In Search of the Christian Buddha by Donald S. Lopez

Author:Donald S. Lopez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2014-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The Pious Prince Goes to War:

Gui de Cambrai’s Barlaam and Josaphat

Over the centuries, across two continents and several languages, our tale remains the story of conflict between a father and son. A father loves his only son and seeks to ensure his happiness, but his son seeks a different path, and so father and son are at odds. It is a universal theme and for this reason, perhaps, the legend was much translated. The father is also a king and the son is his royal heir, making the story not just one about how best to live, but how best to rule. However, the son is destined for sanctity, making Barlaam and Josaphat also a story about religion. Its adoption by three great religions also suggests something universal, or at least trans-religious, about its appeal.

The prince’s renunciation of the demands and pleasures of the world is represented as a rejection of his father and the life he has led. The conflict between the father and his son takes a variety of forms. In the story of the Buddha, the king and his son disagree, but with loving words. The king does not dispute the wisdom of his son’s decision to renounce the world, only its timing. In the Arabic version, the argument between father and son is more protracted and the words more heated. Still, both father and son claim to be disciples of the same prophet, al-Budd. The shared recognition of the prophet unites Būdhāsaf and King Junaysar even as they dispute the meaning and implications of al-Budd’s teachings. In the Georgian adaptation al-Budd has disappeared, and the father’s idolatry and the son’s ascetic beliefs are more clearly in conflict. The opposition between idolatry and Christianity is accentuated in subsequent versions of the story, and it defines the relationship between the father and the son.

Although the outlines of the story remain highly consistent as it is translated and adapted over hundreds of years, the relationship between the father and the son evolves and changes in the different versions of Barlaam and Josaphat. The Georgian Balavariani represents King Abenes not just as a pagan but as a king “utterly immersed in the pursuit of the pleasures and delights of this world and enslaved by his own passions, and quite unable to exercise any restraint in respect of indulgences which are so pernicious to the soul.” Believers in Christ and holy monks in his land detest the king’s attachments to worldly pleasures and begin to preach about the transitory nature of the world and all its affairs. The king’s reaction is notably political in the Balavariani: he fears the consequences of the Christians’ teaching not just for his religion, nor even primarily for his religion, but for the wellbeing of his kingdom. In an exchange with Christian ascetics, he explains that he persecutes them because they set a dangerous example—if everyone were to renounce the world, society would collapse: “This wrath of mine serves as a lesson both for them

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