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Talk:The Buddha/Archive 15

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Latest comment: 2 years ago by Amakuru in topic Requested move 5 October 2022
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Renouncing lay-life

Latest comment: 2 years ago36 comments4 people in discussion

Family life

This edit, edit-summary reword there is nothing called lay life when all life is lay within a protective bubbl changed

The Buddha was born into an aristocratic family in the Shakya clan, but renounced lay life.

into

The Buddha was born to wealthy parents and raised in a manner so sheltered as to be unaware of inequity and suffering around him. In his late twenties, when he is able to break away from the protective shield, traditionally recounted in the Buddhist tradition, in four allegorical vignettes, he abandons his family to seek the life of a wandering hermit.

I can't make sense of all life is lay within a protective bubbl, but "renounced lay life" is perfectly clear and concise summary. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:33, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

"Lay' means non-clerical, not of the clergy. What does it mean to say: X was born ... He gave up non-clerical life?" For what? The life of a clergyman of some denomination? Wandering the forests is hardly a notion of clerical. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:41, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
"Something like "The Buddha was born into a wealthy family in the Shakya clan, but renounced home life to seek the life of a wandering hermit" would be fine too. Remember to retain "Shakya," the alternative for "Shakya republic." Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 10:30, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
It was already there in a previous sentence. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 10:47, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
Of your preferred version, to which you mass-reverted four times, despite the objections of multiple editors. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 11:38, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Translations use the term "household life"; see Householder (Buddhism):

In English translations of Buddhist texts, householder denotes a variety of terms. Most broadly, it refers to any layperson, and most narrowly, to a wealthy and prestigious familial patriarch.[1] In contemporary Buddhist communities, householder is often used synonymously with laity, or non-monastics.

The Buddhist notion of householder is often contrasted with that of wandering ascetics (Pali: Pāḷi: samaṇa; Sanskrit: śramaṇa) and monastics (bhikkhu and bhikkhuni), who would not live (for extended periods) in a normal house and who would pursue freedom from attachments to houses and families.

Pabbaja Sutta: The Going Forth:

"Household life is crowded, a realm of dust, while going forth is the open air." Seeing this, he went forth.

So, I'd recommand "household life." Regarding renunciation, see Great Renunciation, also called "Great departure." "Departure" could be a usefull synonym for "renouncement." Regards, Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 05:49, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Joshua, you do this again and again. You pick some source, translate it into English in a literal fashion, and top load an article (i.e. cram into its lead) with the turgid nonsense. When I call it original research, you become sore. Again, I don't give a damn what a source says, in the English language "lay life" is contrasted with the "clerical life." In the Buddhist tradition, it means joining a monastic order. When they join the monastic order, they go through an elaborate, if symbolic, ceremony in which their head is shaved and they take vows of celibacy and of never returning to their families, their acquaintances, and their past lives. That is the full meaning of renouncing lay life today. In the Buddha's instance, there was no monastic order to join. He just left his family to wander the forest in search of some higher understanding. You cannot, again, you cannot, keep doing this so repetitively and compulsively. You will ensure that the "cleanup" tag will never come off. Please also don't call it my preferred version. It was something I wrote with great speed while your tag-team-er was breathing down my neck, shamelessly disregarding an "in use" banner to edit war. Have you condemned his despicable behavior? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:40, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Those translations are not mine; "household life" is a common translation in the expansive body of Buddhist sutras. As you might have notyed from my comments above, I have no problem with dropping the phrase "lay life." Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:46, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
See how carefully people write even when they are writing for a specialist audience:
  • Zhe, Ji, ed. (2019), Buddhism after Mao: Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 235–236, ISBN 9780824877347, LCCN 2018061665,  The justification for recognition as religious professional and the criteria for a laynun to qualify as one are outlined in the six articles of the aforementioned two-page document issued by the XBA in June 2012. Article 1 states the justification for recognizing laynuns as religious professionals. Ascetic and pious women (commonly called caigu) are a unique phenomenon of a group of women who renounce laylife to live in temples [halls], are single, vegetarian, and wear distinctive laynun clothing ... This article justifies the recognition of laynuns as religious professionals by the criterion of "leaving the family" (chujia 出家), a term in Buddhism that represents clerics and distinguishes them from devotees and laypersons by the criterion of having renounced lay life—leaving their family. Therefore, Article 1 establishes the equivalency of laynuns and clerics on the basis that they have both renounced lay life. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:53, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Repeat: I have noproblem with dropping the phrase "lay-life." Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:54, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
It is the "renounced" that is the problem for the first person to do so, especially in a lead written for a lay reader (different meaning of lay) Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:54, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Fine: "leaving family life," or something akin, would be fine too. Regards, Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:56, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Just say "abandoned his family." It implies permanence as opposed to just "leaving their family." Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:56, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Thanks; I appreciate the nuance. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 09:58, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Also for an ordinary reader, "leaving family life" is very confusing. The young man left his parents, left his sleeping wife, and a baby boy born that very day. Concubines could not give him solace, so troubled was he, so determined to go on his quest. It is all in the Buddhist tradition. None of that comes through in the lead. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 10:01, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
I've changed diff "renounced lay life" into "abandoned his family," with a link to Great Renunciation. As for your comment on the reason to abandon his family, what would you propose to add to summarize this? "Profoundly discontent with mundane life"? "Becoming aware of human suffering"? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 10:06, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
I think before that you need to say something about the protective bubble he grew up in, how in those four allegorical tales he sees suffering and the path forward. I tried to allude to this in what I wrote. Anyway, I have to go now. Our last surviving cat of the litter four that was abandoned at our doorstep sixteen years ago is sitting in front of the screen and wants to be fed. Will take a look at this later. But generally try to write the lead for the ordinary reader. Also it can be longer, I think. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 10:17, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

I prefer not to make it too long; the lead summarizes, the body goes into the details. NB: you wrote diff:

The Buddha was born to wealthy parents and raised in a manner so sheltered as to be unaware of inequity and suffering around him. In his late twenties, when he is able to break away from the protective shield, traditionally recounted in the Buddhist tradition, in four allegorical vignettes, he abandons his family to seek the life of a wandering hermit.

From this we could take "unaware of inequity and suffering around him" and copy-edit it into "he became aware of the inequity and suffering around him." This already implies he was not aware of this at first, but could be expanded. It would then become

According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha was born in Lumbini in what is now Nepal, into an aristocratic [royal] family of the Shakya clan. [Raised in a sheltered way,] he became aware of the inequity and suffering around him as a young adult, and abandoned his family [in his twenties] to seek the life of a wandering hermit.

("Royal to be discussed elsewhere, not here). NB: "hermit" is not the best choice of words; it may be associated with Pratyekabuddhayāna. "Ascetic" would be more to the point. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 10:24, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Excellent. Wandering ascetic is fine. I am not sure if "According to Buddhist tradition" is needed. It is the kind of thing that adds no value for an unfamiliar reader, only gives reasons for to people to dispute the tradition. The reader generally becomes confused when there are too many qualifiers too early on and stops reading. You can put it in a footnote if you'd like. Also it is best not to get into what is literally meant, "royal" or "aristocratic." It is probably neither given the time period. How about finessing it with: The Buddha was born in Lumbini in what is now Nepal to highborn parents of the Shakya clan. Raised in a highly sheltered way, he was shocked as a young adult by the awareness of inequity and suffering around him, and eventually abandoned his family to seek answers as a wandering ascetic. Highborn == of noble birth. There is some mild repetition born and highborn, but it is within the tolerance of language. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 11:45, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
On second thoughts "According to Buddhist tradition" is good. Please keep it. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 11:52, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Can we say, "According to the earliest Buddhist records?" Recorded South Asian history begins, after all, with the Buddha. He is South Asia's first historical figure. So, why just the tradition? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:00, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
You could add a footnote with links to the Pali and Tibetan canon. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:06, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Numerous detailed depictions in art predate the earliest text versions we have by many centuries, Johnbod (talk) 13:55, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
He didn't exactly seek 'answers', but release from samsara, that is, repeated suffering. Abandoning family life was already a sort of 'answer'. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 14:04, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
I've implemented your suggestion diff. I replaced "to seek answers" with " to seek release from rebirth and suffering," but that is a little bit redundant with "rebirth, suffering" in the next sentence. Suggestions? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 14:28, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
And there is the Asokan pillar at Lumbini itself, ca 3rd century BCE. Would that constitute Buddhist record? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 14:29, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
that was for Johnbod Fowler&fowler«Talk» 14:31, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
As to the location of his birth, yes, if the issues of dating outlined at Lumbini pillar inscription are borne in mind. But eg, depictions of his birth with his mother clutching the bough & his emerging from her side go back to what, at least 100 CE, very possibly earlier? One would like to know when such details first appeared, but we can't. Johnbod (talk) 14:49, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Release from suffering and rebirth

I know. "Buddhist tradition" refers to the popular understanding, the hagiographies of his life. Maybe change

he attained a profound insight into rebirth, suffering, and how they can be overcome,

into

he attained a profound insight how rebirth and suffering can be overcome,

? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 14:32, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

All this is too unfamiliar to an ordinary reader who will be perplexed by "rebirth." It has not been defined before, and we can't introduce new concepts only in links. In my view, the text should make sense to a reader who has no ability to click, as in an old fashioned book. I think the problem might be that you are using different secondary sources to fabricate a life, and reads like it has been fabricated.
Pick one tertiary sources (say, the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism or somesuch, a book not a website,) and faithfully summarize their article on the historical Buddha for the lead. This is because they will not make simple errors of coherence where we will, where we mention something first and explain later. The bells and whistles can be added later.
There is also the question of high-level writing. It doesn't read like high-level. I, certainly, am not well versed enough in Buddhism to be able to write at a high level. You Joshua and Johnbod are. Perhaps the two of you can come up with something, if you have the time. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 15:07, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Regarding "According to Buddhist tradition": Buswell & Lopez, Princeton Dictionary on Buddhism, entry Sakyamuni:

Buddha’s quest for enlightenment occurs in the ARIYAPARIYESANĀSUTTA. It is noteworthy that many of the most familiar events in the Buddha’s life are absent in some of the early accounts: the miraculous conception and birth; the death of his mother, Queen MĀYĀ; his sheltered y outh; the four chariot rides outside the palace where he beholds the four portents (CATURNIMITTA); his departure from the palace; and his abandonment of his wife, YAŚODHARĀ, and his newborn son, RĀHULA. Those stories appear much later, in works like AŚVAGHOṢA’s beloved verse narrative, the BUDDHACARITA, from the second century CE; the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school’s third- or fourth-century CE LALITAVISTARA; and the NIDĀNAKATHĀ, the first biography of the Buddha in Pāli, attributed to BUDDHAGHOSA in the fifth century CE, some eight centuries after the Buddha’s passing.

Worthwhile to add to the body of the article.
Regarding rebirth, I thrust that rebirth is a familiair concept for almost every reader who comes to this article. If bnot, the hyperlinks provide additional info. They are an essential part of Wikipedia. MOS:LINK:

Linking through hyperlinks is an important feature of Wikipedia. Internal links bind the project together into an interconnected whole. [...] Appropriate links provide instant pathways to locations within and outside the project that can increase readers' understanding of the topic at hand.

Anyway, Johnbods input would be welcome here. The Ariyapariyesana Sutta actually says that the Buddha-to-be sought the "unborn, aging-less, illness-less, deathless, sorrow-less, undefiled, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding." Thanissaro Bhikkhu comments:

all the events mentioned in the account revolve around the issue of the Deathless: the discovery of the Deathless, the teaching of the Deathless, and the Buddha's success in helping others to attain the Deathless.

Nirvana (Buddhism):

According to Steven Collins, a synonym widely used for nirvana in early texts is "deathless" or "deathfree" (Pali: amata, sanskrit: amrta) and refers to a condition "where there is no death, because there is also no birth, no coming into existence, nothing made by conditioning, and therefore no time."

But "deathless" certainly would need an introduction... Following the Ariyapariyesanā-sutta which is also mentioned in the body of the article, an alternative could be "release from old age, disease and death," in line with the body of the article, which uses "old age, disease and death." Alternatively, from "and eventually abandoned his family to seek release from rebirth and suffering as a wandering ascetic" skip release etc. completely, instead writing "and eventually abandoned his family to live as a wandering ascetic," in line with the info above from Buswell & Lopez. Shortest, of course, would be, "According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha was born in Lumbini in what is now Nepal, to highborn parents of the Shakya clan, but abandoned his family." skipping the details from the later accounts. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 16:23, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
Fine with that. I have to disclaim much knowledge of Buddhism, except knowing how very complicated it all very quickly becomes. I come at it from the art history angle, & largely try to stay there (Eight Great Events forthcoming). At least with art, once you have established the date, you know it can't (normally) have been tampered with subsequently. Except for the odd brief snatch of text, all the Pali canon etc, depends on MS with much later dates, even if most scholars are confident the text mostly comes from much earlier, and think they know when. Johnbod (talk) 18:48, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
@Johnbod: pinging you again: following the Ariyapariyesanā-sutta, referred to by Buswell & Lopez, I think "he attained a profound insight into rebirth, suffering, and how they can be overcome, traditionally termed in the Buddhist tradition as "enlightenment" or "awakening."" could be shortened to "he attained Nirvana," Nirvana and Deathless being synonyms. What do you think? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 05:35, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
Sorry, missed this, but I don't like it - I think that, like everything else, Buddhist views differ, but most would hold that he was in not in Nirvana until after his Parinirvana, ie "Entry to Nirvana", in other words his death. It is quite common for primary sources to call Gautama, between his enlightenment and his death, "the boddhisattva. Johnbod (talk) 16:48, 9 July 2022 (UTC)
Actually, a Bodhisattva is by definition a being who has not become enlightened but is striving for enlightenment. Your claim may be confusing accounts of his life between his birth and his enlightenment with accounts of his life between his enlightenment and his death. 174.95.74.223 (talk) 22:38, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
Like most aspects of Buddhism, there is no universally agreed "definition" of what a bodhisattva is, but yours would be one of the less common ones. Johnbod (talk) 15:49, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 August 2022

Latest comment: 2 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Change "In later senturies" to "In later centuries" Hypnag0gia (talk) 15:47, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

  Done Handmeanotherbagofthemchips (talk) 16:21, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Hegemonic Authors of Gautama Buddha

Latest comment: 2 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Hello Community,

The article on Gautama Buddha requires, as is displayed on the panel, a rework in terms of what has been listed as "prose." Unfortunately, whenever any user tries to add any information, a group of self-appointed hegemons immediately revert the edits under the pretense of "LEAD" or "UNDUE", etc.

95% of the last 100 edits (literally - see revision history) are made by the same 2-3 individuals, who seem to have taken it upon themselves to revert to whichever version they worked on last. This is not how Wikipedia works, it is meant to be contributed by everyone who are interested. Instead of reverting like bots, improve on the work of new contributors.

Cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lordzenberg (talk • contribs) 21:44, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

Per WP:BRD, it is common to make a bold edit that is reverted by another editor who feels that the edit is not an improvement for one reason or another. There is nothing bot-like about that, it is in fact a normal part of editing Wikipedia. The next step would be to discuss the proposed changes on the article's talk page once you know that there is contention about the proposed change. Accusing others of hegemony is not productive nor does it contribute in any way to the improvement of the article. This article is a vital article and a lot of what is included in the article is the result of a lot of discussion and consensus building, so it's not unusual that changes might be reverted to the consensus version for one reason or another. - Aoidh (talk) 22:02, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 September 2022

Latest comment: 2 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

There was no country called ancient India in the past, so don't keep the biased information that is shame to WIKI validity. You are indirectly helping to be the part of scam.

Please change this: "Gautam Buddha[note 4] (also Siddhārtha Gautama, Siddhattha Gotama;[note 5] Shakyamuni, Sakkamuni;[note 6] and The Buddha[note 7]) was an ascetic and spiritual teacher of ancient India who lived during the 6th or 5th century BCE."

to more valid statement,

"Gautam Buddha[note 4] (also Siddhārtha Gautama, Siddhattha Gotama;[note 5] Shakyamuni, Sakkamuni;[note 6] and The Buddha[note 7]) was an ascetic and spiritual teacher who lived during the 6th or 5th century BCE. He is also considered as a light of Asia."

Thank you for understanding. Truthisrealgem (talk) 17:38, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

No chance. Ancient India is a very widely used concept. Johnbod (talk) 17:42, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 5 October 2022

Latest comment: 2 years ago179 comments33 people in discussion
The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved to The Buddha. There is quite a lot of opposition to this proposal, but as Wikipedians are aware, title choices are made through the WP:CONSENSUS process, which means evaluating arguments made through the lens of the project's policies and guidelines. In this case, it was extensively shown, particularly in the discussion section below the RM survey, that the WP:COMMONNAME policy, when comparing the titles "The Buddha" and "Gautama Buddha", is substantially in favour of the former title. Thus, all other things being equal, we should house the article at that title. However, the point was also made that "The Buddha" and also "Buddha" do not WP:PRECISEly define this individual, which was the reason why the RM was rejected in 2021. But the supporters counter this argument by pointing out that the page is also very clearly the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for both "The Buddha" and "Buddha", when considering common usage and long-term significance. Furthermore, the redirects "The Buddha" and "Buddha" have pointed to this page for a long period of time. Finally, there was some support for moving simply to Buddha, but I don't see consensus for that at this time. Once the dust has settled on this request, editors may wish to revisit that and seek to establish a consensus in that direction too, noting that Buddha does already point to this article. I realise there will be some who opposed this RM and will be unhappy with this assessment, but as with previous contentious RMs such as Hillary Clinton and Climate change, hopefully the explanation above and our deference here to Wikipedia policy will set their minds at rest.  — Amakuru (talk) 10:49, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Gautama Buddha → The Buddha – This page should be renamed in line with both the body of reliable, secondary and expert sources cited in the article and WP:COMMONNAME, which both clearly favour the use of "The Buddha" over any alternatives in English. Ngrams makes this usage plain, and shows that even whole phrases such as "of the Buddha" and "by the Buddha" are more prevalent than "Gautama Buddha" - a legacy title not used in the title of a single cited source and for which little WP:COMMONNAME case can be made (in English). The definite article "The" is required, and justified by the guideline WP:THE, to distinguish "The Buddha" from the broader concept of buddhas or buddahood (as frequently noted in the previous RM). This is also supported by WP:COMMONNAME as, when used in a sentence, "The Buddha" is also more prevalent than "Buddha" alone, as can be seen in an Ngrams of "of (the) Buddha" (with and without the "the") - a phrase used in common literary titles like "(The) life of the Buddha" - or other phrases [1][2][3]. Iskandar323 (talk) 09:20, 5 October 2022 (UTC) — Relisting. – robertsky (talk) 07:16, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Survey

  • Addendum: In terms of sourcing, "the Buddha" is presently used in the title of 36 active sources for this article, not including the numerous mentions in notes and quotes, compared to a grand total of zero titular mentions and just three quoted mentions of 'Gautama Buddha' - a very similar picture to the Ngrams. Iskandar323 (talk) 09:55, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
Are we going to have this discussion twice a year ad infinitum? Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 11:20, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
The previous move discussion was over a different title, and was closed with "no prejudice" to "The Buddha" as a title. Iskandar323 (talk) 11:36, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose per the comments in recent discussions (please read them) and a renaming comes across, because "the" would be lowercased in running text, as an end around to naming the page "Buddha" which has been rejected. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:03, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I don't understand the point being made here. "The Buddha" is already how the subject is mentioned in the running text of this article, with "The Buddha" and "the Buddha" (both cases) appearing more than 200 times. "Gautama Buddha" barely appears 20 times ... because it's not the common name. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:38, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • 'The Buddha' is a major alternate name, so of course it appears often in the text. As the previous discussions about this issue explain, there are many Buddhas, and titling this page as "The" gives undue weight to the individual known as 'Gautama Buddha'. Nothing seems broken here, and the names meld well and seem properly emphasized within the telling. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:25, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    What is the basis for claiming the weighting is undue? Here is the pageview split for buddha-themed reader traffic. Iskandar323 (talk) 13:56, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Carefully missing all the big other buddhas, like Maitreya, Amitabha, Tathāgata, Vairocana .... Johnbod (talk) 15:58, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
No problem. Here's the same analysis with those as well. Happy to repeat with all and sundry contenders. Iskandar323 (talk) 16:27, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose per RandyK & JJ. The ambiguity of "Buddha" is serious, especially as many of our readers are unaware or unclear about the numbers of other buddhas in Buddhism. Johnbod (talk) 14:06, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Note - the last discussion (now Archive 13) should be added to the top of the page. Johnbod (talk) 14:09, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Given that there's been a few move discussions I'm working on collecting them and updating the top of the talk page to list them all, but it'll take me a minute. - Aoidh (talk) 14:47, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  Done - Aoidh (talk) 15:05, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Hence "The" Buddha. "Buddha" already directs here and is disambiguated to Buddha (disambiguation) in the disambig note. Iskandar323 (talk) 14:22, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
@Johnbod: Legitimate question for you or anyone else, because maybe I'm wrong, but how many other subjects that could be described as a Buddha are referred to as "the Buddha" which is this RM's target? To the best of my knowledge whenever any other Buddha is mentioned it's always with a qualifier, such as Maitreya being called "Maitreya Buddha". I've seen situations where others have been called a Buddha (especially if you start getting into Buddha-nature), but to the best of my knowledge the others are never referred to as the Buddha. Even in Maitreya's own Wikipedia article "the Buddha" and "Buddha" are used to refer to this article's subject and not Maitreya. Buddha already redirects here because this is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for that word, per that guideline other Buddhas existing does not preclude this article being moved, because this article's subject is what people usually mean when they refer to the Buddha, and concerns about readers not knowing about the other Buddhas is something that a hatnote can easily address. - Aoidh (talk) 19:46, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
Not most of those in that dodgy ngram, for sure, but any buddha once introduced may be "the buddha" in further discussion. And for example, Maitreya is very often called "the future Buddha", just as Gautama is very often called "the historical Buddha" (another possible name here, not that I would support it). How many people ever read hatnotes? Precious few, imo. I notice that none of the nomination arguments in this or previous discussions claim that the present title causes difficulties for readers (given "the Buddha" redirects here); it's all about conforming to WP rules. Btw, in the kind of specialized books I mostly read around this area (history and art history) Shakyamuni Buddha is the norm, but this has rightly been rejected in the past. Johnbod (talk) 01:05, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
"the future Buddha" is kind of what I'm getting at, that the other Buddhas use qualifiers as to which Buddha they are, whereas this article's subject is the Buddha and is the only one who is the Buddha. The closest I can find is something like "X is the Buddha of..." but again that's a qualified type of Buddha, "the Buddha of X", not "the Buddha". For this reason I don't think a move to the proposed title would cause any difficulties for readers either, since Buddha and The Buddha already redirect here anyways and changing the title will not change how it's navigated to/from. I do agree that Shakyamuni Buddha would probably be preferable to Gautama Buddha (but again, less common than The Buddha) but that's a whole different discussion (has Shakyamuni Buddha been discussed in an RM? I see passing mentions in RMs about other titles but If I missed an RM in the list I put above somehow please feel free to add to it). - Aoidh (talk) 01:32, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
I'm not aware that Shakyamuni Buddha has been proposed in a formal nom, & I wouldn't think it would get support - not very widely familiar in English, though eg "Shaka" is the normal name in Japanese. Johnbod (talk) 04:26, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
It might be "Sakya" in Japanese, as far as I remember the Tokyo hotel rooms where the life of the Sakyamuni and Gideon's Bible were placed on the nightstand. It is Saka or Sakka in Pali. It is Shaka in Sanskrit at least in the 20th century Indian revival of a tradition that was long lost there. The Sanskritists desperately attempted to revive it via the Mahayana traditions. But there is no Buddhist culture in India. Indian society is too violent, too riven, too hierarchical, and too grandiose for Buddhism. The people from Buddhist lands do come to the pilgrimage sites (Gaya, Sarnath) created by the British and later improved by their own governments, but hardly ever mix with Indians. There's a big disconnect. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 22:28, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
It might be "Sakya" in Japanese, but as it happens it isn't - see the plentiful museum references at Shussan Shaka. The Chinese apparently transliterates to "shìjiā", so I expect they followed that. There's lots of evidence that foreign pilgrimages to Gaya and Sarnath (mainly) have been virtually continuous since ancient times, though obviously more common since international travel became easier during the British Raj. Once Buddhism died in the surrounding area, it could presumably be viewed as a harmless and profitable industry by locals of all faiths. Johnbod (talk) 15:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
@Johnbod: It's about common sense, backed up by "conforming to WP rules" - something that isn't a pejorative. Gautama Buddha is simply a totally unnatural page title in English, and it has never been demonstrated otherwise. And yes, people arriving at the wrong page do use hatnotes. Iskandar323 (talk) 07:02, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
That's a hard line to argue, given the six previous attempts to change the current title have failed. Johnbod (talk) 14:58, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
True. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 02:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose per Jb, RandyK, JJ, and many of the reasons I offered at the previous page move attempt of a few months ago, even if the target of that page move was different. No judgment implied, but when things don't go my way on Wikipedia or in life, I try to take it on the chin and move on. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 14:11, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. There are more than one Buddha. The one being referred to is either Gautama Buddha or Shakyamuni Buddha. I'd give more serious consideration to a proposal to rename to the latter, though it still falls afoul of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" principle. Skyerise (talk) 14:57, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Is there any policy, as opposed to a two-line essay, that in any way speaks to this, or is this more policy-deficient reasoning? Iskandar323 (talk) 15:14, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Yes, WP:TITLECHANGES, which is part of WP:AT, which is policy: "If an article title has been stable for a long time, and there is no good reason to change it, it should not be changed." Whether that applies here or not is an open question, but "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is accepted practice for article titles. Dekimasuよ! 15:08, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Dekimasu: Ahem. That's rather selective reading. Yes, it does say that, immediately after this sentence: "Changing one controversial title to another without a discussion that leads to consensus is strongly discouraged." - making clear it refers to undiscussed controversial page moves. Iskandar323 (talk) 18:38, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
    Dekimasu, with respect to the text you quoted from WP:AT above, in particular the part "...and there is no good reason to change it...": I must agree with you that at that time no strong reason was presented here to overturn a long-term stable name, and therefore it should not be. However things have changed since then because of the investigation carried out subsequent to your !vote. Please see the § Conclusion in the #Discussion section below, based on Talk:Gautama Buddha/Tertiary sources and other tests. I'd be curious how you feel now. Mathglot (talk) 19:23, 18 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support See Ngrams here. Very clearly the commonname. The problems with "Gautama Buddha" have been well covered in previous discussions; editors are recommended to review those. Onceinawhile (talk) 15:15, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support, clear COMMONNAME.--Ortizesp (talk) 15:35, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support Buddha which already redirects here in any case. Yes, yes, we know there are other Buddhas, blah, blah, blah, but this is overwhelmingly the WP:COMMONNAME and the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Why exactly are we making an exception to these standards for this particular article? And, I repeat, it already redirects here! Which rather invalidates other arguments about the need to eliminate ambiguity. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:42, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Before you wax the fervent yeses, or the sliver-tongued blahs about the Buddha perhaps you might want to excel with matching oratory on the hundreds of page names of British lords, earls, and marquises.
    Witness, Lord Dalhousie disappearing into the many syllabled James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie or Lord Dufferin into Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava.
    If you don't nor do others who Wikilawyer on "first principles" like you, I will come away thinking that the Anglosphere finds every excuse under the sun for their own eccentricities, but are unwilling to grant anything but their selfish ease of comprehension to the longstanding traditions of others. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 17:24, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    the Anglosphere finds every excuse under the sun for their own eccentricities, but are unwilling to grant anything but their selfish ease of comprehension to the longstanding traditions of others. Truth. At least on Wikipedia. Srnec (talk) 23:08, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Fowler&fowler: Yet Lord Byron is Lord Byron. Why not go challenge those others instead of bringing the baggage here? Iskandar323 (talk) 06:55, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Which of all the aristocrats is The Lord? (20040302 (talk) 08:12, 6 October 2022 (UTC))
    Intuitively, that would not be an aristocrat but God in Christianity, though as it stands it's a more ambiguous redirect. Iskandar323 (talk) 08:53, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Necrothesp: For clarity, are you hypothetically amenable to "The Buddha" as an option as well, or only a bare "Buddha"? Iskandar323 (talk) 17:08, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
    Yes. The Buddha is certainly better than the current title. -- Necrothesp (talk) 07:55, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support - (and I'd actually argue that Buddha would be a better move target) I want to stress that I have the highest respect for each and every editor that has made a comment opposing this move, and I say that sincerely. However, I feel like they're looking at this through the lens of Buddhism and not through the lens of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Yes, there are other Buddhas, and "Buddha" within the conext of Buddhism is non-specific enough that it would need clarification in some instances. However, this is the English Wikipedia, where article titles are determined by the Wikipedia:Article titles policy and the Wikipedia:Disambiguation guideline. In the English language, "the Buddha" or "Buddha" is overwhelmingly the WP:COMMONNAME for this article's subject. While there are other subjects which could be referred to as Buddha, this one is by far the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC in English-language usage. That there are other Buddhas does not preclude this from being the primary topic any more than Apple being a company (more than one) precludes Apple from being the primary topic. When someone says Buddha in the English language, they are overwhelmingly referring to this article's subject. For another example, there's more than one Anne Hathaway, but one of them is still the primary topic because we follow Wikipedia's policies and guidelines; that there's more than one doesn't mean we can't refer to the article as such. Any ambiguity or potential for confusion with other topics is easily solved with a hatnote. - Aoidh (talk) 15:46, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I see. Or are you just saying that in a crowd-sourced encyclopedia in which the crowd is overwhelmingly single men in quantitative fields, with little knowledge of the literature of the English language, their knowledge gleaned not from reading books, but from surfing the internet, a Hollywood actress is more memorable than the woman who offered refuge to the greatest dramatist of the language in her thatched cottage? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 18:49, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I'm saying that on the English Wikipedia the way that articles are titled is determined in a specific way, and that when viewing this article through those policies and guidelines, there is a valid rationale for moving the page. It's got nothing to do with what is more memorable, but rather what someone means when they say a word or phrase when speaking in English. - Aoidh (talk) 19:16, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Does your last sentence suggest then that the English Wikipedia is the be-all and end-all of spoken and written English comprehension and usage? Because it seems that in books written in that same English language, Shakespeare's wife is preferred to the fly-by-night Hollywood ingenue by 60,800 to 3,290 and that is 18 to one. I'll bet my bottom dollar that among scholars of that same English language it is even more lop-sided. So, is there such a disconnect between the people who write books (especially scholarly books) and the Wikipedians who vote and claim the mantle of the language? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 21:58, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    If you feel there is an argument to be made for changing those article titles around I have no prejudice for or against such a move, that article certainly hasn't always been titled such. I only used it as an example because there are some words or phrases where one topic is a primary usage of that word or phrase, even though multiple things share that name. The point I was making was that even though other Buddhas exist, that does not mean we cannot move this article to the proposed title. There are other Buddhas (described with qualifiers in every instance I could find) but there is a primary topic for "the Buddha", which is this article's subject. - Aoidh (talk) 22:16, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Fowler&fowler: What exactly are the references that drive you to opposition here? Are the scholars at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies in Hamburg morons who don't know what they're talking about because they consistently use 'the Buddha' to refer to 'the Buddha' in Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path? Are Mano Laohavanich and Oskar von Hinüber wayward fools for using the term 'the Buddha' in The Cause of the Buddha's Death in the Journal of the Pali Text Society? Is the first Malaysian Buddhist Chief High Priest K. Sri Dhammananda's Great Virtues of the Buddha just off key? Etc. Etc. Who is it you think you speak for? Iskandar323 (talk) 19:17, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. We would not consider moving Jesus to The Savior or Muhammad to The Prophet. I fail to see how this is any different. Tevildo (talk) 18:21, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Hear, hear. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 18:31, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Impefect analogy. If you view 'Buddha' as a vocation that shouldn't be in the title then that applies equally to the current title. Iskandar323 (talk) 19:02, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I agree, this article should be (IMO) at Siddhartha Gautama, but that proposal was rejected earlier this year. Leaving it at its current title is, in my view, an acceptable compromise. Tevildo (talk) 19:52, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I agree that 'Siddhartha Gautama' would indeed be the way to go if we were strictly following WP:AT and treating this as a biography, which is what I suggested previously before being shot down. In contrast, if we are treating it as a religious article and allowing religious titles (as "Gautama Buddha" already does) then we should at least go with the WP:COMMONNAME for the religious figure. The current title is a halfway house that satisfies neither policy. Iskandar323 (talk) 20:12, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    "The Savior" is not the WP:COMMONNAME for Jesus in any way, so I agree that we would not consider that, but I would also point out that this RM's rationale is a WP:COMMONNAME and WP:PRIMARYTOPIC argument, so that's not a relevant comparison. A better analogy would actually support the move: the article for Jesus is at Jesus not Jesus Christ, because even though there are many other people and things called Jesus, that article's subject is what most people mean when they say Jesus, just like (in English) this article is what most people mean when they say the Buddha. When you say I fail to see how this is any different I would point out that it is drastically different in that this move is supported by WP:COMMONNAME and WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, and your examples are not. - Aoidh (talk) 19:16, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Perhaps Jesus Christ would have been a better example. Our article isn't at that title because it's not religiously neutral - Christ is a term with a specific religious meaning, as is Buddha, and using it (for Jesus) would give the impression, in WikiVoice, that Jesus' claim to be The Annointed One was true. The same should apply here. Tevildo (talk) 19:52, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    That reasoning is still something that doesn't quite apply here. Jesus is the WP:COMMONNAME; Christians call that article's subject Jesus Christ as well as simply Jesus, while others just refer to him as Jesus, so Jesus is used because it's the common name for the subject. So far we're on track, both Jesus and Buddha/the Buddha are the primary topics and the common names for both. As for saying that the Christ issue should apply here, I disagree. The word Buddha does not have the same issues as Christ, as evidenced by the fact that it's already part of the article's title, and dropping the Gautama and replacing it with "the" does not introduce any suggestion of the fulfillment of another religion's prophecy like the word Christ does. - Aoidh (talk) 20:19, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • I Oppose any move and reject any further move requests as disruptive, since consensus rejected these precise arguments twice in the last year. The move request was not endorsed then, and nothing has changed about the subject itself since those datestamps. Arguing that adding the article 'The' makes for a discretely different move question is a simply laughable assertion. User:Tevildo makes a novel and valid point that Wikivoice should not be used to annoint religious figures as primary. 'Buddha' refers to an entire class of religious figures and English speakers often use the word as an abbreviation for the specific figure with which the world is most familiar. WP:NWFCTM does not constitute Common Name or Primary Topic; there's no valid excuse for the move. There's something deliberately WP:IDONTHEARTHAT which runs through all these recent move discussions, and I object to this process as both unnecessary and disruptive. Badgering every oppose assertion doesn't exactly shower the move supporters with glory either. BusterD (talk) 20:31, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    The previous RM was closed with "no prejudice" to the title currently being proposed, as already noted. And this page is already the redirect destination and unchallenged primary topic for both Buddha and The Buddha. The WP:COMMONNAME case has also been made plain, so where you are getting WP:NWFCTM from I have no idea. What beggars belief is the staunch defense of the title 'Gautama Buddha' when it is all but unused and uncited in the actual article. The lone quoted source for 'Gautama Buddha' on the entire page is the The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, which is referenced in the 5th note, and even there it actually uses both terms in almost the same breath, saying: "...GAUTAMA Buddha, also known as ŚĀKYAMUNI. In some accounts of the life of the Buddha..." Given the utterly threadbare referencing for the current title, it's actually somewhat remarkable people can unashamedly scoff at the rather more obvious common name of 'The Buddha' as if it is somehow implausible. Iskandar323 (talk) 21:26, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I thank the requester for making my point for me. BusterD (talk) 21:33, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    I know your comment mentioned badgering and yes, I did already reply to two other editors (which I don't think rises to the level of badgering by any means nor do I intend to respond to everyone who comments), but I feel that this comment in particular does need to be addressed, given that there are claims of inappropriate behavior that by my reading I'm being swept into. The closer of the previous RM specifically noted that there is fairly strong support for "Buddha" and "The Buddha"; however, we can leave those for a possible new move request (at any time – no prejudice). Now it's being suggested that it's disruptive to follow the closer's suggestion, one that specifically pointed out that this exact move could be requested at any time – no prejudice? I don't think that's fair to paint this RM as disruptive when it is precisely what was prescribed in the last close. Also boiling the support down to WP:NWFCTM is glossing over the Ngrams, the pageviews, and the references; these are the metrics we have to measure the commonality of a given title and they all support this move so when you say there's no valid excuse for the move I am not sure what other metric we could possibly use. When you say Wikivoice should not be used to annoint religious figures as primary that's an argument with no basis in any Wikipedia guideline or policy that I've ever seen and quickly falls apart on inspection: this article's subject is overwhelmingly referred to as the Buddha in the English language both inside and outside of Buddhism. If someone says the Buddha, they are talking about this article's subject. That's not an "anointment" of any kind, it is a reflection of how people refer to this article's subject, which is what article titles can and should do. This is both the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and the WP:COMMONNAME per every metric we have, as has been demonstrated above. - Aoidh (talk) 22:04, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    "If someone says the Buddha, they are talking about this article's subject" is the definition of "not what first comes to mind." Supporters keep claiming PTOPIC and COMMONNAME, but these arguments weren't persuasive in the last two RMs, and don't appear to impress in this one. For my part I'm glossing over nothing. We disagree, and I've sufficiently stated my position. If you can't make better arguments, this requested move will also fail. BusterD (talk) 23:26, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    That's not the definition of WP:NWFCTM, that's actually the definition of WP:PRIMARYTOPIC with respect to usage. It's also not just "what comes to mind" it's a WP:PRIMARYTOPIC backed up by the weight of not only overwhelming pageviews but also overwhelming usage in multiple different types of sources as indicated by the data shared above. It's interesting that nobody opposing the move has tried to address those metrics or explain why they're not in fact indicative of a primary topic or the common name. This article's subject is overwhelmingly just "the Buddha" in reliable sources, something none of the other Buddhas can claim, so there's not even an issue of primacy there; this article's subject is unique in that it is "the Buddha" and the others are just "a Buddha". You say the arguments weren't persuasive in the last RM, but it was specifically closed with the note that There is fairly strong support for "Buddha" and "The Buddha" so I don't think that the previous close should be relied on as a rationale for opposing this RM on any sort of procedural grounds. "There's other Buddhas" and "Buddha is not a name" are similarly not compelling reasons to oppose a page move, as they are non-issues in terms of how Wikipedia articles are determined. I do think, however, that we are just going to have to agree to disagree, but I did want to address your response and point out that the supporters aren't just claiming WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and WP:COMMONNAME, but that those claims are backed up by the data, a trait that is lacking in the opposing comments. - Aoidh (talk) 00:50, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    And I thank you for making the point in the first place, and request the requester to cut their losses and close this RM before more time is wasted. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 22:07, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    If you really wish not to waste time, perhaps you will refrain from comments such as this one, to which I have replied below. Andrewa (talk) 02:26, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    If not wasting time was the paramount concern, this RM would not have taken place. At least I've created some Buddhism-related content, such as the Lion capital of Ashoka. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:47, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Which of course gives you no more ownership of this or any other article than any other Wikipedian. But that comment explains a lot. Andrewa (talk) 00:08, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose - not for any policy-reason, but because "the Buddha" is kind of a caricature; some simplified image in pop-culture. 'The Buddha' was a man, a human being, not the icone he's become in our culture. In the sutras, he's often called "the blessed one," while "tathagata" may have been his own self-designation. Gautama Buddha just serves fine: a mixture of groundedness (Gautama) and mythology (Buddha). Regards, Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 22:06, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    Hear, hear, for thus spake a knowledgeable one. My thanks and admiration for Joshua Jonathan. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 22:08, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    As the curfew tolls the end of parting day and the ploughman homeward plods his weary way in the environs of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the toll (different meaning) here is eight votes against and four for. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 22:17, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    And hopefully, the closer will discard this comment as irrelevant, and possibly some of those !votes as well. Andrewa (talk) 00:45, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Wait... what? "not for any policy-reason..." Srsly? You've just thrown out your own !vote. Mathglot (talk) 09:35, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
    Couldn't of said it any better. JungleEntity (talk) 06:51, 18 October 2022 (UTC)
Additional comment: a loose (lose?) Google Books search shows that "Gautama Buddha" is predominantly used for 'biographies' of the Buddha (yeah, I know), while "the Buddha" is used in the context of Buddhist teachings: 'the sayings of the Buddha' (the sutta-collections), 'the Buddha said'. It seems to me that Wikipedia favors 'secular approaches' over 'religious approaches', and that this article is primarily a sort of biography (never mind the fact that we actually know close to nothing about Gotama himself). So, that would be an argument to reject a move to "the Buddha," which is primarily a religious honorific. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 07:19, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
Actually, a Google books search does not show that. "The Buddha" appears to be the predominant term used in the titles of books both frivolous and serious. If you think I'm mistaken, please show your work. Mathglot (talk) 08:37, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Quoting myself from back in April: Among the first things one needs to learn about the Buddha are that (1) Buddha is not a name and (2) he wasn't the only Buddha. The current title is an aid to the reader in this regard and no different from preferring full names in other cases. In fact, this title is a perfect parallel of Mahatma Gandhi. Both combine a family name with an honorific in a WP:PRIMARYREDIRECT situation. —Srnec (talk) 23:08, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Srnec: The key difference there is that 'Mahatma Gandhi' is a hugely dominant common name in English relative to 'Mohandas Gandhi' (the Perso-Arabic 'Mohandas' had bad optics) or 'The Mahatma' (a true parallel), whereas in this instance it is 'Gautama Buddha' that pales into insignificance. Iskandar323 (talk) 06:47, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Perso-Arabic "Mohandas?"
    Not any Perso-Arabic I know, unless we are looking for the common origins of the Avesta and the Rig Veda in the Dnieper river valley of the Kurgan hypothesis. But even then the "Arabic" will remain resolutely "Semetic" In other words, "mohandas," is all Sanskrit, i.e. Indo-European. "mohan" = enchanter, i.e. Krishna and "das" = slave, i.e. devotee. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:16, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    The reason that "Mohandas Gandhi" is bad optics even if the Anglosphere finds it convenient is that no one ever called him that. His name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He either signed his name in full or M. K. Gandhi. Only a handful of people called him familiarly Mohandas (his family elders, C. F. Andrews and Hermann Kallenbach), but even they did not write "Mohandas Gandhi," but "M. K. Gandhi Esq" Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:21, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Oops, convergent linguistic evolution then. Was thinking of Muhandes, or Mohandes - thought it must be Mughal. Iskandar323 (talk) 18:15, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Not convergent evolution. No Semitic religion was polytheistic. Mohandas is not one word, but two, a join of Mohan and Das. The language families are different. There are many constructions both with Mohan and with Das in Indian languages, usually, all derived from Sanskrit, witness: Manmohan = Man + Mohan = Mind + Enchanter = Enchanter of the mind, another title of Krishna. It is a common name in Hinduism and Sikhism, being the first name of India's former prime minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh. It is the same with "das." Witness Damodardas = Damodar + das = "Krishna"'s slave = worshiper of Krishna. It is the middle name of India's current prime minister, Modi. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 23:21, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    Incredibly off-topic. Convergent evolution was just an analogy - for unrelated things taking on similar forms. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:45, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
    It is not convergent evolution. It is neither analogous nor homologous, i.e. neither a resemblance due to proximity of descent from the common ancestor of Homo sapiens languages in Africa nor due to similarity of function. They are just two words that sound similar to you. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:58, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
    More absolute nonsense. No one was speaking about hominids. If the analogy eludes you, so be it. Iskandar323 (talk) 13:23, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
    We are talking about the evolution of human languages that began after the first anatomically modern humans, i.e. Homo sapiens (not hominids who did not have any language) began to speak in Africa. Two words in two different language families might sound similar to you, but they have different functions in their respective family trees as well as distance in the human language family tree. The two words are neither proximal in descent nor serve the same function. You are using the term incorrectly. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 02:20, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Move to Buddha. It's clearly the most common name in English. Rreagan007 (talk) 23:32, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. The current title is needed because there are many Buddhas, not just one. Buddha and the Buddha can redirect to this article as Gautama Buddha is the best known Buddha. JIP | Talk 23:41, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support. Many who would not recognise Gautama Buddha as his name would recognise The Buddha. But I'm not all that fussed, just so long as The Buddha redirects here as it does. I note that Buddha also redirects here which seems to me to be more controversial. Most if not all of the oppose arguments so far would apply to a proposal to rename this article as simply Buddha, and so it also seems that the primary redirect from Buddha might be challenged. But The Buddha seems unambiguous, so these arguments do not seem to apply to this move at all. Andrewa (talk) 00:41, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Comment: It is worth noting that the current title, setting aside its inadequate sourcing in typical English language usage, is not even particularly neutral within Buddhism, as elucidated by the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, which in note 4 of this page, says: "In Pāli literature, he is more commonly referred to as Gotama Buddha; in Mahāyāna texts, Śākyamuni Buddha is more common." In the past decade, the usage gap between these terms has also shrunk, so there's a neutrality concern too. Iskandar323 (talk) 06:29, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose - again. I'm not very comfortable with 'Gautama' but the plural nature of Buddhas is absolutely central to Buddhism. I believe it is only within the Śramaṇa traditions that we find the founders saying "You, too, can become an ultimate being". The Mahavira article uses his name, rather than Tirthankara. (20040302 (talk) 08:23, 6 October 2022 (UTC))
    Sure, but that's besides the point. In English, if you say Buddha, 99 per cent of the time you are referring to this one. Ortizesp (talk) 18:23, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
    It would be more true to say, at least in the case of art history and tourism, that "99 per cent of the time you think you are referring to this one", but in the cases of East Asia and Tibet etc you are likely to be wrong, as most "Buddha" artworks don't show this one. Johnbod (talk) 14:02, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
    "I bow down to the bodies of those in whom the excellent jewel, the Mind, has arisen, and towards whom even harm will lead to happiness. To these mines of happiness, I go for refuge." From the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Santideva, Oxford World's Classics, 1998. Note the plurals before you casually estimate percentages. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:30, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
    In case it wasn't clear, The Mind = Buddh (Sanskrit) = awakened, enlightened, or wise. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:33, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose for the reasons given in the discussions in 2004, 2007, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Nothing has changed, or is likely ever to change.
Propose moratorium on making this move request again for a reasonable period, such as a decade. Narky Blert (talk) 09:22, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
A decade is not a "reasonable period" for a moratorium. What is the longest move request moratorium that has ever been granted on Wikipedia before? Rreagan007 (talk) 10:33, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
Oppose moratorium at this stage. Yes, it can take a while to come to and assess a consensus at Wikipedia! See WP:NYRM. It took eleven years to go from a consensus that New York (state) was not the Primary Topic of New York (which was quickly achieved and never seriously challenged) to a consensus to move the article on the state away from the base name (which then took eleven years of repetitive discussion). But we got there, and will get there on this occasion too. A moratorium may be a good idea or not. But let us first see whether a rough consensus is possible here. I do not envy the closer. But note my comments regarding wp:discard. By which I do not mean to attempt to assess consensus here myself. Just the opposite. That is a matter for the closer, and attempts by involved editors to count heads here are just wasting their time and ours and theirs. (And it is somewhat ironical when these attempts are justified as attempts to save time.) Andrewa (talk) 15:44, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
Oppose moratorium, there's no clear consensus in any of these votes, it's always close. Ortizesp (talk) 18:24, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
Oppose moratorium this isn't a situation like Genesis creation narrative where the page was having multiple RMs a year, this page has had 5 previous RMs over the span of 18 years. The last close specifically noted in the closing comment that There is fairly strong support for "Buddha" and "The Buddha"; however, we can leave those for a possible new move request (at any time – no prejudice) (emphasis was in the original comment). So if "nothing has changed" since then as you say, then there remains fairly strong support for this move. The last time this title was proposed was 2007, and Wikipedia is a very different environment than it was then. Consensus can certainly change in 15 years. As for the length of a moratorium, I've never seen one longer than one year, and given the time between RMs on this page, that wouldn't do much of anything. See WP:MORATORIUM, as that's not something to be enacted lightly, and nothing about this RM (that was specifically prescribed in the last move at any time – no prejudice) warrants one. - Aoidh (talk) 19:21, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
A decade is by no means a "reasonable" length for a moratorium, it is by far too long. A year would be a reasonable time. Anyway, I oppose a moratorium per User:Ortizesp and User:Aoidh. JIP | Talk 00:05, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
So, all those opposing the moratorium who are all also supporting the move: what is the soonest it can return without causing you the least bit of intellectual or moral discomfort? None of you has made any contributions to Buddhism-related articles as far as I can tell. I do understand that there is a community of talk page mavens out there that feels competent to judge page moves based only on Wikipedia principles. No one is concerned that the lead is third-rate again, that my clean prose of a few months ago has been removed and replaced by a turgid one. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 02:31, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
Donald S. Lopez Jr., one of the world's experts on Buddhism has written the Britannica article "Buddha." There are other experts who have written articles titled "Historical Buddha," "Siddhartha Gautama," "Sakyamuni Buddha," and a few others, all about the same person. How does WP plan on competing with them? By adding reliable content and monitoring content or by dickering about inconsequentials on talk pages and asserting with a straight face the right to dicker more at a time of their choosing, and in the process tying up the handful of content contributors that do exist? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 04:28, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
@Fowler&fowler: So you like Donald S. Lopez Jr.? How about From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha. As rhetoric, I'm not sure where this leads. But I do see that you don't claim that experts ever use "Gautama Buddha" - the current title continues to have zero defence. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:56, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
Have you contributed anything to Buddhism-related content on Wikipedia or are you using the facility for searching the web available courtesy Google to mimic expertise? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 13:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
In other words, what if Google weren't there, how would you be contributing to Wikipedia? Encyclopedias have been around for centuries. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 13:03, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
@Fowler&fowler: This is the second time you have evaded a very on-topic enquiry about expert sources and why you feel entitled to ignore them in defense of the current title. Perhaps I'll answer your questions when you respond to my far more valid ones. Iskandar323 (talk) 13:09, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
I, for my part, am perfectly clear. I would have written Lion Capital of Ashoka in exactly the same manner. It would have taken me longer in the way it did during my early days on Wikipedia when I was using paper books and not digital ones, but the process would have been no different. I would have read the related books, not cherry-pick words indiscriminately from content I have not cared to familiarize myself rigorously. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 13:16, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
How does WP plan on competing with them? Thankfully the fact that there may be multiple possible names is an issue that is specifically addressed by WP:COMMONNAME, which is a policy that supports the move, so the point you're making isn't an issue here. When you say None of you has made any contributions to Buddhism-related articles as far as I can tell. I'm just going to say that you didn't look closely enough, and the only reason I'm responding here is to point out that error. Regardless of the accuracy of such a statement however, it's ultimately irrelevant because it's addressing the authority of the other editors instead of the merits of their words. We determine things by what can be shown and demonstrated through the lens of Wikipedia policies and guidelines, and no weight is given to any arbitrary self-imposed authority. I don't care if you've come to this discussion having never even heard of this article's subject, in fact there's a certain quality to that mindset that should not be overlooked. There is no "only experts are allowed to give their opinions" criteria of WP:RM and that line of thinking runs entirely counter to what Wikipedia is. - Aoidh (talk) 13:19, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
Like, I said, there is a cottage industry around RM on talk pages, a Dungeons and Dragons, solipsistic world, where only the internal rules are important, no matter how glaring the disconnect with the outer world. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 13:31, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
The only glaring disconnect here is between the weight of reliable sourcing from subject-matter experts and the arguments to stick with the current title. Iskandar323 (talk) 13:55, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
@Mathglot: Ditto your note on contempt for policy: here the same for reasoning "based only on Wikipedia principles". Iskandar323 (talk) 10:01, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
Support Buddha, lose the "The" per style guidelines and this matches WP:COMMONNAME precedent for how we name historical figures, especially ones for whom little verifiable biographical information exists. If this is really going to be a recurring issue, maybe split the article into the historical figure Gautama and the title Buddha (which will both necessarily have some information about Buddha/Gautama respectively) - car chasm (talk) 15:32, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
Buddhahood already exists. BusterD (talk) 15:55, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
@Carchasm: For clarity, are you hypothetically amenable to "The Buddha" as an option as well, or only a bare "Buddha"? Iskandar323 (talk) 17:10, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
Yeah, I'm amenable to that, I think it's better than Gautama Buddha. - car chasm (talk) 17:37, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
Should the RM succeed, or appear to be heading that way, we should have a sidebar discussion about the The issue. This is not at all hairsplitting, and in fact, the question of the in titles has been the subject of long and excruciating discussions and Rfc's before in other contexts (see e.g.: WT:TBP#"The"_Beatles), both for the question of whether to include The in the title—which is directly germane to this RM—as well as whether to use The or the mid-sentence in body text, which is a separate subissue. (If we do have that discussion, let's create a ===Discussion=== subsection, and not blow up Carchasm's !vote.) It's possible that the the issue might turn out to be too controversial to resolve at the same time, and could be the object of a follow-up Rfc. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 21:34, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
An apalling prospect indeed, with no doubt many follow-ups over the coming years, whichever way it goes. Another reason not to change the current title. Johnbod (talk) 04:55, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
I actually think the article, finally aligned with the sources, would settle and result in less risk of follow ups were this to pass. On the subject of The or the mid-sentence in body text, the usage in reliable sources is very clear (it's the), so I don't see that issue cropping up. Iskandar323 (talk) 05:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
Support per WP:COMMONNAME.Sidchandra78 (talk) 07:58, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
Support The Buddha per WP:COMMONNAME. "Gautama Buddha" is comparatively rare and convoluted. पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 08:25, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose Buddha per WP:PRECISE: Buddha is not unambiguous enough to identify Gautama Buddha in Buddhism; there are more Buddhas like Dipankara Buddha, the Laughing Buddha (Budai) etc. When referring to Buddha, it refers to Gautama Buddha in the Western world; but in the Buddhist world, it may refer to other Buddhas too. --Redtigerxyz Talk 16:50, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Redtigerxyz: Do you have any thoughts on the actual move target specified in this move request, which is "The Buddha"? Iskandar323 (talk) 17:05, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
    WP:PRECISE does not apply here; WP:COMMONNAME and WP:PRIMARYTOPIC do. "George Washington" is not precise (that's why we have the pages George Washington (name) and George Washington (disambiguation)), but it is the WP:COMMONNAME of the U.S. President as well as the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, and so is the correct title. (Note that "General George Washington" or "President George Washington" *are both* WP:PRECISE, but the wrong titles.) Same thing with "Napoleon". (You can find Napoleon III—and many others—listed at Napoleon (disambiguation).) This article already has a hatnote linking a couple of disambig pages, as well it should, just like George Washington and Napoleon do, imprecise as they may be, all three of them. Mathglot (talk) 20:03, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 21:02, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Strong support Weak support but that's mostly impressionistic based on insufficient data and I need to investigate further. As !votes are still coming in, and hardly any solid data has been presented yet (on either side), I'm going to request relisting so we can hopefully get something more concrete to go on. Mathglot (talk) 05:20, 12 October 2022 (UTC) Results of investigation are in; see § Conclusion. updated by Mathglot (talk) 11:10, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    @Mathglot: Keen to learn on this front. What would need to be presented to qualify as the iron-clad, gold standard for data? Iskandar323 (talk) 06:28, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
    All we have to do, is find every WP:RELIABLE, WP:INDEPENDENT, WP:SECONDARY source in English in the world, digitized or not, sort them by usage, tally them up, and see if there's a clear majority viewpoint, taking into account that there's some preference for more recent works (but clearly on a longer time scale than scientific works), while keeping in mind that after initial usage of an official term (which may or may not be the preferred term), subsequent references may be the "short version".   Seriously, I think your links to some ngrams right at the top was an attempt to put this on a data-backed footing, so that's a good start. I've already performed a bunch of additional ones, but haven't analyzed them yet, but if this gets relisted instead of closed in the next couple hours, I should be able to add those for starters, and then carry on with some additional searches. I'm not sure there really is a gold standard, and probably the best we can do, is to approach the data from a number of different angles, and see if there's a clear and common trend that holds across multiple approaches, which would be decisive in one direction or another. It's not a simple question, and it's probably a good thing that absent a clear trend the current consensus should not be overturned. We'll see how it goes. As a sneak preview, here's a search on ngrams which I don't plan to present as evidence of anything; it's merely part of the initial investigation I'm doing to determine which are the most common (top ten) verbs used with both terms, in order to decide what the subsequent searches whose frequencies we want to compare should be looking for. Mathglot (talk) 07:00, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
    Another way to attack what is and isn't due weight is through use of trusted WP:TERTIARY sources, and I've glanced at that but that's a slog and will take a couple of days probably. I want to do the easier searches first and see if that points to anything. Mathglot (talk) 19:58, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
Relisting comment: relisting pending a research by Mathglot. – robertsky (talk) 07:16, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Like last time, oppose Buddha because there are many Buddhas (see Category:Buddhas) and it is not the case that the term is used primarily for this figure in all contexts. I still believe that Buddha should redirect to Buddhahood. The Buddha avoids some of the ambiguity problem, but it is not a great Wikipedia title per WP:THE, and I don't find the change necessary. Dekimasuよ! 10:00, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. "The Buddha" is not consistent with WP:THE. In my view, the title of this article can only be "Buddha" or "Gautama Buddha" (I am personally open to the former, but past RM consensus seems against that idea). It is a strange state of affairs that "Buddha" redirects here, yet is not the title. — Goszei (talk) 03:52, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
    Yes, it is a strange given the arguments of those opposing it as a title that none have challenged it as the primary topic, but if you look back at the past move requests you will see that the opposition to "Buddha" is quite strong - hence the default to "The Buddha". I do hear these arguments and it is *possible* that "Buddha" alone should go to disambiguation, though maybe not. At the same time, a search with prepositions shows a stronger overall showing and support for "The Buddha". Iskandar323 (talk) 05:32, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
    Thats not strange at all. Christ redirects to Jesus rather than Christ (title) despite the fact that there is only one Christ. Buddha is the most common name for Gautama Buddha, the only problem is there are multiple Buddhas so it doesnt quite hit the requirement of precision. Which is why i think The Buddha is perfectly acceptable, in addition to the current name. Where as Buddha alone wouldn't be precise enough as there are multiple Buddhas. Wikiman5676 (talk) 18:22, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support per WP:COMMONNAME. -- Treetoes023 (talk) 16:19, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Comment: I've changed my !vote above to strong support. Based on the panoply of tests detailed below in the § Discussion section, as summarized at the § Conclusion, the result is inescapable: Buddha or the Buddha is the WP:COMMONNAME by every means possible of determining it, with all tests tending in the same direction, by overwhelming margins. This is also true of the exmaination of tertiary sources, which is called out explicitly in policy as a valid method of determining WP:DUE WEIGHT; this also resulted in very strong evidence of Buddha or the Buddha as the WP:COMMONNAME. See § Conclusion below. Mathglot (talk) 11:10, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose on the grounds of WP:OVERSIMPLIFY, specifically the notes in WP:Oversimplification. While this was written specifically about technical articles, it can be generalized to any concept that is outside the purview of the common reader. - UtherSRG (talk) 11:40, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    Assuming this even applies to naming discussions (which is not evident), I'm not sure how calling the Buddha "the Buddha" is "tell[ing] lies to children". Iskandar323 (talk) 13:00, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    That's an oversimplification of WP:OVERSIMPLIFY via out of context quoting. Encyclopedia articles should not "tell lies to children" in the sense of giving readers an easy path to the feeling that they understand something when they don't. In this case, saying "The Buddha" is an oversimplification that implies "only one". (The = only one.) So, the "lie-to-children" is that the primary topic is the only instance of a being named Buddha, or that all other instances of beings named Buddha are false Buddhas. - UtherSRG (talk) 13:12, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    The point well stated here. There are many Buddhas, and choosing one to be the Buddha does seem to say that all other are false Buddhas. This often-repeated mistake tends to confuse the topic, as does the discussion below which amplifies western viewpoints and disregards the eastern teachings. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:30, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    None of this is any more true than suggesting "The Crown" (the WP:THE example) prevents readers from learning about crowns in general. Iskandar323 (talk) 14:06, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    There are a few distinctions that make that example different from the current discussion. "Buddha" regardless of usage is a proper noun, while "crown" is often not. As an article title, both "Crown" and "Buddha" are imprecise, but while "Buddha" achieves precision as "Gautama Buddha", "Crown" has not other simple wording other than "The Crown" to make it precise. Further, in the English-speaking world, we have plenty of instances of crowns in our lives that seeing "The Crown" is understood to be a certain specific instance, even for people who don't live in a country that has royalty. Compare that with English-speaking non-Buddhists who very likely have no instances of different Buddhas in their lives. - UtherSRG (talk) 15:49, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    I would have to disagree with almost all of that. The word "buddha" is absolutely not always a proper noun. When used generally as a title, along the main line of complaint against titling this page "Buddha", it is often used in the lower case. See: Britannica for instance. Or in our own buddhahood article, where an entire section uses the lower case, quotes included. Or if you search for scholarly titles for "buddhas", you will find a vocal minority using lower case throughout, e.g.: [4]. Enough to make plain that the capitalisation is elective. Furthermore, I could easily disambiguate "The Crown" without the "The", trivially in fact: "British Crown". We use "The Crown" because it's the common name. Your argument about the English-speaking world meanwhile runs contrary to a key argument put forward against using "Buddha" alone, which is that there are a range of buddhas in the popular consciousness, including most tangentially, "laughing buddha" statues. More generally, however, I think you do 'non-Buddhists' a disservice to assume their absolute ignorance of 'buddhas'. Iskandar323 (talk) 17:29, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    UtherSRG, WP:PRECISION plays no role here, as previously explained. President George Washington is PRECISE and George Washington is not, but the latter is the name of the article, because WP:AT policy and WP:COMMONNAME apply and PRECISE does not. Same thing here. Mathglot (talk) 18:35, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
    Further, your comment about "the primary topic" above is confused. Your assertion that choosing the Buddha as the title would imply that it is "the only instance of a being named Buddha, or that all other instances of beings named Buddha are false Buddhas" is utterly false and has no basis in policy or guideline. Wikipedia uses Article title policy in order to determine article titles, which says:

    However, some topics have multiple names, and some names have multiple topics; this can lead to disagreement about which name should be used for a given article's title. Wikipedia does not necessarily use the subject's "official" name as an article title; it generally prefers the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in a significant majority of independent, reliable English-language sources).

    It has been conclusively demonstrated that the Buddha is the overwhelming choice of tertiary sources and therefore the COMMONNAME for this topic. When there are "multiple topics" for a single name, like Buddha which can be many topics, *then* WP:PRIMARYTOPIC applies, to choose which topic (if any) occupies the main title. In this case, it is clear that the vast majority of reliable, English sources use Buddha or the Buddha for the founder of Buddhism, therefore this is the correct choice of title for this article, and the fact that there are other Buddhas doesn't change that. In cases like this, an article will normally have a WP:HATNOTE at the top to help direct readers looking for other topics to their destination, and this article has long contained one linking Buddha (disambiguation) at the top, as well it should. Mathglot (talk) 19:12, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Discussion

Ngram tests

I wanted to put the survey on sounder footing with respect to the data. Some of this has already been added to the RM at the outset by Iskander, so this first portion is just a copy of that, in order to have it all in one, convenient place. I'll add some more, subsequently.

Here are the original six links from the OP, recopied here, captioned with search keywords, and annotated (collapsed, because they already appear at the top in a different form):

Six original ngrams tests from the OP
OP's original six ngram links from the top of the RM:
  1. The Buddha,Gautama Buddha (case insensitive) – roughly 6:1 in favor
  2. the Buddha,The Buddha,Gautama Buddha,by the Buddha,of the Buddh – with and w/o prepositions; mixed search
  3. Several tests of "Buddha" with and without the, using various prepositions in front; these four tests do not compare against Gautama as a control; generally they show that the Buddha is more common than just Buddha:

More coming. Mathglot (talk) 06:16, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Five new ngram tests:

  1. the Buddha,The Buddha,Gautama Buddha,Gotama Buddha – individual comparisons; 41:1 in favor of the Buddha
  2. the Buddha+The Buddha,Gautama Buddha+Gotama Buddha – summed; 42:1 in favor
  3. the Buddha went+The Buddha went,Gautama Buddha went+Gautama went – summed; postfix verb; 4:1, but probably biased against, as doesn't include "Buddha went" without the def. article
  4. the Buddha was,The Buddha was,Gautama Buddha was,Gotama Buddha was – individual comparisons; postfixed was; about 25:1
  5. the Buddha,(The Buddha*5),(Gautama Buddha*40),(Gotama Buddha*200) – biasing by 5, 40, and 200, to demonstrate rough scale factors

Note that the raw figures are one thing, and how to interpret them is something else. A forty to one factor in favor of "the Buddha" isn't necessarily the end of the story. Ngrams tallies are corpus hits, unlike web search tallies which are document hits; here, it matters for the raw tally how many times an individual document uses a particular term (whereas in web search tallies it does not). It could still be the case even with a 40 to 1 ratio that you could argue in favor of Gautama, based on the same reasoning that in the "George Washington" article most allusions to him are just "Washington", not his fullname. On the flip side, there are 166 occurrences of "George Washington", so careful interpretation of the details would be required. Same thing here; is 40 to 1 enough? It's not necessarily proof, and the thing to do is to keep trying different tests, and see if they all point the same way, are a mixed bag, or what. Next up, is book titles. Mathglot (talk) 06:45, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Book title search test

This section compares the two options by testing how common each one is in the title of a book. We actually add a third option, because of the alternate spelling "Gotama"; this was more common in previous centuries, but is included for completeness. The collapse section contains the top 30 results in Google books for books having any one of these three expressions in the title:

  • Gautama Buddha
  • Gotama Buddha
  • the Buddha

The search is not case sensitive.

The query was: intitle:"Gautama Buddha" OR intitle:"Gotama Buddha" OR intitle:"the Buddha". The results appear to show a strong preference for book titles containing "The Buddha" in them, over books containing "Gautama Buddha".

I was originally going for 20 results, but I was surprised by the large number of pop psychology books, and didn't know whether everyone would accept those, so if you want to throw them out, that's probably a third of the total, so I added another ten more to make 30 results total. Note that your top 30 results may be different from what I got below, based on your preferred language, location, possibly search history, and other factors.

Top 30 results in books for the OR'd query

Searching Google books for: intitle:"Gautama Buddha" OR intitle:"Gotama Buddha" OR intitle:"the Buddha".

  1. Gautama Buddha The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One (Blomfield 2013)
  2. Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy (Thera 2003)
  3. What the Buddha Taught (Rahula 1959)
  4. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (Bodhi 2000)
  5. Gautama Buddha: The Lord of Wisdom (Chowdhury 2011)
  6. Teachings of the Buddha (Kornfield 1996)
  7. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya (___ 2005)
  8. The Buddha and the Borderline: A Memoir (Van Gelder 2010) (self-help psychology book)
  9. Philosophy of the Buddha (Bahm 1993)
  10. Sayings of the Buddha (Gethin 2008)
  11. If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him (Kopp 1972) (about psychotherapy)
  12. If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path (Kasl 2001)
  13. Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment (Das 1997)
  14. The Buddha in Your Mirror: Practical Buddhism and the Search for Self (Hochswender 2001)
  15. Basic Teachings of the Buddha (Wallis 2007)
  16. If the Buddha Dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path (Kasl 1999)
  17. The Buddha Walks into the Office: A Guide to Livelihood for a New Generation (Rinzler 2014)
  18. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town (Demick 2020)
  19. The Buddha and the Badass: The Secret Spiritual Art of Succeeding at Work (Lakhiani 2020)
  20. The Life of the Buddha (Pali canon 2001)
  21. The Heart of the Buddha: Entering the Tibetan Buddhist Path (Trungpa 2010)
  22. Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (Ingram 2018)
  23. The Buddha in Me, The Buddha in You: A Handbook for Happiness (Hare 2016)
  24. The Buddha in Daily Life (Causton 1995)
  25. The Buddha in the Attic (Otsuka 2011)
  26. The Buddha Walks Into a Bar: A Guide to Life for a New Generation (Rinzler 2012)
  27. The Life of the Buddha (Chogyel 2015)
  28. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy... (Thích 2015)
  29. An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World (Mishra 2004)
  30. The Buddha and the Sahibs (Hodder 2018)

A search in books is a completely different kind of search than ngrams. Ngrams counts raw tallies of word counts in Google's book corpus; there's no "ranking algorithm" or "relevance algorithm" to move "more important words" to the top. Book search first makes a giant list of every book containing the desired phrase (in our case, an OR'd union of any of the three phrases), and then, in the important step, sorts them by its ranking algorithm. That's way too big a topic to go into here.

Could these book search results be biased in some way, with Google actually indexing more books containing the title "Gautama Buddha" than "The Buddha", with the latter ones all apear at the top of the list, and the former all pushed to the bottom? It's not impossible; but you would have to find some algorithm-based theory to account for it. One way to approach this is to keep going to the bottom of the results, by hitting next, next, next until there are no more, and get the entire list. There are only about 200 results total, so it would be possible to compile all of them and then doing the same tally; that avoid any possible bias in the list of the top 30. A quick glance at results 180 to 200 shows a similar pattern to the first 30, which is a pretty strong indicator that the same holds true for all 200.

Books full text search test

This test is similar to the book title search, but extends to all book content, not limited to the title only. Results of this test were so similar to the one above, so they are not shown here. For transparency, the books full text search query was: "Gautama Buddha" OR "Gotama Buddha" OR "the Buddha"

Next up is web search, which shouldn't take too long, and then a search in tertiary sources. That may take a day or two. Mathglot (talk) 08:26, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Web search – title test

This web search compares the two options by testing how common each one is in the HTML title of a web page (including "Gotama" as in the previous test). The collapsed section contains the top 30 results in Google web search for web pages having any one of the three expressions in the title tag. Title web search depends on content of the html <title> tag in the html, but the web designer can place anything they want as the "headline" or large header on the page, so the results may be different in a fulltext web search.

The query is: intitle:"Gautama Buddha" OR intitle:"Gotama Buddha" OR intitle:"the Buddha" -wikipedia -youtube -amazon.com.

Top web results with OR'd query in the title
Searching Google web results for any of the three terms in the title, using the query: intitle:"Gautama Buddha" OR intitle:"Gotama Buddha" OR intitle:"the Buddha" -wikipedia -youtube -amazon.com
  1. Gotama the Buddha – Vipassana Research Institute
  2. Who was the Buddha? – Tricycle.org
  3. The Buddha: History, meditation, religion and images – LiveScience
  4. The Buddha and His Disciples - What was He like? – Buddhist Studies
  5. Gautama Buddha – Goodreads
  6. Gautama Buddha > Quotes – Goodreads
  7. Stele with Eight Great Events from the Life of the Buddha – The Met
  8. Chapter 2 The Buddha – Oxford Academic
  9. Buddhism: The Buddha – BBC - Religions
  10. On the Trail Of the Buddha – The New York Times
  11. How the Buddha Got His Face – The New York Times Style Magazine
  12. Gautama Buddha: Illustration of a Patient’s Vision – HCA Healthcare
  13. The Buddha Shakyamuni – Khan Academy
  14. Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha – Access to Insight
  15. The Buddha Imagines The Unimaginable (And Gets It Right!) – NPR
  16. Daily Gautama Buddha Quotes – Google Play
  17. Memorial on the Bones of the Buddha – Global Medieval Sourcebook
  18. The Buddha Path – Dzogchen Lineage
  19. Gautama Buddha and the Turn Toward Experience – Looking for Wisdom
  20. What Is a Buddha? Who Was the Buddha? – Learn Religions
  21. STANDING FIGURE OF THE BUDDHA – Ashmolean Museum Oxford
  22. Primer: The Buddha – Dunhuang Foundation
  23. Life of the Buddha – NYU Press
  24. The Buddha and the tigress – The Economist
  25. From Stone to Flesh A Short History of the Buddha – Chicago University Press
  26. The Buddha as Teacher – JStor
  27. Bones of the Buddha – NPR

Two non-http chrome extension uri results were dropped, and I must've dropped one other one somewhere.

In these results, the term "Gautama" occcurred five times, "Gotama" once, and "the Buddha" 22 times. Mathglot (talk) 09:53, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Web search – full text test

This test is similar to the last one, except not limited to the title tag. This test was abandoned, because the results were too similar to the previous test, with a very large overlap, mostly just the same results in a different order, and a few different web pages added.

The query was: "Gautama Buddha" OR "Gotama Buddha" OR "the Buddha" -wikipedia -youtube -amazon.com. Mathglot (talk) 10:15, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Scholarly results

Then there is Google Scholar, which produces a crude 110,000+ hits for "The Buddha" to 12,000+ hits for "Gautama Buddha". Iskandar323 (talk) 10:39, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Those numbers are meaningless; you can safely ignore the "total hit counts" that Google gives on any query. Don't have space or time to explain why here, but we can talk about it on my talk page if you want. But a Google scholar test is a good idea: if you want to get an idea of the rough numbers, then start "nexting" through the results for each query, until you either get to the last page, or until you notice that the query terms, which should be bolded in each result snippets, are no longer showing up in the results. Or, you can do a binary search for the last page which contains any snippets with the bolded terms. Also, Google won't return more than 1000 results for any query (so, the first page, plus hitting "next" 99 times or jumping ahead. Here is page 99 for your first query. A trick you can do, is to reduce the number of results in both queries in a way that still gets you as many hits as possible, but not more than 1,000, so you can compare the two. The trick is to find "extra" terms that when added to each query, do not introduce any bias at all. Try these two, for example, and see what you get:
The question to deal with here is, is that an unbiased search pair? To be sure, you should do a bunch of searches with different sets of "added terms", keeping the total number of results < 1000 (i.e., with zero results on some page before page 99 of results, i.e. param |start=980 or less), and then compare them. If every one you try all tends in the same direction, that is a strong indication that the overall tendency is probably accurate. Mathglot (talk) 11:08, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
With "Bodhi tree" it's 66:1 (265 to 4). With Nirvana 30:1 (627 to 21). With Siddhartha 15:1 (234 to 16). Etc. Iskandar323 (talk) 11:33, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Probably and easier and better approach, is to just OR them together, so you're asking for any page that has *either* "the Buddha" *or* "Gautama Buddha" in the title, and then just go through the first few pages of Scholar results, and see how it looks. In that case, this would be your query: intitle:"The Buddha" OR intitle:Gautama Buddha". An advantage to doing it this way, is that you don't have to rely on huge hit count tallies, you can just go through one page of results, or two pages (20 total) or three pages (30), and so on, and if there is a lopsided ratio, and you show the results, it should be obvious to anybody. Mathglot (talk) 11:34, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
Looks like you got the hang of it; those counts are very lopsided, and someone wishing to refute it would have to explain why. Mathglot (talk) 11:35, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Tertiary sources

Tertiary sources are useful in order to determine the due weight of various formulations in secondary sources. I've created a (non-exhaustive) compendium of tertiary sources (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.) which can be found at /Tertiary sources. Mathglot (talk) 10:03, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

I examined the /Tertiary sources listed so far, and here's the tally I came up with based on the bolded headword or section/chapter title in the source:

  • 28: Buddha (or the Buddha) – AAR, ADE, CEAP, CE, EB1911, EB, EoR, EoRE, EoRR, EoWR, GSE, IESS, WNEDE, WBE, ODDPP, OED, RHWUD, RIT, WNIDEL, WTNID, CODWR, EBO, EoRO, UEWB, IESSo, WEo, OEDo, OPDCE
  • 1: Gautama Buddha (or Gotama Buddha, or Gautama, or Buddha Gotama) – AEoR, MWEoWR
  • 3: Siddartha (or Siddartha Gautama, or Gautama Siddartha) – EA, EoWHo, MWo Mathglot (talk) 10:32, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
Ten additional sources added; tally now at 33–2–6 (and 1 for Sākyamuni) as follows: Buddha +5: (EoB, EoWB, CBD, HCDoB, HMDoB); Gautama +1: (DoCR); Siddartha +3: (CEoB, DoB, MWBD), and Sākyamuni 1: (PDoB). Mathglot (talk) 19:47, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Conclusion

The numerous tests carried out and listed above in this § Discussion section all tend in the same direction and are very strong evidence that the Buddha or Buddha is the correct choice here.

In particular, the results of the examination of tertiary sources on its own is decisive: 28–1–3 33–2–6 in favor of Buddha or the Buddha, over Gautama (or variants of it). As this method is explicitly listed at WP:NOR (which is policy) as a means of determining WP:DUE WEIGHT, this result by itself is sufficient to determine the outcome.

The other tests carried out all back up the result from tertiary sources, including:

The conclusion is inescapable: the WP:COMMONNAME is the Buddha (or Buddha) by agreement of every possible method of determining COMMONNAME available, including especially the policy-based test of WP:TERTIARY sources found at Talk:Gautama Buddha/Tertiary sources. Mathglot (talk) 10:55, 17 October 2022 (UTC)  – added latest tally; by Mathglot (talk) 19:53, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
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