What was Buddha's MBTI personality type?

[Ibn Sina]

In this quora question, one user gave an answer ,citing an answer from another person, based off which  he thinks Buddha is an ISTP. (which according to https://www.16personalities.com/istp-strengths-and-weaknesses is more action oriented, ISTP are action oriented INTPs, i.e they are like mechanics, engineers, or actors, they have solutions to any hand's on stuffs.  But Buddha is not about that so he can't be an ISTP.  But again it's confusing, Buddhism is about concepts, but again it's not about concepts. It's not about the mind and ideas (a key feature of INTPs) but of no mind. It is about having full awareness, now is this about dealing with concepts and puzzles like the INTPs? It's more like practicing everyday the same thing over and over , instead of dealing with ideas.
Besides Buddha did lots of physical practices, starving himself, meditating for days on end (physically pressuring him to sit still. It is not inaction but action), physically straining himself and putting himself to bodily pain, while INTPs would be busy reading books and thinking about concepts. The classical INTPs are the theoretical physicists (Einstein) and philosophers. But was Buddha a philosopher? Or an anti-philosopher? Or not a philosopher at all but a practitioner/yogi?
So I think it is not so easy to categorize him as an INTP.

https://www.quora.com/Which-MBTI-type-do-you-think-Buddha-was-Was-he-an-INFP-or-an-INTP

There is a lot of confusion. Usually it is thought that Buddha was an INTP, but there are some arguments against that.

If any of you have a good understanding of MBTI and can give a knowledgeable answer, please share.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Ibn Sina

[Commodent]

16personalities is just stereotypes. In order to actually pin down people's personality types down you have to make note of the cognitive functions they are using. I haven't studied Buddha a lot but it doesn't seem unlikely to me that he is an ISTP. He could very well have been a very introverted ISTP also, with Ti+Ni as saviors.

I have found a very good resource for personality theory, that is: https://www.objectivepersonality.com/

They also have a YouTube channel: DaveSuperPowers

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Commodent

[Ibn Sina]

6 minutes ago, Commodent said:

ISTP also, with Ti+Ni as saviors

What do you mean by Ti+Ni saviors? Could you explain more about that?

[Commodent]

@Ibn Sina  He touches on it in the video I posted. According to MBTI, ISTPs will always have the Ti+Se pairing as their saviors (their main cognitive functions that they rely on), but that is not always the case. You could very well have an ISTP that prefer Ni over Se, wherein Se (sensory data) is just a "necessary evil" in order to build up Ni (concepts, abstracts, patterns). Ti+Se generally uses Ni for the sake of making things work in the real world, whereas Ti+Ni uses sensory data for the sake of building up their inner world. Notice the difference in priorities. This is why Ti+Ni is much more introverted than your typical ISTP, and does not fit the stereotype.

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

8 minutes ago, Commodent said:

@Ibn Sina  He touches on it in the video I posted. According to MBTI, ISTPs will always have the Ti+Se pairing as their saviors (their main cognitive functions that they rely on), but that is not always the case. You could very well have an ISTP that prefer Ni over Se, wherein Se (sensory data) is just a "necessary evil" in order to build up Ni (concepts, abstracts, patterns). Ti+Se generally uses Ni for the sake of making things work in the real world, whereas Ti+Ni uses sensory data for the sake of building up their inner world. Notice the difference in priorities. This is why Ti+Ni is much more introverted than your typical ISTP, and does not fit the stereotype.

Did you study these terminologies in a university or just learn them for yourself?

[Commodent]

@TrynaBeTurquoise  I was quite into it some time ago, but then abandoned it because a lot of it didn't really make sense. Then I discovered the YT channel I mentioned above, and I've been watching it passively ever since. I'm considering signing up for their weekly classes in order to REALLY get a grip on their methodology.

[Ibn Sina]

Here's my speculation about Buddha being an ISTP.

Both ISTP and INTP have Introverted thinking as primary, they think a lot.

Both have extroverted feeling as 4th function, they do not show their emotions much.

But the difference between them is-

INTP have - Extroverted intuition and Introverted Sensing

ISTP have - Extroverted Sensing and Introverted Intuition.

Extroverted intuition should imply, finding patterns in the outside world, while having a very keen attention to sensory information. They feel thoughts strongly, they have thoughts of stronger intensity, thoughts are more powerful for them, they have greater attention in detail to their thought, it is said that Einstein could visualize very strongly a beam of light.
'Finding patterns in the outside world (extroverted intuition)' I think it is associated with physicists like Einstein who do such things. Connecting seemingly unrelated information but those which have their input from outside.

Extroverted sensing, how is it different from Extroverted intuition.
Extroverted intuition means finding patterns outside, but extroverted sensing is not about findings patterns outside. But seeing things as they are.
Introverted intuiters (Ni, ISTPs)  do not make connections about the outside world, but make connections about the inside outworld. Ne s can see patterns in the outside world, Ni s see patterns in the inner world. 

Einstein could see patterns in the outside world that is why came up with theories of physics, 
Buddha saw patterns in the inner world, so he came up with Buddhism, which is basically the patterns he saw in his inner world.
So here we analyzed intuition/ how patterns are seen.

What about Sensing, Se and Si?

Se,  the force of outside world stronger, it has bigger influence, ISTP, Buddha.
Si, the force of inner world is stronger, beam of light, equations, INTP, Einstein.

So how is Buddha related with other ISTPs like engineers, surgeons etc?
The main thing that seems to differentiate buddha from them is that, Buddha had a very strong Ni, introverted intuition, power to see patterns in the inner world. Surgeons have very deep attention to detail in the outside world, but so did Buddha, hence his emphasis on 'seeing things as they are', just like surgeons and engineer's do.

But I am confused about Ni and Ne.
Ne also means finding patterns, Ni also means finding patterns. So what's the difference? 
Ne might be about making connections about concrete patterns, eg , connecting Plank's theory (concrete) with laws ohe f motion (concrete). A connects with B connects with C. It's very direct linear, but ingenious (in case of Einstein), but in other cases they are just linear.
Ni might be about making connections not of concrete things, but very subtle things. Like, a surgeons might not go through A leads to B leads to C, but might intuit a series of steps that is not so crystal clear, but is correct. Likewise a mechanic might intuit a correct solution, but it does not have an, A is to B is to C pattern, but it's just correct. Similar is the case with Buddha. Buddha just states the 4 noble truth, he does not go through reasons, and the reason he does not go through reasonings is because he does not have introverted sensing, he has extroverted sensing, he has a strong sense of experience from which makes an intuition to solve the problem, just like mechanics, buddha and surgeons do, while the INTP has a very strong sense of idea, since his idea is very strong, he discovers stuffs with a very deep conceptual framework, while for ISTPs, its like "I don't know why this is the answer, but this is the answer". That is why Buddha doesn't go on and on about why meditation is the way, buddhism is the way, he just says this is the solution and that's it. 
Likewise, a mechanic might just know what to do, a surgeon might know (his body, and every single cell in his body) knows what to do , a buddha just knows what to do but he deals with information of such nature that it cannot be expressed in fixed, concrete ideas, he (surgeon,mechanic) cannot explain the exact movement of his body in exact detail, but his body knows that this is the right answer. And Buddhism is not about ideas, but about a experience. And since ISTPs intuit correct solutions that are experience/actions related (think surgeons,actors, mechancs) , Buddha might have been ISTP. While INTPs intuit solutions that are ideas related. 

INTPs- They see patterns in the world, they feel ideas strongly ( "Wait, why is no one seeing this? If these is the case, then this implies this, which implies this)
ISTPs- They have keen attention to the world (kind of like awareness of buddism), they intuit solutions. ( Okay, the problem is infront of me. I can solve it. Let me show you. This is how it's done)

 

An INTP has strong sense of ideas, and he intuits a solution.
An ISTP has strong sense of experience, then he intuits a solution.

I just realized that, Extroverted and introverted intuition might not be about making connections of the outside or the inside world but the style of the intuition. Just think about the mind of Einstein realizing relativity, and the mind of Buddha realizing enlightenment/ a fighter like Bruce lee intuiting in split second the most effect moves . It's just 2 different things. The end products are different.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Ibn Sina

[studentofthegame]

It’s interesting to take these tests but not necessarily scientifically robust.

My results were INFJ (advocate) which reportedly is the rarest of the 16 with less than 3% of the population. 

Much of the write-up rings true, admittedly.