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The Eightfold Path

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Buddha and Christ both have played a very crucial and central role in the history of humankind. Each of them, Buddha and Christ have left a legacy of spiritual teachings and traditions in the form of Buddhism and Christianity respectively, which has played an important part in shaping the lives of millions of people over the period of two thousand years.
As mentioned in Thuch Nhat Hanh’s book, Living Buddha, Living Christ: “Buddhism emphasizes an eightfold path in the daily practice of the way” The eightfold path is one of the core fundamentals of Buddhism. Each of the eight practices are of equal importance, it is a guide to development of one’s character in the light of awakening. The first two …show more content…

It states the dos and don’ts for the followers. There are some similarities between the ten commandments of Christianity and the eightfold path of Buddhism. Like Buddhism, Christianity talks about suffering. Recognition of Suffering is the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism. Similarly Christianity also recognises suffering in this physical world. Both Christianity and Buddhism observe suffering as the main focal point of humanity. Like the ‘right behaviour’ in the eightfold path of Buddhism, Christianity in its sixth, seventh and tenth commandments also preach about being kind and respectful towards the other beings around us. To abstain from stealing, hurting others and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Also, like the ‘right speech’, the Christian counterpart speaks of not lying, to not use harsh or unkind words which might hurt others which is evident in the following proverb(21:23) from the Bible : “those who guard their mouths and their tongues ,keep themselves from …show more content…

The concept of God in both the religions are different. Christianity preaches that there is one God who is omnipresent and that the only way to the almighty god is through Christ and his teachings, the bible. On the other hand, Buddhism does not believe in any external god. Another difference lies in the concept of soul or self. Buddhism considers the soul to be an illusion while, Christianity says it is eternal and real. Also, Buddhism believes in a cycle of reincarnations, that is, one can return to earth several times as an animal or human. Whereas, Christianity says that we live only once on earth and after death are sent to either hell or

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