Buddha

Having a book on the life and basic theory of Buddha as my bedtime reading.

It is amazing to know how the theory of Buddhism evolved with time, especially the division of mahayana (大乘) from hinayana (小乘), and various schools of buddhism. Buddha, it means "the awakened one". What Siddhārtha Gautama (釋迦牟尼) did was finding the way that we should lead a living. Most of the discussion on metaphysics (alas, most of the texts on Buddhism !) were elaborations by Gautama's followers, or the followers of followers. Remind you: Paper did not appear in India until more than 500 years after the death of Gautama.

"There is no scorn more profound ... than that of the men who make for the men who explain."

PS. It was a favorite question in my secondary school: How many gods are there ? My answer is: If everyone believes in unitarianism (一神論), and there are N people in the world, then there are N gods - because everyone has a different one in their mind.