yes Siddhartha Gautama was Hindu. in Hinduism Lord Buddha is the planet Mercury, who represents the intellect and communication. Gautama being the essence of intellect and communication, begot his own ideas(go figure) and developed personal discrepancies; which for the most part were related to sacrifice being practiced in Hindu culture. in Hinduism the concept of sacrifice can take many forms: from picking a flower to gift or admire, or gathering vegetables to eat, gather and harvest from nature giving thanks to god for the resources. although, as with early Christianity, animals or people often would become part of a sacrifice. Gautama chose to give up worldly pleasures, to attain more spiritual peace. this choice might seem like a sacrifice for a Buddhist, but it would only be sacrificial to let go of what you had attained, as it is not sacrificial to neglect obtaining.
read the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, especially the chapter on Karmic Yoga from the Bhagavad Gita. more importantly though, allow yourself to be drawn toward a yogi, who most likely will reiterate how there is not much you can learn from those books compared to what can be observed in nature, and learned from within yourself.
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He's That Rascally Kind Of Yogi
He's that rascally kind of yogi
who has no sky or earth,
no hand, foot,
form or shape.
Where there's no market
he sets up shop,
weighs things
and keeps the accounts.
No deeds, no creeds,
no yogic powers,
not even a horn or gourd,
so how can he
go begging?
'I know you
and you know me
and I'm inside of you.'
When there isn't a trace
of creation or destruction,
what do you meditate on?
That yogi built a house
brimful of Ram.
He has no healing herbs,
his root-of-life
is Ram.
He looks and looks
at the juggler's tricks,
the magician's sleight-of-hand -
Kabir says, saints, he's made it
to the King's land.
- Kabir
