The Buddhist Concept of Freedom

One of the ideas that The Other Shore explores is the Buddhist concept of freedom.

The concept of freedom that underlies American culture is essentially the ability to do what you think is best with minimal restriction by external forces. When most Americans here the word "freedom," certain types of images jump to mind: a flag waving over a victorious battlefield where soldiers defend our country's autonomy and liberty; picket signs at a demonstration in which citizens exercise their first amendment right of freedom of speech; mosques, synagogues, and churches co-exisiting in one city in accordance with freedom of religion; or a farmer choosing to plant new crops or build new buildings on his land unfettered by governmental regulations.

The Buddhist concept of freedom is quite different. Many Buddhist philosophers state that one can achieve freedom only by seeing the true nature of things and thereby finding release from suffering. For an excellent description of the Buddhist concept of freedom, read Mark Siderit's "Freedom, Caring, and Buddhist Philosophy" in Contemporary Buddhism (2005) 6.2. Lecture One (pp. 87-95) clearly explains the Buddhist concept of self, which is fundamental to understanding the concept of freedom, and Lecture Three (pp. 103-114) discusses freedom in more depth and detail. For an analysis of how Westerners have perceived and misperceived the Buddhist concept of freedom, see Dale Wright's "Emancipation from what? The concept of freedom in classical Ch'an Buddhism" in Asian Philosophy (1993) 3.2.