The Buddha

The Buddha taught that life was dissatisfactory because of craving. Note that I've used the term "The Buddha" here. The historical Buddha is one member of the spiritual lineage of Buddhas, which is thought to extend beyond history into the past and into the indefinite future.

Gautama Buddha was a spiritual teacher, born in what is now known as Nepal. A lot of Buddhism came my way because of my escapades with nature. The term Buddha is derived from the verbal root "budh", meaning "to awaken" or "to be enlightened", and "to comprehend".

Wikipedia defines Buddha as follows:
"A Buddha is a human being who has, through his or her own efforts and wisdom, awoken to the Truth (Dharma) behind appearance, having abandoned and overcome greed, hatred and delusion; attained liberation (moksa) from all suffering (a state of bliss and inner peace called Nibbana), and who possesses far reaching wisdom into the nature of sentient existence. In the sense of ‘one who knows’, the word Buddha is closely related to the word buddhi, a faculty of mind that may be translated as ‘intuitive discernment’. It is through the operation of this faculty that one is able to awaken and recover one’s own innate Buddhahood."

Siddhartha Gautama was not the first or the last Buddha.