Astonishment: A study of an ethically valorised emotion in Buddhist narrative literature

This essay explores the role that Buddhist narrative literature plays in fostering the cultivation of ethically valorised emotions. The essay focuses on astonishment, as it figures in Ārya Śūra's Jātakamālā, a collection of Sanskrit narratives. The essay examines how and why Ārya Śūra valorises astonishment and what this valorisation reveals about the significance of emotions in Buddhist ethical life. The key distinction implicit in Ārya Śūra's work between natural and cultivated emotions is worked out.