through hearing the compelling testimony of a saved speaker, a witness.
Like witnessing, the oral performance of the self-referential s
utra is
rhetorical in two senses, namely, as an argument about the transformation of self that lost souls must undergo, and as a method of bringing
about that change in those who listen to it. [It is] not just a monologue
that constitutes its speaker as a culturally specific person; it is also a dialogue that reconstitutes its listeners (3435). The dharmabhan.akas
preaching about the power of his own performance confirms him as a
transformed and transformative figure, a present buddha-surrogate and
future buddha. He is quite literally witnessing; by speaking the s
utra
that so often speaks of him, he offers embodied testimony to its
efficacy.
But the experience of listening is also self-referential: when he
preaches the s
utra, the dharmabhan.aka addresses auditors directly,
describing the transformative effects of hearing the s
utra, as well as the
severely deleterious effects of failing to show it and its preachers appropriate reverence. Hearing demands a response, whether of joy or doubt;
there is no position of neutrality in relation to the claims of the s
utra
and the dharmabhan.aka, for those claims are made on you. If the dharmabhan.aka functions as a kind of witness, the witnesss words, though
they appear to be about the witness and about other characters on the
narrative surface, are on a deep level about the listener: you, too, are a
character in these stories; these stories are about you (Harding 2000:
44). The events of the listeners life are quite suddenly recontextualized:
all benefits are due to the preaching of the s
utra; all adversity can be
attributed to insufficient reverence and joy on the part of the listener.
As both the flourishing and the afflictions of listener and cosmos
are attributed to the reception of the s
utra and its preacher, the dharmabhan.akas performance begins to rephrase the life of the listener,
as Harding puts it (60). The story that the dharmabhan.aka tells about
what is happening to the listener and the cosmos as a whole in the very
moment of preaching radically reconfigures the contours of the real
if the listener responds appropriately. The shock ([sam.]vega) and
joy ( prti) experienced by the ideal listeners within the s
utra are
provocatively similar to Hardings characterization of the experience of
conversiona powerful clash resulting from the shift from one realm
of thought and action to another, a moment of specific shock. Under
this shock, the very terms of physical existence seem to alter (Harding
2000: 38, citing Jules-Rosette 1976: 135). Like the witness through

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whom the Holy Spirit speaks (Harding 2000: 45), the dharmabhan.aka,
filled with inspired eloquence and making manifest the voice of the
Buddha, is both the agent and the outcome of a transformative rhetorical strategy. Ultimately, the sutra assures us, the ideal listener not only
reveres but also becomes a dharmabhan.akaand eventually, that most
eloquent of speakers, a buddha.
Not everyone is an ideal listener, of course; the normative vision
described in the s
utra itself is but one possible response. But all auditors
of the oral s
utra must grapple with the performative force of such normative claims, however they respond, for those claims are made on
every listener. The S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance asserts its own
extraordinary transformative powers, such that even the Buddha
himself became a Buddha through hearing the s
utra, but the seemingly
impossible relationship between the Buddha and the s
utra seems at
least as likely to generate questions and doubts as thankful joy.
Likewise, the invisibility of the deities who appear when the s
utra is
preached raises the possibility of their absence even as it makes them
manifest. This tension between the ideal response of joyful affirmation
and the doubt induced by the s
utras astonishing claims, far from
undermining the rhetorical force of the dharmabhan.akas performance,
might well constitute its very foundation, for like the words of the witnessing evangelical preacher, the dharmabhan.akas speech serves to
[convert] the listeners mind into a contested terrain, a divided self
(Harding 2000: 34).
On the other hand, Abhinavaguptas reflections on dramatic performance suggest that the truth or falsity of what takes place in a
drama is irrelevant; what matters is the (temporarily) transcendent
experience of rasa that the drama enables (Masson and Patwardhan
1970: 2122, 3233; Wulff 1986: 676679). If the same can be said of
the oral/aural s
utra, then believing its literal content might not be the
only way to become a sahr.daya, a connoisseur of the s
utra; instead, the
potency of the s
utra would be located in the experience of rasa that it
enablesnot so much in what it says to its listeners, but in what it has
the potential to do to its listeners. Of course, those potential transformations depend in no small part on understanding what the s
utra says,
and the presencing effect it generates, but they are just as dependent
on the eloquent performance of the dharmabhan.aka and the sensitive
response of the listener. Listening . . . enables you to experience belief,
as it were, vicariously. But generative belief, belief that indisputably
transfigures you and your reality, belief that becomes you, comes only
through speech: speaking is believing (Harding 2000: 60).

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157

REFERENCES
Braarvig, Jens
1985

Dharan. and Pratibhana: Memory and

Eloquence of the Bodhisattvas. Journal of
the International Association of Buddhist
Studies 8/1:1729.

Coomaraswamy,
Ananda K.
1977

Sam.vega:
Aesthetic
Shock.
In
Coomaraswamy: Selected Papers, ed. R. Lipsey.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Drewes, David
2010

Early Indian Mahayana Buddhism II: New

Perspectives. Religion Compass 4/2:6674. doi:
10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00193.x

Eckel, Malcolm David

1985

Gratitude to an Empty Savior: A Study of the

Concept of Gratitude in Mahayana Buddhist
Philosophy. History of Religions 25/1:5775.

Emmerick, R. E.
1996

The S
utra of Golden Light: Being a Translation
of the Suvarn.abhasottamas
utra. 3rd (rev.) ed.
Oxford, UK: Pali Text Society.

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I have tried to demonstrate that our understanding of the significant

number of Mahayana Buddhist texts in which the dharmabhan.aka
figures prominently can be significantly enriched by cultivating an
imaginative capacity to listen in the manner Abhinavagupta advocates.
Listening to the dharmabhan.aka transforms our understanding of what
a text like the S
utra of Utmost Golden Radiance is and does. Both the
content and the rhetorical strategies of the s
utra indicate that however
much Buddhists in particular times and places may have revered the
material text, according to the sutra itself, it is the oral performance of
the dharmabhan.aka that most fully enables its normative vision of the
transformative power of the s
utra to be realized. Moreover, the intriguing fact that the devices employed to transform listeners into speakers
share much with strategies in other preaching traditions suggests that
we give serious consideration to how such methods of discourse facilitate a paradigm shift. Too often, secular scholars like myself implicitly
treat religious discourse as outlandish, and those who believe it as
suffering a form of false consciousness, without recognizing either the
real (and complex) power of those claims to persuade or the ways in
which our own paradigms are similarly constructed and made compelling. Listening to the dharmabhan.aka does not require that scholars,
too, become speakers, but it may require that we hear him speak to us.

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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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