Buddhaghosa · Theology

The Voice of the Buddha: The Commentator’s Task

Buddhaghosa’s great project - gathering the ancient Sinhala commentaries preserved at the Great Monastery of Anuradhapura and rendering them into Pali, so that the settled meaning of the Buddha’s word could be organized, guarded, and carried across the whole Theravada world.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Buddhaghosa systematized Theravada by rendering the old Sinhala atthakatha into Pali and organizing the whole path in the Visuddhimagga , and that a commentary’s authority comes from faithful transmission of a lineage, not from originality. Explain in your own words.

Leads to Thomas Aquinas.

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