Here I am talking about Siddhartha Gautama, Sukaymuni Buddha, the Buddha who founded Buddhism as we know it today 2600 years ago.
There were no pretenses or additives added to him. He was all flesh and blood. He gets sick like we ordinary human beings do; he had a body ache, and there was nothing that was superhuman about him. He was just like another human being, like any of us, as far as we can tell. He never puffed himself up. Anything that was puffed about him was done by his followers hundreds of years after his death. His disciples did not puff him up, although they always showed him respect as their teacher. He did not ask for Buddhist temples or Buddha statues that made likenesses of him to be worshipped after he was gone.
He asked his followers to rely only on themselves and the dharma as their only teacher, no one else.
Every day, he went into a town to beg for food once, like every member of his sangha did. He didn't ask for better food because he was the leader, the enlightened one, the Buddha. In fact, he got food poisoning, and he really died from eating spoiled food when he was 80 years old.
When his cousin Annada was in tears at the Buddha's deathbed, he implored Arnanda to ask him questions he wanted to ask him before he was gone.
What I really like about Siddhartha Gotama Buddha is that he was a realist. When Arnanda asked about the six monks who always, at the time, made rochus in the sangha crowd when the Buddha was absent, he gave Ananda this advice: "Ignore them. Don't respond to them. Once they are finally fed up with the non-response from the other bhikkhus, they will leave," and they did leave.
He was a wise counselor; at the same time, he was the Buddha. He cared so much about everyone who sought his advice; he altered his deliverance of his advice to fit each particular individual's education level or background.
He didn't dwell on abstract subjects such as where and when the humans came from. He concentrated on today's problem. He tried to save every human being from today's problem, the sufferings, dukkha.
He gave this example to a person who kept asking such abstract questions like where and when the universe was originally created or began. He said, "Let's say you were hit by a poisoned arrow; it is like you refuse to pull that arrow until you know who shot the arrow, what the arrow and poison were made of, or what direction it came from." You would be dead before you get your answers.
And finally, he presented us with a solution to end human suffering, that is, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
