The Dharmabhāṇaka’s Body and the Ontologization of Authority (Oxford Treasure Seminar Series)

This talk by Natalie Gummer explores the role of Dharmabhāṇaka – those who recite the Dharma – in Mahāyāna Sutras In this presentation, Natalie Gummer looks at the “Chapter on the Benefits to the Performer of the Dharma” (dharmabhāṇakānuśaṃsāparivartaḥ) in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Lotus Sūtra), in which the Buddha proclaims the many remarkable transformations that will take place in the six sense faculties of the performer of the dharma (dharmabhāṇaka). Her analysis of this chapter clarifies the sūtra’s normative vision both for the self-referential performance of the dharmabhāṇaka and for the bodily transformations that he is said to undergo as a consequence of his performance. In the process, the presentation sheds light on the temporal aspects of self-referentiality as elements in the embodied performance of authority and demonstrates some of the ritual and performative precedents for the creation of new forms of buddhavacana.