Barlaam and Josaphat: A Christian Tale of the Buddha

by Gui de Cambrai

  The king’s son wanted to keep his teacher’s company and the comfort it brought him. He marveled to find his abstinence so strong and his repentance so strict that he suffered day and night. Josaphat cried tenderly because of it. “Good master,” he said, “can we go away together? For I would feel great sorrow if you left here without me. Allow me to go with you into the wilderness. I know that anyone who remains here for long will lose his soul. Good, dear master, let us leave together, for no one who seeks to live a good life should stay here.”

  “That cannot be, good friend, for I believe that God has another plan. You must wait for the place and time that God in his mercy will arrange for you to be with me. For now you must remain here to serve and worship him. If you fear him and serve him with all your heart, you will earn forgiveness.”

  “Since it is God’s will, so be it,” Josaphat responded. “But baptize me now—I am ready—and teach me how to remain loyal without wavering, so I will know how to serve my Creator and my Father who is Lord and Creator of the world.

  “I will give you as many of my possessions as you want, and whatever clothes and shoes you wish to take,” Josaphat added. “Take however much you can to drink and eat. I will provide for you and purchase whatever you wish to carry back with you. Master, for God’s sake, pray for me without ceasing. Your prayers will help me, but your departure will bring me sorrow. I must bear it if I love God and want to serve him.”

  “Good friend, you should indeed seek to be baptized,” Barlaam replied. “But it is foolish to offer us gifts. I am amazed that you wish to give your possessions to rich people when you yourself are so poor. It is neither good nor right that the poor man give to the wealthy. This offense should be pardoned, because you believed your perception that we live in poverty in the wilderness, but you are wrong. Whoever serves God is rich. Worldly men cannot recognize this wealth, even though it should be easy to see, since whoever loves and worships God does not suffer poverty. I pray that he will save you and give you his love.”

  Josaphat said, “I promised my possessions to you and I would have gladly given them. But your heart is strong and pure, and you do not need anything but God’s love and God’s will. Now baptize me in the good faith, for I love God greatly and believe in him and wish to love, serve, and honor him with my whole heart.”

  Barlaam baptizes Josaphat

  “Now take heed,” said Barlaam, “for I will indeed baptize you.” And he began to speak:

  “Today is the day of your birth.

  “Today you must have firm belief.

  “Today you recognize your Creator.

  “Today you become the servant of your Lord.

  “Today you are freed from your sins.

  “Today you put away the old man.

  “Today you become beautiful before God.

  “Today is a new day.

  “Today you leave behind the false religion.

  “Today you become a man of good faith.

  “Today you abandon the devil.

  “Today you join God at his table.

  “Today you enter the right path.

  “Today you leave sorrow for joy.

  “Today you enter the good life.

  “Today you join God’s kingdom.

  “Today you are wise and powerful.

  “Today you become wealthy.

  “Today you receive a rich crown.

  “Today is the day he gives to you.

  “Today you go to find God your Father.

  “Today you are servant and emperor.

  “Today you put down sorrow and anger.

  “Today you become both king and lord.

  “Today you enter paradise.

  “Today you become a friend of God.

  “Today you show great prowess.

  “Today you become a great noble.

  “Today you receive great power.

  “Today you come to life from death.

  “Today God wishes to revive you.

  “Today his mother comes to speak to you.

  “Today you see all the saints.

  “Today God loves you and dwells with you.

  “Today he shows you his strength.

  “Today he gives you his shield.

  “Today he wishes to sanctify you.

  “Today he gives you your reward.

  “Today God purifies your heart.

  “Today he gives you great sovereignty.

  “Today he raises you up out of your corruption.

  “Today you are a son of the scriptures.

  “Today you are the son of your Good Father.

  “Today you are his man.

  “Today you are his brother.

  “Today you shall know your God.

  “Today your dignity will increase.

  “Today you must purify your thoughts.

  “Today great honor comes to you.

  “Today you leave poverty.

  “Today is the day of plenty.

  “Today is the day when the Holy Spirit will descend to you.”

  Barlaam chastised, admonished, and taught the king’s son to turn toward the path of good faith. Josaphat agreed with everything he said. Barlaam promptly consecrated the font and baptized the king’s son. He changed the old man into a new one, but he did not change his name. Barlaam asked Josaphat what he believed, and when Josaphat demonstrated that he believed as he should, Barlaam marveled at the strength he had gained. He was brave and strong in his faith. Barlaam had admonished and taught him well. Barlaam sang the mass like a priest; then he gave Josaphat communion. Josaphat received the body of God with great fear. He was not afraid to believe, but he was afraid of taking his Lord within him because he feared that the lodging was not well enough built to hold such a noble presence. He feared taking the noble and precious body of God into his unworthy body, but he was also most happy. So he felt both joy and fear, but joy had the greater part and he received the host with true happiness. Sadness is appropriate, for one should feel sorry for his sins, but he should also be happy that God abides with him. God is so merciful that he always listens when a man prays to him sincerely, no matter what sins he has committed.

  The king’s son rejoiced and believed that all his sins had been pardoned, as the hermit had taught him. Barlaam rejoiced at Josaphat’s baptism because he understood that the young man had renounced the world. He admonished him gently, and then took leave of him to return to his lodging.

  Josaphat detained Barlaam for a little while longer. He sent for him often to seek his teaching, and he asked difficult questions about God. Barlaam answered him, for he knew all the scriptures. He calmed the young man’s fears, and whenever Josaphat could not see the truth, Barlaam enlightened him.

  The servants who watched over the king’s son wondered about the identity of this man who came to speak with him so often, and they spoke about it in secret among themselves. They were afraid of the king, who had charged them to watch over his son, and they did not want their vigilance to be found lacking. They agreed to betray the king’s son, but in their agreement they disagreed. A false note sounded in their harmony, and there was discord in their concord because they agreed to do a wrong. Zardan, the one among them who loved Josaphat most, came to speak privately to the king’s son. “Have mercy, good lord!” he said. “I am afraid of your father’s anger. He put you under my guard, and I watch over you. I should not have allowed a stranger to come and speak to you without your father’s permission. I do not know what he taught you, but I fear that he is one of the Christians and that he will convert you to their religion. If your father knew about it, he would put me to death.

  “Now I pray you to ask the king’s permission to speak with this man, and if you will not—please do not take this as disloyal—I can no longer allow him to come talk to you. I am af
raid of the consequences. If you wish to continue to see this man, go to your father and tell him that you have taken a dislike to me. Say that my services no longer please you and you cannot tolerate me. This way you could save me and remove the blame from us both.”

  The king’s son replied, “Friend, before I do this, I ask you to hide and listen to the wise man when he comes to speak to me. If his words and actions cannot convince you, then I will have wronged you and I will help to reconcile you with the king, but first do as I ask.”

  Zardan replied, “Yes, I will do as you wish.”

  Barlaam came to the court soon thereafter, and Zardan hid in the prince’s room. The old man sat down and reasoned with the king’s son. He spoke the words of his lesson from beginning to end. He taught the king’s son about God and told him that he should serve God with a good heart, and that he should despise the world and all its beauty. “Notice the summer flowers,” he said. “Look, for example, at the fading rose. The bush holds the rose in the light as long as the flower lasts, but no one cares about the bush once the rose fades, for without the flower it is nothing. And the flower begins to fade as soon as it is cut. The rose is a very beautiful flower when it first appears, and although it is prized for its beauty, as soon as it loses its color it is considered worthless. The rose, then, is very beautiful, but it changes quickly. So too with man when he dies. No man is so beautiful or so noble that he will not perish like the rose. As soon as he dies, he is lost if he has not done any good deeds to earn God’s mercy.

  “Those who believe in idols have sinned without recourse and they will die without forgiveness, for God will condemn them. Only a man whose heart has been hardened by pride would deliberately imprison himself in hell, where the wretched are condemned to dwell forever without forgiveness. It is good to believe in God, for as the true story tells us, whoever believes in him and serves him with a loyal heart will receive a noble reward. God will give him a rich crown to wear forever.

  “God our Father took a virgin as his mother. He was baptized in the Jordan River and preached his holy name there. He fasted in the wilderness for forty days for our sake and let himself be tempted by the devil who assailed him. He raised Lazarus from his tomb in Bethany and pardoned Mary Magdalene for all the sins of her body. This God became our servant. He allowed one of his disciples to sell him. He was bound and beaten and hung on the cross. He suffered death for us, and on the third day he was resurrected. He ascended into heaven above, and he will come down from there to judge the world. This God asks you to live such a life so that you will reign with him.” With these words Barlaam finished his sermon and left to return to his lodging.

  The king’s son called Zardan out of his hiding place. “Did you listen to what this man recounted here?” he asked. “He came to instruct me, and I could be destroyed if I believed what he says. He teaches me that the pleasures of this world are worthless. He wants to trick me and turn me to a religion that my father, the king, does not tolerate. He thinks my father’s gods are false, that nothing compares to his God, and that no other god is his equal. This is a wondrous claim, and I marvel at the notion that God is so great that he has no equal.”

  Zardan understood that his lord was testing him with great subtlety. “My lord,” he said, “it is wrong to ask a man a question he does not know how to answer. You test me with your words, but I know that you would not have listened to this man if you did not wish to hear him. His words have entered into your heart, and you think they are good and right. He has ignited you with the spark that fires the Christians. My good lord, I believe you have adopted this faith, and the king will be distressed to learn it. He killed many Christians for your sake. He drove them from his land and exiled them. When they still dwelled here, I often went to listen to their preaching. If your father, the king, knew that the wise man came to you and spoke about such things, I would pay dearly for it. I know that for certain.”

  The king’s son replied, “You should remember the lesson you just heard, for it is true and could bring you great profit. If you wished to believe in God with a loyal heart and recognize him as your Lord, your soul would be blessed and you would be saved in God’s court. But you are hardhearted and foolish. If you would cast the chains from your neck and loosen yourself from your bonds, he would relieve you from the sins that will burden you.

  “I am disappointed,” Josaphat continued, “for I hoped that belief would illuminate your heart. You have eyes but you do not see, and you are blind yet you see. You see clearly, but the clarity is false. You are, then, blind even though you see, and you lie even though you know the truth. You cannot take yourself out of this paradox, only because you do not try. You are damned by your lack of effort, and all your rewards will be lost.

  “I ask you to say nothing to the king, for if you told him, you would cause him distress. You are his man and he is your lord, so you should not tell him anything that would upset him. You should also test your heart and constrain your thoughts so they do not fail before God.” Zardan would not listen to this advice. Josaphat tried to admonish and teach him, but Zardan would not heed his words.

  Barlaam returns to his hermitage

  At sunrise the next morning, the saintly hermit came to court to tell the king’s son that it was time for him to return to his wilderness hermitage. Josaphat was sorrowful about his teacher’s departure, because it would separate them. Only with great pain could he bear to hear Barlaam speak of leaving. The hermit admonished the king’s son and said that he could not remain. He wanted to return to his life in the hermitage, and it weighed heavily on him that he was not already back there.

  The king’s son agreed reluctantly and with great regret. He cried and complained, for he was consumed by sorrow; his happiness had changed to ire and he did not know what to say. Nonetheless, before he gave Barlaam leave to depart, he asked the hermit to take something from the treasury for himself and his brothers, to give to those of them in need. But poverty is not to be feared, and Barlaam refused. “Then I would ask you, good master, to leave your rough shirt here for me in exchange for a new one,” Josaphat said. “Good master, I beg you, I will wear it in remembrance of you and of my repentance.”

  “Friend, I cannot make this exchange,” the hermit replied. “Only if you find an old hair shirt for me may you have mine in exchange.” The king’s son sent for one, and Barlaam took off his garment and gave it to Josaphat. The prince thanked him gratefully and accepted it with more joy than he would have received a silken cloth. He held it very dear, but nonetheless he wept at Barlaam’s departure. The good man had taught him that he should serve his Creator with all his heart, and that he should devote himself to worship every day of the week. He should live every day chastely, so the devil could not trick him. Barlaam had begun to show the king’s son the fortress and the walls that would defend him against the devil. And when Barlaam left him, Josaphat remained sad at the separation from the master whom he loved because of his good lessons. He began to pray to God and his Holy Name and asked that he keep him from sin. Josaphat undertook the difficult work of fasting and remaining vigilant. He did good deeds and called frequently on his Creator. He served him well in his heart and loved him. Those who were with him in the palace marveled greatly at it.

  Zardan, the servant to whom the king had entrusted his son, watched over Josaphat closely and worried that the young man’s conduct might bring him harm. He feared the king and tried to find some way to avoid his judgment, which could be harsh and hard. Zardan’s anger weighed on him but his sadness kept him quiet. Then his angry thoughts showed him how he might escape the king’s fury, which he rightly anticipated. He went home and pretended to be ill. He knew he had acted against the king, and he regretted his kindness to the king’s son. He thought that he had looked after him badly, but he was wrong because he had cared for him well. The king’s son was a Christian, and he had learned about the good religion while under Zardan’s guardianship. Zar
dan thought the prince had taken the wrong path, but it was Zardan himself who was wrong. He was brought low because he failed to be lifted up by belief. He did not believe what the king’s son believed, and he was wrong not to do so. Zardan thought the king’s son was lost because of his belief, but he was not.

  Zardan was afraid the king would kill him. He pretended to be ill, and the king heard of it and immediately sent him the best doctor in the land. King Avenir asked the doctor to do all he could to heal Zardan and promised him a rich reward if he succeeded. The doctor devoted himself to discovering what was wrong with Zardan. He tested his urine many times, but found no evidence of illness. He said to the king, “I cannot heal him, because I cannot find anything wrong with him. If he is ill, it is because he suffers from some concern.” When the king heard the doctor’s conclusion, he thought his son must be angry with Zardan, who did not want to reveal that Josaphat’s anger caused his illness. The king suspected something and sent word to Zardan that he would visit him the next day, for he wanted to know what was making him sick. Zardan was surprised by the message and he rose early the next morning, got ready, and went to the king. Avenir was angry: “Why do you test your strength by coming to me this morning, when I said I would come to you? I meant to demonstrate how much I loved you by coming to your house.”