Buddha's Family Tree

All other informal historical discussion, ancient or modern, falls here. This includes the topics of Islam, Buddhism, and other religious traditions.
Post Reply
User avatar
John T
Posts: 1567
Joined: Thu May 15, 2014 8:57 am

Buddha's Family Tree

Post by John T »

I came across this interesting video regarding the family three of Buddha.

https://youtu.be/-ijZrPIRlhw

I concluded Buddha is a myth based on Greek mythology.

Buddha is not a name but rather a title for; "one who has awakened".

There are no surviving writings of Buddha, no physical evidence. However, there is a temple in Sri Lanka that claims to have a tooth of Buddha but no scientists are allowed to test it.

The first fanciful stories of the mythical Buddha did not occur until several hundred years after his so-called birth (500 BCE?), that is, after the Indus Valley in India was conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BCE.

It is claimed that Buddha was conceived by an elephant that raped his mother. Or was it the god Vishnu who appeared as an lotus carrying elephant in his mother's dream?

If these stories sound familiar with the stories of Zeus having sex with women while disguised as an animal, well, you have to ask who came up with the erotic genre first? The Greeks or the Shakya clan that were influenced by the Greek myths of Alexandria the great in 327 BCE?

https://mythnerd.com/disguises-of-zeus/
ABuddhist
Posts: 1016
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:36 am

Re: Buddha's Family Tree

Post by ABuddhist »

John T wrote: Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:18 am I came across this interesting video regarding the family three of Buddha.

https://youtu.be/-ijZrPIRlhw

I concluded Buddha is a myth based on Greek mythology.

Buddha is not a name but rather a title for; "one who has awakened".

There are no surviving writings of Buddha, no physical evidence. However, there is a temple in Sri Lanka that claims to have a tooth of Buddha but no scientists are allowed to test it.

The first fanciful stories of the mythical Buddha did not occur until several hundred years after his so-called birth (500 BCE?), that is, after the Indus Valley in India was conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BCE.

It is claimed that Buddha was conceived by an elephant that raped his mother. Or was it the god Vishnu who appeared as an lotus carrying elephant in his mother's dream?

If these stories sound familiar with the stories of Zeus having sex with women while disguised as an animal, well, you have to ask who came up with the erotic genre first? The Greeks or the Shakya clan that were influenced by the Greek myths of Alexandria the great in 327 BCE?

https://mythnerd.com/disguises-of-zeus/
1. With all due respect, any person with more than superficial knowledge about Buddhism knows that "Buddha" is a title, and that the "Historical Buddha", as presented within Buddhist texts, is said to have the name Siddhārtha Gautama in Sanskrit or Siddhattha Gotama in Pail.

2. It is true, I concede, that the fanciful and mythical biographies of the Buddha, represented most famously by Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacharita, date to hundred of years after his death. However, these must be understood as efforts to compete with Hindu religious claims. The Pali Canon, which was first committed to writing during the 1st century BCE and is obviously based upon substantially older oral traditions (going back to Siddhattha Gotama and his followers, it is claimed) presents a more subdued biography. Interestingly enough, this biography differs in many ways from the later standard, including by presenting Siddhattha Gotama as openly leaving his weeping parents rather than sneaking away.

3. It is true that traditional Buddhist accounts associate Siddhattha Gotama's conception with contact between his mother and an elephant, but even within the story, this contact takes place within her dream rather than reality and is not rape. Rather, the elephant enters her side miraculously - the sort of dream-logic which can happen in dreams even outside hagiographies. Claims that Siddhattha Gotama was associated with Vishnu were a Hindu effort to co-opt Buddhism which Buddhists reject as false.

4. It is true that The interplay between Greek and Indian cultures in Buddhism is a fruitful field of study, but it should not be reduced to the Indians taking from the Greeks - although this happened with Herakles being assimilated into the protector deity Vajrapani. The Greeks were also influenced by Buddhism. Dharmarakṣita (Sanskrit) (Pali: Dhammarakkhita) and Mahadhammarakkhita (Pali) (Sanskrit: Mahadharmaraksita) were a Greek Buddhist monks, and the Pali Milinda Pañha describes the conversion of the Greek king of Bactria to Buddhism - which is confirmed by coins.

In general, though, I do not trust youtube videos, especially when they reveal as much ignorance about Buddhism as your summary makes it sound like this one did.

I much prefer books in order to learn about Buddhist origins, such as Sujato, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Brahmali. 2015. The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts. S.l.: lulu.com. https://ocbs.org/wp-content/uploads/201 ... ticity.pdf or Jan Nattier's "A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)" [University of Hawaii Press; New edition (May 31 2005)].
Post Reply