How the Buddha became a Christian saint

How the Buddha became a Christian saint

The Golden Legend

From the 11th century onwards, the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat enjoyed wide popularity in the medieval West attained perhaps by no other legend.

It was available in over 60 versions in the main languages of Europe, the Christian East, and Africa. It was most familiar to English readers from its inclusion in William Caxton’s 1483 translation of the Golden Legend.

Little did European readers know that the story they loved about the life of Saint Josaphat was in fact that of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who [at age 35] awakened to become the Buddha, "the Enlightened One," the founder of Buddhism.

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  Albert Einstein prays for inspiration

  This can't be true, can it? Barlaam and Josaphat: The story of Barlaam and Josaphat is a Christianized and later version of the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha at age 35 [2]. The [Jataka] tale derives from a 2nd to 4th century Sanskrit Mahayana Buddhist text, via a Manichaean version [3], then the Arabic Kitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf ("Book of Bilawhar and Budhasaf"), current in Baghdad, Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia) in the 8th century, from where it entered into Middle Eastern Christian circles before appearing in European versions. More

The ascetic life

According to the legend, there once reigned in India a king called Abenner [King Suddhodana in Theravada Buddhist texts known as the Pali canon], immersed in the pleasures of the world.

When the king had a son, Josaphat [the Bodhisat or "Being-bent-on-supreme-enlightenment"], an astrologer predicted that he would forsake the world.

To forestall this outcome, the king his father ordered a city [the three seasonal capitals of Kapilavatthu] to be built for his son from which were excluded [any reminders of] poverty, disease, old age, and death.

But [the Prince] Josaphat [eventually] made journeys outside of the city, where he encountered, on one occasion, a blind man and a horribly deformed one and, on another occasion, an old man weighed down by illness. He realized the [radical] impermanence of all things:

"No longer is there any sweetness in this transitory life now that I have seen these things… Gradual and sudden death are in league together."

While experiencing this spiritual crisis, the sage Barlaam from Sri Lanka reached Josaphat and told him of the rejection of worldly pursuits and the acceptance of the Christian ideal of the ascetic life.

Prince Josaphat was converted to Christianity [which took its monasticism from Buddhism, which preceded it by at least six centuries] and began to practice the ideal of the spiritual life of poverty, simplicity, and devotion to God [Brahman, the "Ultimate Reality"].

• The Balavariani (Barlaam and Josaphat), a Buddhist Tale from the Christian East: David Marshall Lang (trans.): Internet Archive

Author Philip C. Almond is emeritus professor of the History of Religious Thought at the University of Queensland. Disclosure statement: Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment. Partners University of Queensland University of Queensland provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. View all partners CC BY ND We believe in the free flow of information Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Republish this article Copy link Email X (Twitter) Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn WhatsApp Print

• Prof. P.C. Almond, Univ. of Queensland, July 12, 2020; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Eli Win (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Koans vs. "Stoner Thoughts" (cartoons)

Alden (World of Weed, Jan. 31, 2020); Crystal Ike (pinterest.com); Sipress; Dan Piraro (bizarro.com); Stivers; Crystal Q., Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I've never been stoned, but I'm totally a Stoner.

Zen kōans are questions, stories, or statements, often part of ancient dialogues, that provoke the "great doubt," much like stoner thoughts.

They can be used to test a student's progress in Zen. Wait. What is "Zen"? The word is the Japanese attempt to pronounce jhana (Sanskrit dhyana, Chinese Channa) which means "meditative absorption."

IMPONDERABLE: "incomprehensible, unthinkable, surpassing thought, beyond rational comprehension, impenetrable, transcending the limits of thinking; not to be pondered or be driven mad."

Stoner Thought meme collection (pinterest)

It is not an imponderable nor a stoner thought, though it may sound like one, like, "Why do we have fingers, fingertips, and toes -- but no 'toe tips,' yet we 'tiptoe' but don't 'tipfinger?" or "How many zombies would Rob Zombie rob if Rob Zombie could rob zombies?"

STONER THOUGHTS

Control Your Thoughts (Zen Toons)

1. If you drop soap on the floor, is the floor clean or is the soap dirty?

2. If I buy a bigger bed, would I be left with more bed room but less bedroom?

3. When you compete with yourself, do you come in first place or last?

4. If life is unfair to everyone, does that mean life is actually fair?

5. At some point, your parents set you down and never picked you up again.

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When is the Eternal Now? (Stivers)

6. If you clean a vacuum, do you become a vacuum cleaner?

7. Ice cubes float in a pool of their own blood.

8. If you tried to fail and succeeding, which did you actually do?

9. Are gingerbread men made of house or is house made of men?

Positive outlet? (Rino Piccolo)

10. Do pets name their owners?

11. Which came first, the plant or the seed?

12. If the word tomb is pronounced "toom," and womb is "woom," shouldn't bomb be "boom"?

13. Right now, you are both the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be. More

ZEN AWARDS: "Thanks" (Bizarro)

Doubt and Uncertainty bar Enlightenment

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly; Ralph Lebeau (bitstrips.com); Nadia Isakova

Buddhist novices (samaneras) offering light to the Buddha reclining into final nirvana in Pagan (Bagan) temple, Burma (Nadia Isakova/flickr.com)

   

Far East novices (wellhappypeaceful.com)

Speculation is a wondrous thing with two edges. It takes us further than we can go based on the evidence, and it possibly misleads us when regarded as more than speculation. Once the Buddha said to his disciples:

 

"Ascetics, there are two kinds of people who slander the Tathagata [the Wayfarer, the Buddha]. First, there is one who explains what was not said by the Tathagata as said by the Tathagata and, second, there is one who explains what was said by the Tathagata as not said by the Tathagata. These two slander the Tathagata" (Abhasita Sutra).

C'ya at the finish line, sucka (hiltonbarbour.com)

Given the risk of this, Is it better never to speculate? Or is it simply necessary to make clear when speculating? Many teachers, indeed, fear to speculate; it seems the wiser. But in the West, we can be reckless, not realizing why the Buddha held back some times.

 

"What's the use?" sighed Eeyore

For instance, is world eternal or not or, moreover, will everyone eventually attain the goal of emancipation, which is nirvana? To answer either way is harmful. Any answer is a bad answer. The Buddha explained why. In the first case, if everyone is sure to reach the goal, why put forth effort? Relax like an overconfident hare. If not everyone, why put forth effort? It may not make a difference, so wallow in pity like Eeyore.

Old man and bow (ogijima.com)

More famously, there was a monk, Malunkya-putta, who asked the Buddha all the imponderable polemic questions: Is it this way or that (e.g., is the animating principle and the body one or are they different), are things finite or infinite, and so on. The Buddha more famously answered that he had not promised to answer these questions (which the Buddha teaches do not lead to dispassion, appeasement, direct wisdom, or enlightenment/liberation), but that being asked them was like a person shot by an arrow not allowing a master physician to remove it until that doctor told him who shot it, why he shot it, what he made the arrow out of, and so on.
  
The person would surely die before these -- and other questions that would arise -- were answered. Yet, that person would not have done what should be done, would not have laid down the burden by developing direct-insight, and glimpsing nirvana (MN 63). If the Buddha is offering a message of liberation, so rare in the universe, and all we would rather do is find out about the universe, are we not being just as silly?

"It is just as if one were wounded with an arrow smeared with poison. Friends and companions, kith and kin would find a physician, but that person would say: 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the caste of the shooter,' 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the shooter's name and clan... the shooter's size... color [race] whether dark, brown, or golden... home... the bow type... the bowstring material... the shaft's nature, wild or cultivated... whether the feathers of the shaft were vulture, stork, hawk, peacock... That person would die but those things would still remain unknown.

Knowing-and-seeing replaces questioning.

"Whether the view is held that the world is eternal or not, Malunkya-putta, there is still birth, old age, death, grief, suffering, sorrow and despair -- but these can be ended in this very life! I have not explained them because they are not useful, they are not conducive to tranquility, they do not result in nirvana. What I have explained is disappointment, the cause of disappointment, the destruction of disappointment, and the path that leads to the destruction of disappointment. This is useful, this leads to letting go, to dispassion, to perfect wisdom."

Bliss and Magic (through Jhana)

By Seven Jaini

The Four Imponderables: The Buddha warned that one might become unhinged and mentally imbalanced by pondering any of these four unfathomable things:

1. The range of a Buddha (the extent of the influence of a Buddha from the development of the Ten Perfections).
2. The range of one absorbed in jhana (the power one might obtain from the meditative absorptions)
3. The incomprehensibly complex working out of the consequences of karma (volitional actions)
4. A first moment, initial cause, or purpose for the universe

"These four imponderables are not to be pondered. If one were to ponder and attempt to fathom them, one would become unhinged."

The importance of the meditative absorptions (jhanas) can therefore hardly be overstated. In Sanskrit, the word "absorption" is dhyana, in Pali, jhana. Throughout the Pali Canon, the Buddha defines Right Concentration (samma samadhi) as entering the first Four Jhanas.

Because of this, in many languages the word "meditation" -- and entire Buddhist schools of meditation -- is simply the translation of this word (dhyana). In Chinese, "Jhana" is Ch'an; in Korean Sŏn; in Tibet Samten (bsam gtan); in Vietnamese Thiền; and in Japan "Jhana" is translated as Zen.

Jhana did not develop in a Buddhist context but was prevalent in the Indian subcontinent before the Buddha in various yogic systems of spiritual training. In Jainism, an ancient religion of extreme asceticism and ahimsa (non-harming) that developed alongside Buddhism and survives today in India, it is called Samayika. This is in the Prakrit dialect, somewhat akin to the Pali word Shamatha (Serenity), referring to the practice of developing the absorptions.

The purpose of Jhana in a Buddhist context is never an end in itself, as it would seem in other Indian traditions. The Buddha's first teachers -- Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta -- were yogi masters skilled in attaining high states of jhana. They were therefore regarded as saints and sages with wondrous powers (siddhis). The Buddha's ability to perform miracles, which he perceived danger in doing, was based on his ability to enter the jhanas (or "ecstatic meditation attainments") at will and remain in them for a predetermined period of time.

He became a buddha by realizing that rather than asceticism and self-mortification, jhana was the path. The Five Mental Hindrances were the problem, and they absent in jhana. As he gained meditative stability, he developed the factor of mindfulness. This combination gave rise to insight, enlightenment, and liberation overnight.

It quite literally took one full night of meditation through the Four Jhanas, directing his attention to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The final two factors in the Noble Eightfold Path are Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, defined as these foundations and jhanas. In the absence of insight, such powers readily turn to one's disadvantage, exacerbating the unskillful tendencies (greed, ill-will, delusion, and fear) until one's meditative stability evaporates.

Unless one is liberated (nirvana), the positive karmic result of mastering the jhanas is rebirth in successively more exalted celestial planes. (See WQ article on the 31 Planes of Existence for detailed explanation). The negative karmic result of unprofitably wielding such power is hard to fathom because rebirth into heaven does not preclude future rebirth elsewhere.

The Buddha's First Sermon

Suggested reading

• Pa Auk Sayadaw
• Ajahn Brahm (Australia)
• Leigh Brasington
• Friends of the Heart
• Sister Ayya Khema

PHOTOS: Woman in deep meditation (Ebay Ebook CD); the Buddha emerging from Jhana (Flickr)