Joan of Arc vs Buddha: Spiritual Figures and Their Impact

Here is perhaps the most unlikely comparison in history. On one side, an illiterate teenage girl from 15th-century rural France who heard voices and led armies into battle. On the other, an Indian prince from the 6th century BCE who abandoned his palace to meditate under a tree and founded one of the world’s great religions.

Joan of Arc (1412-1431) and Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha (circa 563-483 BCE), apparently have nothing in common. Two millennia separate them. Their cultures, beliefs, and methods are polar opposites. And yet… both transformed the world through the sheer force of their spiritual conviction.

How could a 17-year-old girl and a 35-year-old sage have such a lasting impact on humanity? What is spirituality, really, and why do some beings seem tuned into something that others don’t perceive?

Two Lives, Two Worlds

Joan: The Voice of God in a Village

Imagine Domrémy, a small village in Lorraine in the early 15th century. France is in ruins. The Hundred Years’ War has been raging for decades. The English occupy the north of the country, King Charles VII isn’t even crowned, and peasants live in terror of pillaging.

This is where Joan was born, daughter of Jacques d’Arc, a modest peasant. She can neither read nor write. She spins wool, tends sheep, goes to church. An ordinary life in an extraordinarily violent time.

And then, at 13, everything changes. In her father’s garden, Joan hears a voice. Then two. Then three. Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret speak to her. They tell her she has a mission: save France, have the king crowned at Reims, drive out the English.

For three years, she keeps the secret. Who would believe her? A 13-year-old peasant girl claiming to receive orders from Heaven? But the voices insist. They become more and more pressing. Finally, at 16, Joan decides to obey.

Buddha: The Prince Who Gave Up Everything

On the other side of the world and two thousand years earlier, a completely different destiny unfolds. Siddhartha Gautama was born around 563 BCE into the Shakya clan, at the foot of the Himalayas. His father, Suddhodana, is a king. His mother, Maya, dies a few days after his birth.

A sage predicts that the child will become either a great king or a great sage - but never both. His father, terrified at the idea of losing his heir, decides to confine him to the palace. Siddhartha grows up in absolute luxury, protected from all suffering. He never sees sick people, never sees the elderly, never sees the dead. He marries a beautiful princess, Yasodhara, and has a son, Rahula.

But at 29, Siddhartha leaves the palace. And there, the shock. He sees an old man, bent with age. A sick person, consumed by fever. A corpse, carried to the funeral pyre. And finally, a wandering monk, serene despite his poverty.

That night, Siddhartha makes a decision that will change the world. He abandons his palace, his wife, his son, his inheritance. He sets out to find the truth.

Their Quests: Action vs Contemplation

Joan: The Urgency of Action

Joan’s journey is lightning-fast. In less than two years, this illiterate teenager will accomplish the impossible.

First, she must convince. She presents herself to Robert de Baudricourt, the captain of Vaucouleurs, and asks him for an escort to see the king. He sends her home. She comes back. He sends her away again. She comes back a third time. This time, something convinces him. Perhaps her determination. Perhaps the events that seem to prove her right. He gives her men.

Next, she must convince the king. Charles VII receives her at Chinon, disguised among his courtiers to test her. She recognizes him immediately. She reveals a secret that only he knows (we’ll never know which one). He is shaken. After weeks of interrogation by theologians, she is declared a “good Christian.”

Then comes war. Joan receives armor, a horse, a banner. She marches on Orléans, besieged by the English for months. In nine days, she liberates the city. It’s the turning point of the Hundred Years’ War.

She then pushes toward Reims, through hostile territory. On July 17, 1429, Charles VII is crowned King of France. Joan is at his side, her banner in hand. She is 17.

Buddha: The Patience of Meditation

Buddha’s journey is completely different. No urgency, no battles, no crowns. Just an inner quest that will last six years.

First, Siddhartha tries traditional methods. He studies with the greatest meditation masters of his time. He masters their techniques, but something is missing. He hasn’t found the answer to his question: why do we suffer, and how can we stop suffering?

Next, he tries extreme asceticism. For six years, he fasts, deprives himself of sleep, mortifies himself. He becomes so thin that you can see his bones through his skin. But the truth still eludes him.

Finally, exhausted, he accepts a bowl of rice from a young girl. His ascetic companions leave him, disgusted by this “weakness.” Alone, he sits under a fig tree (the famous Bodhi tree) and decides not to move until he has found the answer.

That night, after hours of meditation, Siddhartha achieves Enlightenment. He understands the nature of suffering, its causes, and the path to liberation. He becomes the Buddha - “the Awakened One.” He is 35 years old.

Their Messages: Two Visions of the Sacred

Joan: God Speaks, I Obey

Joan’s message is disarmingly simple. She has no complicated theology, no elaborate doctrine. She hears voices, she obeys.

When asked why she does what she does, she answers: “Because my voices told me to.” When asked to describe these voices, she says they are accompanied by light, they smell good, they bring her comfort and certainty.

Her faith is total, absolute, without questioning. She never doubts. Even before her judges, even before the stake, she maintains that her voices come from God. This unshakeable certainty is both her strength and her tragedy.

For Joan, the sacred is immediate, personal, active. God is not a theological abstraction - he is a voice that speaks in her garden, that gives her concrete orders, that guides her in battle. Joan’s spirituality is a spirituality of action: you don’t contemplate God, you obey him.

Buddha: Understanding to Be Free

Buddha’s message is radically different. No personal god, no voices, no orders. Just a lucid analysis of the human condition and a practical path to liberation.

The Four Noble Truths summarize his teaching:

Life is suffering (dukkha). Birth, old age, sickness, death - everything is marked by dissatisfaction.
Suffering has a cause: desire, attachment, ignorance.
Suffering can cease: this is nirvana, the extinction of desire.
There is a path: the Noble Eightfold Path, a middle way between indulgence and asceticism.

The Buddha doesn’t ask you to believe. He asks you to verify for yourself. “Do not believe on the faith of traditions, even if they have been held in honor for many generations. Do not believe a thing because many speak of it. After examination, believe what you yourselves have experienced.”

For the Buddha, the sacred is not external - it is internal. There is no god giving orders, there is a truth to discover within oneself. Buddhist spirituality is a spirituality of understanding: you don’t pray, you meditate; you don’t obey, you understand.

Their Ends: Martyrdom vs Peace

Joan: The Stake at Rouen

After the coronation at Reims, everything gets complicated for Joan. Charles VII, now the legitimate king, no longer really needs her. Royal advisors distrust this peasant girl who claims to receive orders from Heaven. Military campaigns fail.

In May 1430, Joan is captured at Compiègne by the Burgundians, allies of the English. Charles VII does nothing to free her. She is sold to the English, who organize a trial for heresy.

The trial at Rouen is a trap. The judges, led by Bishop Cauchon, want to condemn her at all costs. For months, they interrogate her, trying to catch her in contradictions. But Joan holds firm. Her answers are sometimes surprisingly intelligent for an illiterate peasant.

Finally, exhausted, she signs an abjuration that she probably doesn’t understand. Then she retracts. She puts her men’s clothes back on, declares that her voices were true. This is relapse - the unforgivable crime for the Church of that era.

On May 30, 1431, Joan is burned alive in the Place du Vieux-Marché in Rouen. She is 19 years old. Her last words, it is said, were “Jesus.”

Buddha: Entry into Parinirvana

The Buddha lived to be 80 years old. For 45 years after his Enlightenment, he taught, traveling across northern India on foot, founding communities of monks and nuns, accepting disciples from all castes.

His death was as serene as his life. Sensing his end approaching, he gathered his disciples and gave them his final instructions. “All composite things are impermanent. Work out your salvation with diligence.”

Then he lay down, entered meditation, and died - or rather, according to Buddhist tradition, he entered parinirvana, complete extinction, the end of the cycle of rebirths.

No violence, no drama, no sacrifice. Just a peaceful transition, consistent with everything he had taught about impermanence and detachment.

Their Legacies: Two Ways of Changing the World

Joan: Saint, Heroine, Symbol

Joan’s legacy is paradoxical. She failed militarily - Paris was not liberated, the war continued 22 years after her death. And yet, she became one of the most famous figures in French history.

How to explain this paradox? Joan didn’t just change the course of the war - she changed something deeper. She gave hope back to a desperate country. She proved that a simple peasant girl could defy the powerful. She embodied a certain idea of France.

Over the centuries, she has been claimed by all sides. Royalists see her as the faithful servant of the king. Republicans see her as the people in arms. Catholics see her as a saint (canonized in 1920). Nationalists see her as the incarnation of the fatherland. Feminists see her as a woman who broke gender barriers.

Joan became a myth, and myths have their own life. Her story continues to inspire films, books, plays. Her image is used by opposing political movements. She remains, five centuries after her death, a living symbol.

Buddha: A World Religion

Buddha’s legacy is more measurable: a religion practiced by more than 500 million people around the world. From Sri Lanka to Japan, from Thailand to Tibet, Buddhism has shaped entire civilizations.

But the Buddha didn’t found a “religion” in the Western sense of the term. He didn’t create a Church, didn’t establish dogmas, didn’t designate an infallible successor. He simply taught a path, and invited everyone to verify it for themselves.

This flexibility perhaps explains the diversity of Buddhism. Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism looks nothing like Japanese Zen Buddhism, which itself differs from Tibetan Buddhism. But all share the same fundamentals: the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the idea that suffering can cease through understanding.

In the West, Buddhism has been growing in popularity since the 1960s. Mindfulness meditation, directly inspired by Buddhist techniques, is practiced by millions of people. The Dalai Lama’s teachings reach an audience far beyond declared Buddhists.

What They Teach Us: Spirituality in Two Forms

Faith as a Driver of Action

Joan shows us that faith can be an extraordinary driver of action. Her absolute certainty gave her a strength that nothing could break. She convinced hardened captains, galvanized discouraged armies, held her own against theologians for months.

This blind faith has something frightening about it. It leaves no room for doubt, nuance, questioning. It can lead to fanaticism. But it can also accomplish the impossible.

In a world where we doubt everything, analyze everything, relativize everything, Joan reminds us of the power of conviction. Not just any conviction - a conviction rooted in something greater than oneself.

Wisdom as a Path to Liberation

The Buddha shows us another way. Not blind faith, but lucid understanding. Not frantic action, but patient meditation. Not obedience to an external voice, but listening to one’s own deep nature.

His message remains surprisingly modern. In a world of constant stimulation, endless desires, and chronic stress, the Buddha’s teachings on detachment and mindfulness find a new echo.

But the Buddha’s path requires time, patience, discipline. It doesn’t promise quick miracles. It demands long-term inner work.

Two Spiritualities, One Humanity

Joan and Buddha represent two poles of human spiritual experience. On one side, ardent faith that drives action, that transforms the external world. On the other, serene wisdom that transforms the inner world.

Perhaps we need both. Perhaps humanity needs Joan of Arcs to shake up the established order, and Buddhas to remind us that true change starts within ourselves.

Conclusion: The Mystery of Spirituality

What makes an illiterate teenage girl hear voices and change French history? What makes an Indian prince give up everything to meditate under a tree and found a world religion?

We don’t really know. Modern psychiatrists would probably diagnose Joan as schizophrenic. Neuroscientists would explain Buddha’s Enlightenment through changes in brain activity. But these explanations, even if true, don’t account for everything.

There is something in the spiritual experience that escapes analysis. Something that drove Joan to brave death and Buddha to renounce everything. Something that continues, centuries later, to touch millions of people.

Perhaps the true lesson of these two extraordinary lives is that human beings are capable of more than they believe. That there are unsuspected resources within us, connections with something greater. That spirituality, in whatever form it takes, is an irreducible dimension of human experience.

Joan heard voices. Buddha saw the nature of reality. Two radically different paths to the same intuition: that our ordinary life is not all that exists, and that each of us can, in our own way, touch the extraordinary.