gautama

In the stories it tells, Gautama Buddha often refuses to weigh in on those sorts of matters.

So, it's because nothing exists in the world of origin that Gautama said that there's nothing there.

Buddha's birth itself was predicted in all Hindu scriptures (see the 18 puranas) written ages before Gautama Buddha took birth.

If you take this viewpoint, then you might say that Zen and what Siddhartha Gautama achieved were not the same thing.

Among modern Zen masters it is understood that what Gautama Buddha achieved and what Bankei achieved are the exact same thing.

Besides this fact, they were only written down about 500 years after Gautama Buddha died.

However, most practitioners of Zen refute this and say that what Zen is, and what Siddhartha Gautama achieved are the same thing.

When Gautama was passing away, a disciple asked Buddha from whom he should learn and Buddha replied that he should learn from himself.

I was responding to your specific claim that Gautama Buddha did not teach that meditation is the way to enlightenment.

It's a fact that meditation is not how Gautama Buddha obtained Enlightenment.

In my view, another example would be Gautama Buddha, with Dependent Origination.

How do I know it wasn't only written down 500 years after Gautama Buddha died?

I can't whip my boy when he acts up?!" Change is hard, but if you're genuinely confused, simply follow what the great mindhacker Gautama Buddha taught: compassion for all and without judgement.

While Buddhists commonly practice meditation, Siddartha Gautama's actual question was "Why are so many people so very unhappy?" No amount of money, fame, power, sex or what have you will make someone happy.

Gautama Buddha was a very pragmatic leader (not allowing sick and handicapped to seek refuge in his temples because this would drive away wealthy supporters), and Buddhism is still very much rooted in the present and in the actual reality when contrasted against religions that rely on some concept of "afterlife".

My favorite authors and playwrights are (in no meaningful order) Michael Lewis, Carl Sagan, Siddhartha Gautama, F.

Gautama Buddha went to people basically every single day for 45 years and tried to awaken them.

Gautama also advised a great number of people to confirm everything directly, and not to jump into believing words without confirmation.