Did his father, Śuddhodana, in shielding him from knowledge of suffering effectively gaslight his son?
And did his son by freeing himself from the illusions of his father’s palace further realize that all human beings live in delusion?
And is his enlightenment then an ultimate sublimation of the original illusions of his childhood and youth?
The answers can all be yes without demeaning the Buddha in any way. Indeed, we can see in this how profoundly human he was and how much he was able to do with the conditions he had.
