If the Buddha taught self-discipline...?

The buddha isn't an obese,fat man. He was a slim and strong Indian. The merchandise or idol that you are talking about isnt the real Buddha in any way but was adapted to suit the tastes of a food-loving Asian country.

Who said buddha was a obese fatty man?He was a prince my friend,He had a family,Had a kingdom..Buddism does not have many obese/fat monks :) I highly doubt the chance of buddha being fat..Buddha was a unique human being..

To put it very simply, there were three distinct phases of his life. One of excess, as a prince (symbolized by the fat Buddha), a life of self deprecation, following the example of the religious folks of his time in India (symbolized by a very gauntly looking Buddha), and there is a Middle path, enlightened Buddha (In his normal average portioned depictions).

you are mixing up the Chinese Laughing Buddha (laughing old man) with Gautam Buddha (the father of Buddhism, here Buddha means one who has acquired Bodhi, Knowledge). the difference is in pronunciation. in the former, the D is pronunciated as normal D (like in dog) in the later, pronunciation is like Th,as in fur-TH-er, or fa-TH-er.

the two are different.

Is that a trick question? lol, thats all made up stuff someone cooked up in their brain,and all the other fools decided and wanted to believe in something. they decided it would be a buddah. I dont know why hes fat. .....like in moses day, he went to the mountains it took him 40 days he talked to god, god made the 10 commandments by the time moses got back they were already worshiping other gods they made up off of the gold from the egyptians. like calves made out of gold.

He wasn't.

Each feature of The Laughing Buddha (the fat one) is symbolic, it isn't an accurate depiction of his appearance.

budda has never taught self discipline, confusious is..

you can understand more on buddha here:

In that time, being obese was a sign of wealth. You could afford food.

You are talking about depiction that has been localized in China, Japan, Korea, etc., not the original (Indian) one.

Chinese depiction of Buddha (fat): http://pundthartobjects.com/images/B-109.jpg

Indian depiction of Buddha (slim): http://pundthartobjects.com/images/B-151.jpg

In older China, being fat was associated with prosperity and contentment.

that isnt fat, those are weights buddha uses to tank up and get muscley :D