What if... Buddha?

People are willing to clasp their hands in front of themselves, burn noxious incense and pray for answers from the Budda.

People rub the Buddha's stomach for good luck. Throw coins into a box and ring a bell in front of Solemn Japanese Buddha, and release birds from cages in front of Thai Buddha's in all manner of posture and scale.

A guy who sat under a bodhi tree and meditated and thought until he figured out the answers to his problems. He must have been brilliant, exceptional to reach enlightenment.

Would the world be different if Buddha had instead reached enlightenment by digging a 30cm x 1 m x 10 m trench? Even a 1000 m trench? If Buddha had obtained enlightenment by digging would we pray for enlightenment from the exceptional digger?

Or would we get out in a fucking field and dig for ourselves?

Now I'm aware that certain sects of Buddhism do advocate amongst their followers extensive meditation in order to reach enlightenment, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Zen and it's liberal stick beatings. But these practitioners are usually called Buddhist monks, those that figure out their best crack at enlightenment is to try and figure it out for themselves.

furthermore there is some bizarre certificate system were someone can recognise that you have somehow achieved nirvana, but these Bodhisattva's and Buddhist monks are not what you typically call buddhists.

So what if Buddha had been some kind of menial laborer, would it be easier for moronic disciples to stop 'praying for answers' and start 'working for answers' if the process was less confusing, less esoteric?

I guess the amount of Christian Carpenters answers my question.

Sorry this doesn't make a very interesting issue of 'What if?'