[mairdie]

Gautama Buddha (abt 563-480 BC – abt 483-400 BC) was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BC.

Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism...

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as an enlightened teacher who attained full Buddhahood, and shared his insights to help sentient beings end rebirth and suffering. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

[JimRed]

A sinner as all humans. Christ after his crucifixion is said to have descended into Hell to offer salvation to those prior dead who would believe. Hopefully the Buddha was one of those who accepted His sacrifice.

[nicollo]

As much as Gautama Buddha influenced history and the ideas have spread across SE Asia, mostly, Buddhism didn’t persist in India because the Hindu caste system was stronger than his (or a cumulative “his”) ideas of nirvana, or “release from cycle of rebirth,” which directly challenged the Hindu social order.

It was up to the Europeans to figure out the concept of human equality, and the Americans to make it happen.