Eastern Philosophy and New Thought: The Vedanta and Buddhist Influences on American Metaphysics

Introduction

The New Thought movement, a diverse and loosely affiliated collection of religious communities that emerged in the United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, is often characterized by its idealistic theology, optimistic worldview, and emphasis on mental healing and personal well-being. Yet beneath its American Protestant veneer lies a profound and often overlooked debt to Eastern philosophical traditions, particularly Vedanta (Hindu philosophy) and Buddhism. This article traces the flow of Eastern ideas into New Thought, from the early Transcendentalist fascination with Asian scriptures to the direct encounters with Buddhist and Hindu missionaries at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on recent scholarship and primary sources, we will examine how concepts such as the Law of Attraction, meditation, and the Law of Cause and Effect—found in the Buddhist text the Dhammapada—became cornerstones of New Thought metaphysics, and how figures like Emma Curtis Hopkins, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, and Ernest Holmes integrated these teachings into their systems. The result is a movement that, while distinctly American, is inseparable from the global exchange of religious ideas.

Historical Context

The New Thought movement arose in a period of intense religious ferment and cultural transformation. The mid-nineteenth century saw the rise of Transcendentalism, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who drew inspiration from Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads—though often filtered through European Orientalist translations. Concurrently, the mesmerist movement and the mind-cure experiments of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802–1866) laid the groundwork for a psychology of healing based on mental states, which would later merge with idealist philosophy. Mary Baker Eddy, Quimby’s student, founded Christian Science in 1879, emphasizing the unreality of matter and the primacy of Mind. From these roots, Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849–1925), often called the “teacher of teachers,” developed her own synthesis, which became the seed of New Thought. The movement’s formative years coincided with the rise of the Theosophical Society (founded 1875), which popularized Eastern religions among American intellectuals, and with the landmark 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Hindu and Buddhist missionaries made a dramatic public debut. These encounters provided New Thought thinkers with authoritative voices and texts from the East, enabling them to articulate their metaphysics in a global context.

Main Narrative

Origins of Eastern Influence

The earliest inroads of Eastern philosophy into American metaphysical circles came through Transcendentalism. Emerson and Thoreau, reading English translations of Hindu scriptures, celebrated the idea of an oversoul and the unity of all being—concepts that resonated with later New Thought idealism. However, the direct influence on New Thought is more specifically traced to the Theosophical Society, which, from the 1870s onward, disseminated translations and commentaries on Buddhism and Vedanta through its publications and lectures. Theosophists like Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott introduced Americans to the idea that Eastern religions contained esoteric wisdom applicable to modern life. New Thought pioneers, many of whom were former Christian Scientists or students of mental healing, encountered these ideas through Theosophical texts and lectures.

Who Popularized It: Missionaries and Theosophists

By the 1890s, direct contact with Asian missionaries became pivotal. Anagarika Dharmapala, a Sri Lankan Buddhist and Theosophist, traveled to the United States and spoke at the Parliament of Religions in 1893, advocating for Buddhism and its meditation practices. Swami Vivekananda, an Indian monk of the Ramakrishna order, delivered a stirring address at the same parliament, introducing Vedanta philosophy to a wide American audience. These figures, along with D. T. Suzuki, who later sparked interest in Zen, established personal relationships with New Thought leaders. As scholar Wakoh Shannon Hickey notes, “New Thought, typically considered an American metaphysical religious movement, was significantly shaped by transnational exchanges with Buddhist and Hindu missionaries” (source [2]). The Greenacre gatherings in Maine, beginning in the 1890s, became a nexus for these exchanges, where New Thought practitioners, Theosophists, and Eastern missionaries met, meditated, and exchanged ideas.

How Different New Thought Groups Understood Vedanta and Buddhism

The integration of Eastern ideas varied among New Thought groups. The Divine Science movement, founded by Malinda Cramer and Nona Brooks, emphasized the immanence of God and the power of affirmative prayer, which resonated with Vedantic non-dualism. Unity, founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, incorporated meditation and the concept of the indwelling Christ, which they saw as parallel to the Atman in Vedanta. Religious Science, established by Ernest Holmes in the 1920s, drew explicitly on both New Thought and Eastern philosophy, particularly in its articulation of the Law of Attraction and the creative power of thought. William Walker Atkinson, a prolific New Thought author writing under pseudonyms, produced works that blended Theosophy, Hinduism, and New Thought, popularizing concepts like the “law of attraction” and “mental transmutation.” Ralph Waldo Trine, in his best-selling In Tune with the Infinite (1897), wove together Christian mysticism and Vedantic themes, making Eastern ideas accessible to a mass audience.

Historical Development: From Transcendentalism to New Thought

Chronologically, the influence can be traced through several phases. In the 1840s–1860s, Transcendentalists introduced Hindu texts. In the 1870s–1880s, Theosophy provided a systematic framework. The 1890s marked direct contact with missionaries and the Parliament of Religions, leading to the establishment of Greenacre as a meeting ground. In the early twentieth century, New Thought authors systematized Eastern concepts into practical teachings. For instance, the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings attributed to the Buddha, was widely read in New Thought circles. As scholar Chris Anama-Green notes, “New Thought metaphysical principles including the Law of Attraction, the practice of meditation, and the Law of Cause and Effect can be found in the Buddhist text, the Dhammapada” (source [1]). This text provided scriptural authority for ideas that had been developing independently in the West.

Related Concepts: Law of Attraction, Meditation, Cause and Effect

The Law of Attraction—the idea that like attracts like and that thoughts create reality—is central to New Thought and is explicitly paralleled in the Dhammapada’s verses on the mind’s power. Meditation, which New Thought practitioners adopted as a means of aligning with the divine, had no direct counterpart in mainstream Protestantism but was embraced through Buddhist and Hindu influence. The Law of Cause and Effect, or karma, was reinterpreted as the principle that one’s thoughts and actions determine one’s circumstances, a concept that resonated with New Thought’s emphasis on personal responsibility. These ideas were not adopted wholesale but were adapted to fit a Christian framework, often by equating Buddhist concepts with Christian teachings—for example, the “Christ within” as the Atman.

Modern Legacy

The Eastern influence on New Thought has had a lasting impact on American spirituality. It helped pave the way for the human potential movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which drew heavily on Eastern meditation and visualization techniques. The New Age movement of the 1980s and beyond, with its emphasis on personal transformation and the Law of Attraction (popularized by The Secret in 2006), is a direct descendant of this synthesis. New Thought organizations such as the International New Thought Alliance continue to incorporate Eastern practices, and the movement’s periodicals—Unity Magazine, Science of Mind, and The Nautilus—have long featured articles on Eastern philosophy. The transnational dialogue that began with Vivekananda and Dharmapala has never ceased, and New Thought remains a bridge between Eastern and Western metaphysical thought.

Why It Matters in New Thought History

The infusion of Eastern philosophy into New Thought was not a marginal curiosity but a defining feature. It provided New Thought with a philosophical vocabulary to articulate its idealist metaphysics, a practical toolkit (meditation, visualization) that distinguished it from Protestant orthodoxy, and a global legitimacy that helped it spread beyond American borders. Without the Dhammapada’s teachings on the mind and the Vedantic emphasis on unity, New Thought might have remained a sectarian offshoot of Christian Science. Instead, it became a universalizing movement that anticipated the global spiritual marketplace of the twentieth century. For students of New Thought history, understanding this Eastern influence is essential to grasping the movement’s originality and its enduring appeal.

Primary Sources

• The Dhammapada (translated by various scholars, e.g., Max Müller, 1881) – This Buddhist text was widely read in New Thought circles and contains the principles of the Law of Attraction, meditation, and cause and effect that Anama-Green identifies as foundational to New Thought.
• Addresses at the Parliament of Religions (1893) – Speeches by Swami Vivekananda and Anagarika Dharmapala, among others, which introduced Vedanta and Buddhism to a broad American audience and directly influenced New Thought leaders.
• In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine (1897) – A best-selling New Thought classic that integrates Christian mysticism with Vedantic themes, exemplifying the fusion of Eastern and Western ideas.
• The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes (1926) – The foundational text of Religious Science, which explicitly incorporates Eastern concepts like the Law of Attraction and the creative power of thought.
• Unity Magazine (founded 1889) – The periodical of Unity, which regularly published articles on Eastern philosophy and meditation.
• Letters and Journals of Emma Curtis Hopkins – Hopkins’s writings reveal her engagement with Theosophy and Eastern ideas, though they remain largely unpublished.