Richard Hayes, "A Buddha and His Cousin"

Summary by Tyler Knox

 

In his article, A Buddha and his Cousin, Richard Hayes puts a story from his own life next to a popular Buddhist tale as a means to discuss some key Buddhist principles.

 

He begins with his personal narrative&emdash;he is a young man making a decision about military service. During this time of decision, he stumbles upon Plato's account of Socrates' trial, as well as some lectures on Buddhism (1). Inspired by these life-changing encounters, he runs away to Canada to escape military service and eventually becomes a teacher of Buddhist studies and meditation (2). It seems that Hayes tells his life story with the intention of giving context to the way in which he grapples with and interprets the story of Devadatta.

 

After the Buddha leaves his life of luxury behind, he awakens to the true nature of things and teaches others (4). His cousin, Devadatta, is one of his followers but sees corruption in the order of monks and nuns. He schemes with Prince Ajatasattu&emdash;the prince will seize power from his father and Devadatta will overthrow the monastic order (5). The prince's coup works but the guilt ruins him later. Devadatta's plan works only temporarily, as 500 monks and nuns leave the Buddha to join him (6). In the end, they return to the Buddha and Devadatta gets swallowed by the earth (7).

 

Hayes unpacks a few traditional accounts of this story first, and then offers his own interpretations. He talks about the "Devadatta within" (10), employing moral perfectionism as a mask for a lack of control. Perfectionism, he says, is the enemy of perfection because it retards spiritual growth and can be the source of delusion. Many Buddhists have affirmed this notion of perfectionism (11). Hayes encourages followers to be more realistic&emdash;to see the goals of Buddhism, "as similar to mathematical asymptotes, theoretical limits that can be approached but never be attained" (12).