- Lived:
- c. 563–483 BCE by the traditional count — northern India and the Himalayan foothills of what is now Nepal. The dates are genuinely contested; many scholars now think he died around 400 BCE.
- Tradition:
- The śramaṇa (renouncer) movement of ancient India; founder of what the world calls Buddhism.
- The Big Idea:
- Suffering has a cause — craving — and because it has a cause, it has a cure. Philosophy is the medicine.
- In their words:
- "All conditioned things are subject to decay. Strive on with diligence." — his last recorded words
- If you remember one thing:
- He treated the deepest problem of human life the way a doctor treats a disease — diagnose it, find its cause, confirm it's curable, prescribe the treatment — and refused to waste time on any question that didn't help the patient.