2 verifications about Buddhism Buddhism ×
“The modern concept known as the Law of Attraction is a rebranding that draws heavily from older philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Ancient Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism, Hermetic philosophy, and the 19th-century New Thought movement, and it became mainstream in the 2000s partly through the 2006 book The Secret.”
The claim gets the big picture right: today’s Law of Attraction repackages older spiritual and philosophical ideas, and The Secret helped push it into mainstream culture in the 2000s. The strongest evidence ties it directly to New Thought and Western esoteric/Hermetic traditions. Links to Ancient Greek philosophy and Buddhism are plausible and commonly cited, but they are less firmly documented as direct lineages.
“Hinduism and Buddhism emphasize karma, intention, and mindfulness in ways that resemble the Law of Attraction idea that thoughts and actions shape future circumstances.”
The evidence supports a high-level similarity, not a doctrinal match. Hindu and Buddhist teachings broadly hold that intentions and actions have consequences and that mental cultivation matters, which resembles the Law of Attraction idea that inner states can shape later outcomes. But karma is a moral and spiritual framework, not the same thing as modern manifesting.