The Silent Prince
In ‘The
Silent Prince”, Somtow Sucharitkul presents in operatic form a Buddhist lesson
on human accountability and the death penalty. The opera relates the
pre-history of the Buddha in a previous incarnation. Such pre-incarnation
stories are a technique of relating isolated instances of Buddhist
teaching where the Buddha, not yet enlightened, is faced with a moral ambiguity,
the solution of which is an essential step on the path to enlightenment.
In the tale
of the Silent Prince the gods in heaven, who are also subject to the cycle of
rebirth, hear the plea of an anguished queen, which echoes the sorrow of the
human race. She and her husband the king
are without child or heir to the Kingdom
of Kashi in Benares.
A deva, to be the future Buddha, is sent to be born and is named Temiya.
A few years
later the King decides that the time has come for Tamiya to move beyond
childhood, and begin to assume responsibilities of kingship. On a day of
judgement a criminal is brought before the King and the sovereign delegates to his son the
powerr to order the execution. The dilemma is set. The most basic
tenet of Buddhism is that all life is sacred, to order even the just death
of a criminal would block the path to enlightenment of the future Buddha. As
the boy raises his hand to obey his father, a moral obligation of his state in
life, Temiya learns from the God of the Underworld that in a previous existence
he was once King of Benares, and that the executions he had ordered, led to
delays in his reincarnation for millions of pain filled years. The boy
withdraws into silence, and the King himself executes the criminal before him.
Years pass
and Temiya remains silent. The King tempts him with beautiful girls, and a day
of full regality to receive the homage of the population. But neither one
attraction nor the other lures Temiya to break his silence. In desperation, the
King orders his closest servant to take Temiya to the forest, to kill and bury
him. He promises the Queen other children who will fulfill their wishes of
royal succession.
The servant
leads Temiya to the forest and begins to dig the grave. However, he is overcome
by a vision of the future Buddha, and at last Temiya speaks to explain why he
has been silent and urges the servant not to interrupt his long journey to
enlightenment which will take many more lifetimes to unblock the secret to
human suffering.
But the
order of a King cannot be unsaid. When the King and Queen hear the story of
Temiya they abdicate their royalty, leave Benares,
and live simply as disciples of their
son. The
heavens open and the gods themselves rejoice that a further step to
enlightenment has been made.
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