Buddha: a concise introduction with life stories for this audience

This chapter introduces the most basic idea of Buddhism, which is the term Buddha. A Buddha is a completely and perfectly enlightened one. There are many other names that express the Buddha’s qualities. Here, I introduce the three persons who are referred to as a Buddha in the history of Buddhism: Buddha Shakyamuni, Nagarjuna the second Buddha, Lama Tsongkhapa the Buddha in the Land of Snows. Buddha Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism. Nagarjuna is the founder of the Middle Way school, more broadly the Mahayana vehicle, which is referred to as the perfection of wisdom vehicle. Lama Tsongkhapa is a representative figure of the Vajrayana Buddhism, the profound vehicle. This chapter describes the great challenges that each of these omniscient ones faced and how they responded to them in ways that will have lasting impacts on their followers.