(January 18, 2016 at 12:49 pm)loganonekenobi Wrote: I don't believe the original Buddha wanted to start a religion but naturally the people did.
I'm inclined to believe that the Buddha consciously intended to profit off his teachings. I think he started out looking for enlightenment, but stopped short once people started paying attention to him for his 'method'. The Buddha was a religious charlatan like any other, selling a road to a freedom which doesn't exist. Whether that qualifies as wanting to found a religion or not is debatable, but he definitely prospered from forming a cult, and that cult grew to be a religion.