Among the founders of religions, Buddha (if we are allowed to call him the founder of religion in the popular sense of the word) was the only one who did not pretend to be something other than a man, a man in his purest form, just a man. Other teachers were either God, or his incarnation in some form, or were inspired by him. Not only was the Buddha a man, he did not claim any inspiration from any god or external force. He attributed everything they accomplished, acquired and achieved to human effort and human wisdom. Man and only man can become a Buddha. Every person has within himself the possibility of becoming a Buddha if he strives for it and makes efforts. We can call Buddha a man par excellence. He was so perfect in his “humanity” that later in popular religion he was considered almost a “superman.”