Gianmichael Salvato's Reviews > Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment

I will have to admit to being rather disappointed after reading this book. That doesn't mean it wasn't a well-written book, certainly worth reading. But I expected something more from the author, Deepak Chopra.

In his preface to Jesus, Chopra is very straightforward about his purpose in writing the book, saying:

"[there is] a Jesus left out of the New Testament - the enlightened Jesus. His absence, in my view, has profoundly crippled the Christian faith, for...making [Jesus] the one and only Son of God leaves the rest of humankind stranded...What if Jesus wanted his followers - and us - to reach the same unity with God that he had reached?"


Chopra takes on the task quite well, but not without failing to give some consideration I would have thought he'd undertake in his treatment of the Jesus mythos. For example, he allows the notion that Jesus was born in Nazareth, a misrepresentation caused by illiteracy in the early translations of the ancient texts that made up the canonical texts. Nazareth didn't even exist at the time of the radically inclusive Dharma teacher and itinerate Rabbi. And he fails to recognise that it was the ignorance of Pope Gregory that resulted in the complete misrepresentation of Mary of Magdala as a whore -- something that is indicated nowhere, even in the poorly plagiarised canonical texts of the Christian Bible.

Still, I think that Chopra's thoughtful treatment of the story in a way that those who entertain such ideas as the god-concept, and who believe the account in their bible was ever intended to be an historic or literal account of the life of Rav Yeshua ben Yusef, is well done and imaginative.

I might have expected that greater attention would have been paid the likelihood that the Egyptian Therapeutae, long believed to either be Tibetan Buddhist monks or to have been trained by Tibetan monks, played a significant role in the formative ideology and philosophy of the young Yeshua. But this possibility is implied in Chopra's positioning of Yeshua with the Essenes, who are likewise, students of the Dharma, integrated with a more mystical/metaphysical understanding of the traditional god-concept.

I was disturbed by Chopra's decision to support the notion of "Satan", and by an almost Harry Potter-esque encounter by Yeshua with paintings depicting future events. It seemed incongruent with Chopra's own intelligence and wisdom, and only supported one of the most unhealthy delusions of theistic spiritual paths... the notion of this fearmongering, spiteful and bitchy "god", and his "nemesis" (the Angel of Light).

In the end though, I think that for those inclined toward theistic philosophies and spiritual paths, it would be useful to consider the idea that Yeshua (Jesus) understood that all of the qualities we seek from "God" can be found within us already, and the Enlightenment is the pathway or realisation of these qualities (our True Nature). He brings to the forefront the realisation that like the meditative practices (sadhanas) of the Eastern traditions, Christianity offers prayer as a way to "transcend," to still the mind and expand it beyond the limitations of our perceived realities.

The premise that Jesus became enlightened during the so-called "lost years" is a powerful idea, but unfortunately, I expected a bit more substance to support this idea. That was entirely my fault, because I did not realise, when I picked the book up, that Chopra's intended approach was going to be purely fictional -- midrashic, really... much as the authors of the canonical and apocryphal texts intended.

Missing was any reference to the reality that most of the tales we find in the canonical texts, especially in the synoptic gospels, are nothing more than repackaged (horribly plagiarised) versions of a 5000 year old astrological myth about various sun-gods (including Horus, Osiris/Isis, Mithra, Attis, and so many others). I had hoped this book might illuminate some possibilities, even within the context of ficition, that somehow, a manipulative, unilluminated, power-hungry group of rich and powerful men (known collectively as what we now call the Roman Catholic Church) would miss the entire point of the stories, and after them, nearly every "Christian" sect that followed would be disadvantaged and misinformed as well.

Perhaps that is a book that is yet to be written... by a punk monk or something along those lines! ;-)

If you like a light, good natured read... pick up this book. It's certainly better written than the Bible, and much more believable overall.