Gautama Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. The word Buddha is a title for the
first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha"
meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama Buddha may also be referred to as Shakyamuni (Sanskrit: "Sage of the Shakyas"). The Buddha found a Middle Way that
ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.
The time of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most early-20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to
between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal, as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are also
claims about birthplace of Gautama Buddha to be Kapileswara, Orissa or Kapilavastu at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha
and Kośala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and 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.
Traditional biographies
Primary biographical sources
The primary sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are in a variety of different and sometimes conflicting traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara
Sutra, Mahavastu, and the Nidanakatha. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet A vaghosa, and dating around the beginning of the
2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sutra is the next oldest biography, a Mahayana/Sarvastivada biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahavastu from the Mahasamghika
Lokottaravada sect is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is
entitled the Abhiniskramana Sutra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. Lastly, the Nidanakatha is from the Theravada sect in Sri Lanka,
composed in the 5th century CE by Buddhaghosa.
From canonical sources, the Jstaka tales, Mahapadana Sutta , and the Achariyabhuta Sutta include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jataka tales
retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahapadana Sutta and Acchariyaabbhuta Sutta
both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from Tusita Heaven into his mother's womb.
Nature of traditional depictions
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of
a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahavastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have
developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity
with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In
modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance,
he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahapurusa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in
the Mahaparinibbana Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.
The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what
Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the
Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very
little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhartha Gautama did exist as a historical figure.
Biography
Conception and birth
Various sites have been identified as possible places of Gautama Buddha's birth. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are
other claims of Buddha's birth in Piprahwa in Uttar Pradesh, India; or Kapileswara in Orissa, India. and raised in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilavastu. According to the most
traditional biography. the Buddha's father was King Śuddhodana, the leader of Shakya clan, whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of
Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime; Gautama was the family name. His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Mayadevi) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on
the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya
tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini,
in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later.
The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pali: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain
abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in
Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction
that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kaundinya , the youngest, and later to be the first arahant other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one
who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Suddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of Ikshvaku, many scholars think that Suddhodana was the
elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by
existential concern for the human condition. At the time, many small city-states existed in Ancient India, called Janapadas. Republics and chiefdoms with diffused political power and
limited social stratification, were not uncommon amongst them, and were referred to as gana-sanghas. The Buddha's community does not seem to have had a caste system. It was not a
monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the
strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the Shramana-type Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
Early life and marriage
Siddhartha was born in a royal Hindu Kshatriya family. He was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the
life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Suddhodana, wishing for
his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yasodhars . According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son,
named Rahula. Siddhartha is then said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or
need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
Departure and ascetic life
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha
was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered
a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and aboard his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent
guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest,
Bimisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Arada Kalama), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However,
Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practise, and moved on to become a student of Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Ramaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative
consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation
of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a
river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the
season's plowing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhana.
Enlightenment
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative jhana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what
Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he
is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her
a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the
truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is
said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From
that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One"). He is often referred to in
Buddhism as Shakyamuni Buddha, or "The Awakened One of the Shakya Clan."
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became
known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for
any being. The Buddha described Nirvana as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states,[46] or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is
also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to
every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyacana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) — a scripture found in the Pali and other canons — immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or
not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is
subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
Formation of the sangha
After his awakening, the Buddha met two merchants, named Tapussa and Bhallika, who became his first lay disciples. They were apparently each given hairs from his head, which are
now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta,
to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five
companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first sangha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The
conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
Travels and teaching
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of
people: from nobles to outcaste street sweepers, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. From the outset, Buddhism was equally open to all races and classes,
and had no caste structure, as was the rule for most Hindus in the-then society. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety
of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the vassana rainy season when ascetics
of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries,
public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During
this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha
spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver
the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however,
delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace
prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms"
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms"
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit,
many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also
joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were
reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the
dharma, after which his father became an arahant.
The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati,
for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and
Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after
the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional
rules (Vinaya) to follow.
Assassination attempts
According to colorful legends, even during the Buddha's life the sangha was not free of dissent and discord. For example, Devadatta, a cousin of Gautama who became a monk but not
an arahant, more than once tried to kill him.
Initially, Devadatta is alleged to have often tried to undermine the Buddha. In one instance, according to stories, Devadatta even asked the Buddha to stand aside and let him lead the
sangha. When this failed, he is accused of having three times tried to kill his teacher. The first attempt is said to have involved him hiring a group of archers to shoot the awakened
one. But, upon meeting the Buddha, they laid down their bows and instead became followers. A second attempt is said to have involved Devadatta rolling a boulder down a hill. But
this hit another rock and splintered, only grazing the Buddha's foot. In the third attempt, Devadatta is said to have got an elephant drunk and set it loose. This ruse also failed.
After his lack of success at homicide, Devadatta is said to have tried to create a schism in the sangha, by proposing extra restrictions on the vinaya. When the Buddha again prevailed,
Devadatta started a breakaway order. At first, he managed to convert some of the bhikkhus, but Sariputta and Maudgalyayana are said to have expounded the dharma so effectively
that they were won back.
Mahaparinirvana
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his
earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant
Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for
a Buddha. Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning.[48] The precise contents of the
Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the
Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different
traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kusinsra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. Buddha, however, is said to
have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds—the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and
tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana.
The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence." His body was cremated and the relics were placed
in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where
what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pali historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dipavaisa and Mahavamsa, the coronation of Asoka is 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to two textual
records in Chinese, the coronation of Asoka is 116 years after the death of Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravada record or 383
BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravada countries is 544 or 543 BCE, because the reign of
Asoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council,
with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shakyamuni, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavat, Bhagwān,
Jina/Jinendra, Sastr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathagata.
Physical characteristics
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan
tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join
his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no
means unattractive.".
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a
palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth
shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant."
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have
reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully
enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta. In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula
upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasiha Gatha.
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
Teachings
Some scholars believe that some portions of the Pali Canon and the Āgamas contain the actual substance of the historical teachings (and possibly even the words) of the Buddha.
Some scholars believe the Pali Canon and the Agamas pre-date the Mahayana sūtras. The scriptural works of Early Buddhism precede the Mahayana works chronologically, and are
treated by many Western scholars as the main credible source for information regarding the actual historical teachings of Gautama Buddha. However, some scholars do not think that
the texts report on historical events.
Some of the fundamentals of the teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha are:
The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and annihilation; that suffering
can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this.
The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama
Sutta for details.
Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things that come to be have an end.
Dukkha (Sanskrit: duhkha): That nothing which comes to be is ultimately satisfying.
Anattā (Sanskrit: anatman): That nothing in the realm of experience can really be said to be "I" or "mine".
Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvana): It is possible for sentient beings to realize a dimension of awareness which is totally unconstructed and peaceful, and end all suffering due to the
mind's interaction with the conditioned world.
However, in some Mahayana schools, these points have come to be regarded as more or less subsidiary. There is disagreement amongst various schools of Buddhism over more
complex aspects of what the Buddha is believed to have taught, and also over some of the disciplinary rules for monks.
According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned everyday notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary
between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is only a guide and teacher for beings who must tread the path
of Nirvāṇa (Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and understand reality. The Buddhist system of insight and meditation practice is not claimed to
have been divinely revealed, but to spring from an understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by treading the path guided by the Buddha's teachings.
Other religions
In Hinduism, Gautama is regarded as one of the ten avatars of God Vishnu. Some Hindu texts say that the Buddha was an avatar of the god Vishnu.
The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a
reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
