The History of Eastern Libertarian Philosophy

The History of Eastern Libertarian Philosophy
A basic guide
Justin Hartfield

Hinduism and the Vedas- The Vedas, the primary text of Hinduism, was composed as early as 800 B.C. The texts describe a transcendent, monistic God and of realities which existed beyond the ones we could touch, taste, smell or hear. It equates consciousness with godliness and suggests that human free-will is a divine property of man.

Buddhism- The exact same idea of a transcendent reality in Hinduism is spoken of when a person is said to reach "Enlightenment", that is become a Buddha. In order to reach Enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama says one has to follow the Noble Eightfold Path. Steps on the path include such libertarian ideas as:
"Right Livelihood — One's way of livelihood does not harm in any way oneself or others; directly or indirectly
"Right Effort/Exercise — One makes an effort to improve"
"Right Thoughts — Change in the pattern of thinking"

Confucius- Confucius was one of the first to argue that having the state force its own morality onto its citizens is counterproductive. He dreamed of a society which was constantly improving and changing their laws to air on the side of more personal freedoms. He wrote, "When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."

Taoism- The Tao is the natural order of nature. Unlike Hinduism and Buddhism, it deals mainly with the material world- many of the teachings in the Tao Te Ching could be verified empirically. It also gives advise on nation building, leading a country, and even a way to predict the economic market.

For example this passage from Tao Te Ching advises that less government action is most often best, since it interferes the least with the natural state of man.

"The wise leader knows
his actions must be
without the use of forced energy.
He knows that more
is still required,
for he also knows
that he must act
without deliberate intent,
of having no intention.
To act without contrived intent
is to act without contriving,
and is the way of nature,
and so is the way of the Tao." - Lao Tzu

Sri Ramakrishna- At a time when Hinduism was falling off the world stage (the British called it 'idol worship') Sri Ramakrishna appeared to rejuvenate the ailing religion. He claimed that that all religions, from Hinduism to Christianity to Islam to Buddhism, were essentially all saying the same thing- "There Is Only God."

Swami Vivekananda- Vivekananda was a student of Ramakrishna's for six years before he believed to his own satisfaction that Ramakrishna was actually in touch with his own divinity, that he truly was liberated.

Due to the Swami's Westernized education, he was able to reconcile the spiritual achievement of the East, with the material achievement of the West. He argued that even though in a spiritual sense, India as a country is very enlightened, when it comes to society it is an utter failure. Corruption is rampant and there is no concept of "greater good" which exists in nearly every Westernized country. Vivekananda loved the freedom (societal, economic, religious) offered by America and stressed the need for personal as well as spiritual achievement.

Mahatma Gandhi- Famous for his philosophy of nonviolence ("There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."), Gandhi's convictions were deeply rooted in his spirituality. He believed in the power of the individual and championed for the freedom to protest as well as free elections.

Noetic Science- By applying the rigors of science to the new quantum model of the world, new experiments are proving that humans are unconsciously linked together. The experiments have shown, without a doubt, that there does exist s a transcendent reality which all the Eastern philosophical masters recognize as the fundamental being of the universe. The new noetic sciences reject the theories of dualism, locality, and predictability from the classical world and supplant them with what physicist Amit Goswami calls, "monistic idealism".

Amit Goswami-

Goswami takes the concept of free-will (the fundamental assumption of libertarianism) and goes even further than the Upanishads and the Vedas. Goswami makes a case for free-will to not only be intrinsic in every individual but also a gift from the "Universal Consciousness". In his texts, he attempts to prove this by using the quantum model of mathematics, which he sees as the bridge from Eastern philosophy to Western science.