Talk:List of Buddha claimants

Dalai Lamas
Since the Dalai Lamas are incarnations of Avalokitesvara not The Buddha, isn't this incorrect? Or do you consider the bodhisattva to be the Buddha? --Friðrik Bragi Dýrfjörð 03:42, 11 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks on that, I've corrected it.--T. Anthony 03:53, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

The Dalai Lama is not the head of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a political figure with some standing in the Gelug tradition. Other traditions have their own heads and due to the Dalai Lama's mixing of politics and religion, the Dalai Lama figure has in fact reached an all time low in popularity amongst Tibetan people. The book "A Great Deception" (http://www.agreatdeception.com/) goes into great detail of the actions performed by the 14th Dalai Lama, and since publication the Dalai Lama has taken no action to refute the claims of the book. The Dalai Lama's legal team has also been postponing a case where he has been sued in India for transgressing the Indian Constitution due to his acts of religious oppression. Thus, the Dalai Lama is not, contrary to popular belief, the head of Tibetan Buddhism. He is merely a political leader of a government in exile of a country that he signed over to the Chinese voluntary many years ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.213.219.138 (talk) 14:24, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

This is Chinese state propaganda!

Li Hongzhi
I removed Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, because he never claimed to be a Buddha. The Chinese Communist Party controled media reported that Li Hongzhi claimed to the Buddha and changed his date of birth so it would be the same as that of the Buddha. Li Hongzhi published a Statement when Falun Gong was banned in China saying that. "(...)Some people spread rumors that I changed my date of birth, and this is true. During the Cultural Revolution, the government misprinted my date of birth. What I did was simply to change the misprinted date of birth to the correct one. As for the fact that Sakyamuni was also born on this day, what does that have to do with me? Many other people were also born on this day. In addition, I have never claimed that I am Sakyamuni.(...)"[]

At a Falun Gong conference in 2005, in response to a Falun Gong practitioner's question, Li Hongzhi said "(...) Dafa disciples should call me "Master," or "Teacher," etc. It's up to you, you can address me however you like. But be sure not to address me as "Buddha"." []


 * Agree it doesn't make sense to include Li Hongzhi based on hearsay about a claim that he denies.

List of claimants as a reincarnated Buddha
Hello - While Jiddu Krishnamurti did later renounce the claim made by the Theosophists Leadbeater and Blavatsky, that he was the Lord Maitreya, should he be mentioned in this list? - Mike Hebert, Baton Rouge, LA USA

Hi, how do I add someone onto this page. I would like to add Tathagata, Sam Han Lee.

He attained enlightenment at the age of 44 in Korea.

He calls himeself "Tathagata". He travels the world endlessly - to teach what he can see. He sells nothing and does not ask for money - he teaches as his duty. His main teachings are based on conscience, justice and love, he teaches about karma and cause and effect. He is the only person who has the third eye, a small lump which grew on his forehead, its also known as the eye of wisdom. He has many followers in South Korea and pockets of followers in many other countries.

His website is www.tathagata.co.uk no this website is no more try www.karmadiet.com http://members.tripod.com/tathagata2000 www.societyofnaturalscience.org these are all websites that make the same claim, and I also think he should be added to the list — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:F901:1601:A085:388F:4CD1:1A86 (talk) 10:53, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Whoever is in charge of this section please add him to this page.

Why does someone have to be a reincarantion of an old Buddha to be a Buddha? It is dead wrong. The former Buddha is dead and gone onto Nirvana. This Buddha reincarnate stuff is crack religion. And your list excpet for the old Asian guys that no one really knows - the 2nd half of it is totally erroneous. Buddha Boy and Dalai Lama and those crack religious white guys aren't Buddhas. I hope you revise this or someone does. I would but I know it to be deleted. The 2nd half looks like crack religionville. Though the list does say claimants. So anyone can claim they are a Buddha if they want and not be correct. This page just doesn't do Buddhahood, Samsara and Reincarnation justice.Ezdan1022 12:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It's really important to distinguish between Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are reincarnated, Buddhas aren't. That's kind of the whole point. Juxian (talk) 19:23, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

The confusion of the above contributors comes from trying to derail the topic into a phylosophical or linguistic abyss. English language has a very good tool to clarify, what is this article about. It is not dealing with claims of being "a Buddha" but claims of being "The Buddha". Though we could claim that everyone is a Buddha indeed, only a few people in the world claim to be The Buddha. Similarly as everyone is a child of God in Christianity, yet not everyone claims he is The Son of God. Sayamevajayate (talk) 01:02, 22 March 2019 (UTC)SatyamevajayateSayamevajayate (talk) 01:02, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Raël
Doesn't Raël deserve an asterisk for "a significant number of followers", given that "The International Raelian Movement currently has approximately 60,000 followers in 86 countries worldwide."?

Deletion candidate
A "Buddha" in the sense that someone has achieved enlightenment might not be common but as unusual as this page implies. (At least from a Buddhist POV). Some might call themselves Buddha, some don't. Some call themselves Jesus, some don't. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.94.198.155 (talk) 12:20, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Deletion candidate - Ram Bahadur Bomjon
He has never claimed to be Buddha. It does not matter what his devotees claim. Isn't this page about self-claims? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bluejaguar (talk • contribs) 22:23, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha, is also a Buddha. "Maitreya (Sanskrit), Metteyya (Pali), is regarded as a future Buddha". Ram Bahadur Bomjon claims to be Maitreya Buddha to such an extent that he even calls himself Maitriya Guru Maha Sambodhi Dharma Sangha (BTW even the word Sambodhi means Self-Enlightened, e.g. in fact again a Buddha, according to Buddhist terminology). Plus: The official website of Ram Bahadur Bomjon is Maitriya.info. Plus: Also the fact that "His followers claim his level of knowledge is above that of Lord Buddha. They claim Siddhartha Gautam reached a Sambuddha (self-enlightened) state but Bomjon has attained Mahasambodhi (greater form of self-enlightenment) state." Setopati. If someone is higher than Buddha, he must have reached the Buddha stage in the first place, logically. It is not probable that the interviewed spokesperson claimed anything against his own claims about himself, at least he had not demented it when the article came out. Does anyone need clearer proofs about his self-claim to be Maitreya Buddha? Sayamevajayate (talk) 00:43, 22 March 2019 (UTC)SatyamevajayateSayamevajayate (talk) 00:43, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Ching Hai
"A meditation master who professes to be an incarnation of God, the Buddha, and the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara"


 * Does "God" here mean the Abrahamic Creator God (whose existence is rejected by Buddhism), or simply a divine being? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.186.190.137 (talk) 17:21, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

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Meher Baba
Not sure if this belongs, but this is a claim by a master (Meher Baba) when he was a boy. He never said this as an adult after he assumed his role as a master. http://www.lordmeher.org/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=4459 (see bottom of page, second to last paragraph) AguireTS (talk) 20:43, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Removal of Rick Ross refs
Rick Ross is a felon and has had more controversy than many of the people he is paid to 'debunk'. His self-published website is being used in this article as a reference, while his articles lead to no further references from sources that meet Wikipedia standards. Therefore, if no one objects, I will be removing any refs that lead to his website. From the link: ''So who is Rick Ross, and why has he appointed himself both judge and jury? Rick Ross was born to a Jewish family in November 1952. His father was a plumbing contractor and his mother a helper at the Jewish Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona. After high school, Ross worked for a finance company, then a bank, before falling into trouble with the law. In 1974, he was convicted for the attempted burglary of a vacant show house and sentenced to probation. The following year he was sentenced to five years' probation after he and a friend embezzled property from a jewelery company. Ross then went to work for his cousin's car-salvage business. In 1982, aged 30, he had his first introduction to the world of groups and cults when a Christian missionary group infiltrated his grandmother's nursing home.''  petrarchan 47 T c 20:31, 7 August 2012 (UTC)
 * That doesn't make much sense to me. What does his past criminal history have to do with anything? Viriditas (talk) 02:20, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Ambedkar's inclusion
Ambedkar never claimed himself to be the Buddha reincarnated, nor a Boddhisattva. While he is perhaps deified by some followers of his this is involuntary and thus he should not be considered a 'claimant' in my view. RooinMahmood07 (talk) 07:15, 13 September 2023 (UTC)