Gautama Buddha
c. 5th–4th century BCE — India/Nepal
“What causes suffering — and can awareness itself be liberated from it?”
Primary Contribution
Established the Anatta (no-self) teaching: the five aggregates constituting a person are not a self, not mine, not what I am. When identification with these aggregates ceases, suffering is extinguished.
Key Ideas
- Anatta (no-self): the five aggregates are not a self, not mine, not what I am
- Four Noble Truths: suffering exists, has a cause (craving), can cease, and there is a path
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration
- Dependent Origination (Pratityasamutpada): all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions
- The middle way: between extreme asceticism and indulgence; between existence and non-existence
Recommended Works
- Dhammapada
- Majjhima Nikaya (Middle Length Discourses)
- Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses)
“Mind is the forerunner of all states. Mind is chief, mind-made are they. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows, as a shadow that never departs.”
Further Sayings
Legacy & Influence
The Buddha's teaching gave rise to the most geographically extensive spiritual tradition in history — from India through Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Tibet, and now the West. His Anatta doctrine is the deepest challenge to the materialist assumption of a persistent self, and anticipates by 2500 years the no-self findings of cognitive neuroscience (Metzinger, Seth). The mindfulness revolution in clinical medicine is a direct secularization of vipassana practice.
Knowledge Well & Media
Recommended research papers, debates, and lectures