Most Common Misconceptions About the Buddha

Discussion
1

Hi all, what are the most common misconceptions that people have about the Buddha?

2

I can only speak for where I live, so I’d wager that the two most common misconceptions about the Buddha in the USA are:

  1. The fat, jolly Asian figurine they see at many East and Southeast Asian restaurants is depicting the historical Buddha, when in fact it is depicting a 10th century Chinese monk called Budai.

image
image533×531 36.8 KB

  1. The Buddha taught that life is suffering.
1 Like
3

Many people in the West (used to? still?) heard that “the Buddha was a Hindu”

4

Do you mean the general public? If you mean people in North America, then the first one that comes to mind is that his name is pronounced BOO-da.

2 Likes
5

A misconception that Ajahn Brahmali mentioned in a few talks is that the Buddha was born into extreme wealth with luxurious palaces and the like, and that he was the prospective heir to a throne, whereas in reality his family’s wealth was more modest and the Sakyans lived in an aristocratic republic that elected its chiefs.

1 Like
6

Misconceptions include:

That Gotama was the one who saw the Four Signs: the old person, the ill person, the dead person, and the mendicant.

1 Like
7

In DN14, Buddha Vipassi saw the four signs. Perhaps, later text borrowed the idea from there.

3 Likes
8

Yes. Agree.
Somehow the story about Buddha Vipassi was conflated with that of the Buddha of our time.

2 Likes
9

Well, one of the difficult aspects of a discussion like this is where authority lies. It is 100% correct that the narrative of the four signs trip out of the palace thing is not found in the suttas. However I believe it can be found for our Buddha in the commenteries. (Ven @Dhammanando ?) There are lots of biographical facts about our Buddha Gotama that are only found in the commentary stories. And this is true for almost all biographical information for all the great disciples.

So an easy way to talk about these things are to say, for example, the Pali root texts never mention the Buddha’s childhood fight with Devadatta over the injured bird.

But I’m guessing that the op was looking for things that are out right incorrect.

10

What? This is not in the ebt?

2 Likes
11

Misconception: Buddha is the God of Buddhism. No, he is not.

12

No, Bhante, it is not in the EBT. According to Bhante S. Dhammika, we don’t know the Buddha’s first name according to the early scripture and that it may have been a title mistaken for the name. I’ll provide the link to the video reference once I’m done with video editing and uploading.

You would think that Gotama is a Kshatriya’s surname. If my memory serves me right, it’s a Brahmin’s surname. Those who are knowledgeable on this subject matter may correct me if I’m wrong.

13

Misconceptions that Buddha is a Vegan…and they also misconstrue that all buddhist must be vegetarian. :expressionless: :neutral_face: :

1 Like
14

How each of us picture the Buddha is probably something like a Rorschach test, telling more about ourselves than anything else.

I can’t help picturing him as a 45 year-old chocolate brown Indian with big, skeptical eyes and a 5 day-beard shaven in a very straight line down the cheeks.

Of course I know that he must have been of Asian look and shaved, but - it doesn’t help :sweat_smile:

Edit:

702a8ce0ae0b0af216501735d4cd5a4b
702a8ce0ae0b0af216501735d4cd5a4b411×514 41.1 KB

This floats around the web as picturing the Buddha’s approximate ethnicity

2 Likes
15

I now consider that “32 Marks of the Buddha” in DN30 = MA59 is misconceptions about the Buddha.

16

Thanks.

It might have been helpful to qualify my response in as above.

I understood, or maybe misunderstood, the OP’s question to be about common ideas that are not supported in the Nikāyas.

17

My understanding is that was an appellation given in later years, not at birth.

" His family name was Gotama the earliest texts do not mention his personal name but tradition says it was Siddhattha.

18

What is “tradition”?

19

Looking back, this particular point was not made clear enough. “Tradition” here, I take as what was likely later appended to suttas and possibly/probably not what the Buddha might have been called during his lifetime. We can’t know this, so my point here will be deleted from my earlier post.

I was trying to point out that the commentaries and other later stories of the Buddha do not always align with the information in the Nikāyas. But, of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a misconception.

Thanks.

20

I think the number one misconception, of the many misconceptions, is that The Buddha was an atheist.

Yet he never denied the existence of any such beings as gods.

1 Like