The Noble Eightfold Path of Christ: Jesus Teaches the Dharma of Buddhism

by Thomas Ragland

The teachings of Jesus are considered in the light of the teachings of the Buddha, going back to the original sources. The practical Nobel Eightfold Path of the Buddha is explained in terms of the teachings of Jesus in the gospels.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Buddhism

138 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2003

Reviews

[Steve Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are many parallels between the teachings of Christ and the Buddha, after all both were dealing with universal truths. This little book however, lacks scholarship, and a lack of qualifications (which at some stage the author proclaims) does not preclude good scholarship....an example he cites the Tao te Ching as a Bhuddist textand cites quotrs from it as the words of the Buddha. A quick on line check would have cleared this up. The Tao te ching is a Chinese text of mysterious origin and it formed the basis of a number of spiritual/philosophical movements in China, Korea and Japan. As the Tao te ching it had no commection with Buddhism. It was much later (the T'ang Dynasty 618-907AD) than the dates ascribed to the Tao te Ching (6th Century BC) taken into a form of Buddhist thought, Ch'an Buddhism which eventualy morphed into the basis of Japanese Zen.

In my own early studies of Buddhism the similarities began to occur to me also as I am sure they do to many Buddhists with a Christain cultural background. In the cutiosity that rose around th idea of much similarity was the thought that much of what has been ascribed to Christ has been currupted through time to suit the needs of a religious organisation thta is fundamentally interested in political power, perhaps to better spread the word but political power is a central theme from St Paul through to the present icons of the Church's various factions. The author does introduce an interesting idea of subsytuting the word Dharma with its Buddhist connotations for the word "Kingdom" so often included in quotes attributed to Christ. Doing this lifts the clarity of the similarities that do exist markedly. Presentation of the material that could be drawn from this is however very poor indeed and is comprised of author's opinion and isolated scraps of text often taken out of context. The book is a pointer to thought lines and was interesting to me but on the whole I thouhjt it a very poor piece of work.

[Kurt Gielen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one to treasure, it is filled with great quotes that will help anybody who's on the noble eightfold path which is the Dharma.
Not a book to read from cover to cover as I did because you will a lot of useful information this way.
Better to go back to it when you need it and consume in small dozes.