I'll bet at one point, the Buddha's mother wasn’t especially proud of her son--or more specifically, his career. “What does your son do?” “He's in the tree business.” “Is he a farmer?” “No--he's involved with trees.” “What--he buys and sells trees?” “No--he sits under one and meditates.” “What else does he do?” “That's pretty much it.”
It's a good thing Buddha wasn't Jewish. Otherwise, his mother would've killed herself. “My son sits under a tree all day? What kind of a life is that? Morty--are you listening to this? He sits under a tree. All day.” [Buddha's Father:] “Well, if the boy wants to sit under a tree, he wants to sit under a tree.” So the Buddha's Jewish father was supportive.
Then of course, Buddha gained a lot of followers. Which probably changed his mother’s attitude. “Well, he’s not a doctor--but he founded a religion. It’s not quite a religion--but he’s like the chiropractor of religious founders. ... He could've been a doctor, though. Why didn't he become a doctor? Morty--why didn't he become a doctor?”
Maybe the Buddha was considered his day's Dr. Phil. “Oh--Buddha. What a joke. He's just some mainstream pop guru. Eightfold Path. How gimmicky. And he’s not even a doctor.”
What if Dr. Phil will go on to become the next Buddha? 1000 years from now, there'll be statues of him everywhere. And all of his followers will have mustaches. Instead of shaving their heads, they'll grow a mustache. Has anyone ever considered that possibility? No. That’s how outside of the box I am. But no one cares. They’re too busy with Dr. Phil and the Buddha.
There's a lot of material attributed to the Buddha. Take all of the quotes attributed to Jesus, and multiply that by... 50,000. And that's just the Buddha on Buddhism. I'll bet he had a lot to say about baseball and lasagne recipes--only no one bothered recording it. There are hundreds of books containing the Buddha's teachings. He must've been really talkative when he wasn't sitting under a tree. I'll bet a lot of people avoided him. "Uh oh. It's the Buddha. Let's turn around before he sees us. I'm not in the mood for five hours of the Diamond Sutra."