Ohh, THIS is really different. That was my first impression as I navigated Saigon with my Vietnamese interpreter in 1968. It took me a full year and lots of interactions with the Vietnamese people to get a deeper understanding of why the differences seemed palpable. It turned out that 70-80% of the Vietnamese people were Buddhist. I had no idea what the implications of those demographic dynamics were at the time, but I’ve spent the last 50 years trying to figure out what that was all about. This post shares what I learned and how I got there.
I started out studying Eastern religions and how they inform our lives and our culture when I was still in Vietnam—starting with Siddartha by Herman Hesse. I’m still on that journey. The exploration has helped me to see the world through an entirely different lens than what I had as a 22-year-old in Saigon. What I saw in the Vietnamese people was a combination of humility, generosity, and grace under the most horrifying conditions imaginable. I kept wondering how they were able to preserve such equanimity in the face of egregious assaults on their people
Stepping way back, I still wonder how “civilization” has managed to lose track of the foundational principles established over 2,500 years ago by Lao Tzu, Buddha, and Vedic philosophers that seemed to inform the Vietnamese people.
Now, as we celebrate 250 years of our democracy and our founding principles, I’m struck by how far we have drifted from the values that actually distinguished us as an exemplar in the world. While our democracy may be hanging on by a thread and our principles are badly frayed and under assault, many people are still fighting for liberty, equality, and justice. Others pretend to promote those values as they actively undermine them. And still others proudly proclaim our dominance in bombs and billionaires.
We not only have the most powerful combination of warheads and air power in the world, but we also have the biggest number of billionaires (989 in the U.S. vs. 539 in China, 229 in India, and 212 in Germany). Are those numbers something to celebrate?
So, for me, as I reflect on the 250-year history of our nation and the 2,500 years we have had as a civilization to create a culture built on the values articulated in Daoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, I’m puzzled. I wonder how we might consider ways to realize the harmony Vedic scholars envisioned for us as well as the aspirations articulated in our Constitution. I wonder how we can release ourselves from the attachments Buddhists describe in their Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. And I wonder how we can still return to the effortless flow toward which Taoists strive. This post will suggest some ideas to consider. Let’s get started with a brief review.
Hinduism, particularly according to Vedic teaching, is about realization—realizing we are already “home” and at One with the universe—no separation. Buddhism teaches us to let go of our attachment to permanence and certainty—to release our desires and accept whatever the moment brings. Taoism is about return—returning to Tao or to “baby.”
The landscapes of these Eastern philosophies are often treated as distinct territories, each charting its own path toward the alleviation of human suffering. However, when we look beneath the unique vocabulary of Daoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, we find that they do not merely run parallel; they intersect, support, and fulfill one another. To see how these philosophies harmonize, we have to look at the human condition they are trying to fix. Each one diagnoses a specific form of human problem and offers a compatible solution.
In Vedic teaching, the core problems are illusions and ignorance. We suffer because we mistakenly believe we are isolated egos. The solution is the realization that our innermost self (Atman) is identical to the ultimate, universal reality (Brahman).
Buddhism takes a seemingly opposite linguistic path by teaching non-self and the release of attachment to permanence. Yet, functionally, they arrive at the exact same place. When you completely let go of the grasping ego (Buddhism), what is left? You are no longer separated from the universe. Buddhism strips away the illusion of the isolated self, while Hinduism names the infinite reality that remains. They are two sides of the same coin: one clears the canvas; the other recognizes the canvas is everything.
Buddhism focuses heavily on the mechanics of the mind—how our desires trigger suffering and demands that we accept whatever the present moment brings. This is the perfect psychological prerequisite for the Daoist return. In the Tao Te Ching, Laozi emphasizes returning to the uncarved block or acting like a “newborn babe”—completely unbothered by rigid concepts, flowing naturally via Wu-Wei (effortless action). You cannot return to this raw, spontaneous state of nature if you are tightly gripped by desires for permanence or certainty. Buddhism provides the discipline of letting go; Daoism provides the fluid, playful lifestyle that emerges once you do.
The Taoist “return to the baby” is simply a poetic, earthly expression of the Vedic realization that we are already “home.” To return to the Tao is to live in alignment with the fundamental, nameless source of all things. In Hindu terms, this is living in alignment with the cosmic order and resting in Brahman. The baby doesn’t need to learn how to be one with the universe; it simply needs to recognize the illusion of separation.
The instinct to bring these three traditions together is shared by some of history’s most profound cross-cultural philosophers. In the West, the most famous modern attempt to synthesize these exact ideas belongs to Aldous Huxley in his landmark 1945 work, The Perennial Philosophy. Huxley argued that across different eras and cultures, mystics and philosophers have been pointing to the exact same metaphysical reality. He heavily cited the Hindu Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, and the Tao Te Ching to prove that human spiritual evolution relies on a single, shared path: quieting the ego (Buddhism), aligning with the cosmic flow (Daoism), and awakening to the truth that we are the divine essence itself (Hinduism).
In the 20th century, Alan Watts became one of the greatest popularizers of this exact triad. In works like The Way of Zen and Psychotherapy East and West, Watts fluidly integrated Hindu metaphysics, Daoist spontaneity, and Buddhist psychology. He argued that: Hinduism gives us the grand cosmic view. Buddhism gives us the psychological toolkit to stop taking our localized egos too seriously. Daoism gives us the beautiful, artistic blueprint for how to walk through everyday life with grace and humor once we realize the game. Is that what the Vietnamese knew? Is that how they survived the “game” and went on to thrive?
Ultimately, the three teachings form a perfect loop of the spiritual journey:
- To Realize your true nature is to understand that you never actually left home
- To Release your attachments is to clear away the noise.
- To Return to the source is to move effortlessly through the world.
By bringing them together, we can move from a rigid worldview into a fluid way of being—one where we are simultaneously the dancer, the dance, and the ground on which it happens.
Now that we have traveled back 2,500 years in time and made a brief stop 250 years ago, let’s “return” to where we are in 2026. While we have made stunning advances in technology, we haven’t experienced an equivalent amount of progress on truth. We have made lots of bombs and billionaires, but on the journey we have managed to put on blinders that shield us from the realities of what we have created.
Here’s where I give Trump credit. At the turn of this new millennium, he observed the conditions accurately and saw the biggest business opportunity he had ever stumbled into. In 2010, when he first considered seriously a run for president, his net worth was about $2 billion (depending on who was making the estimate), and many of his businesses were either floundering or failing. He astutely saw the presidency as the best business he had ever encountered. With naked corruption and no shame, his net worth now exceeds $7 billion with no end in sight. In the last year alone, he added $2.2B to his portfolio. Under his administration, he has contributed to the making of more billionaires than any previous president by reducing regulations and taxes; he has dropped thousands of bombs in the Middle East and torn up an agreement (JCPOA) that would have kept Iran from building bombs of its own; and he has somehow managed to put blinders on 77 million American voters, 6 Supreme Court justices, 53 Senators, and 218 congressmen. It’s really quite remarkable.
To be fair, in the last 250 years we have valiantly hung onto a democracy that was courageously founded and still retains its possibilities – we have the longest continuous modern constitutional republic in the world. We have much to celebrate, AND we now have more bragging billionaires, bigger bombs, and seemingly more bunker-like blinders than at any point in our short history of this planet.
In the next 250 years, I’m hoping we can realize the possibilities we have been given, release ourselves from our attachments, and return to the profound principles awaiting our attention for 2,500 years. May it be so.
