Luis Gómez: "Imagining Paradises: Invoking Blissful Abodes"

Abstract:

The word "paradise" may evoke a heavenly place to be experienced as just reward for a life of piety and virtue (or through the grace of a superior spiritual power); traditionally, it has been understood as a concrete location experienced by the senses. Buddhist traditions have such conceptions of paradise. And they have also conceptions similar to our contemporary view of paradise as a metaphor for a state of mind. But, whatever our theological preferences, we cannot ignore the role of imagination, memory and naming and calling in creating a believer's expectation of a place or condition better than the ones we know in our daily lives. This lecture will explore some of the ways in which Buddhist texts create such expectations.

A native of Puerto Rico, Luis Gómez holds a doctorate in East and South Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale (1963), and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Michigan (1991). He was for many years professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures at Michigan, as well as adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology. Since retiring from Michigan, he has taught at the Colegio de México.

A scholar of both South and East Asian Buddhism, who also works on Tibetan Buddhism, his many publications include The Land of Bliss (1996), a translation of the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras; Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts (1989, with Jonathan Silk); and Barabudur: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument (1981, with Hiram Woodward).