This is a particularly good day to be beginning this blog. Today is Bodhi Day in the Buddhist traditions, the day that commemorates Gautama Siddartha’s enlightenment approximately 2600 years ago. In the Buddhist calendar it is roughly analogous to Christmas, since it is literally the day that the Buddha became a buddha (“buddha” being Sanskrit for “enlightened one”).

Many people believe that the Buddha is thought to have become some sort of god on that day, just as so many believe that Buddhists “worship” Siddartha. That could not be farther from the truth. Enlightenment, to Buddhists, is the condition of being aware of reality. Certainly no man who was truly in touch with reality could believe he was a god, and the Buddha neither believed that nor taught it to his followers. To the contrary, he took great pains to make it clear that he was just a man, and nothing particularly special at that — that anyone who put their mind to it could achieve exactly what he had, and that many had previously and would do so in the future.

Just as followers of other buddhas have taken liberties with the facts about their leaders, over the past two and a half millennia some of Gautama Buddha’s followers have taken the view that after he died he achieved some sort of godhood. Most, however, take pride in the fact that they are followers of a philosophy propounded by a man such as they, that grants benefits equally to all who are willing to work for them. Buddhists honor him, as Americans honor George Washington, but those who claim godhood for the man are not living by his teaching, but by the less-skillful ideas of some who later interpreted his teaching and his legend.

One cannot help wondering how many other times that has happened throughout history.