Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/74

lxviii But there is a further point of interest and of difficulty about this parable in the present connection. Can we be quite sure that it is exclusively Christian? For there is also a Buddhistic "Parable of the Sower," which is given, as follows, in Dr. Carus' admirable Gospel of Buddha (§ lxxiv.):—

"Bhâradvâja, a wealthy Brahman, was celebrating his harvest thanksgiving when the Blessed One came with his alms-bowl, begging for food.

"Some of the people paid him reverence, but the Brahman was angry, and said, 'O Shramana, it would suit you better to go to work than to go begging. I plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat. If you did likewise, you too would have to eat.'

"And the Tathâgata answered him and said, 'O Brahman, I too plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat.'

Do you profess to be a husbandman?' replied the Brahman. 'Where, then, are your bullocks? Where is the seed and the plough?'

"The Blessed One said, 'Faith is the seed I sow; good works are the rain that fertilises it;