As I see it the DoI is even better supported by the Buddhist view as our Founders expressed the idea that liberty is an already existing state, a condition of life itself, that man had only to realize through his own efforts not create. ie we are endowed with liberty by virtue of being alive but preserving, defending and actualizing it through the pursuit of happiness and free expression require the efforts of man.
The Founders were devising a means to protect men from government, which itself is a means of protecting men from men, in order to clear a path, free of secular obstacles like physical attack and legal entanglements, to live the in-born liberty that is our right. Buddhist practice is a means of clearing the path of mental and emotional obstructions to living freely. Or, more accurately, seeing things as they are, freely, without obstruction.
I have never heard the term 'nirvana' used in the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism but 'liberation' is used quite frequently. Like the liberty guaranteed by our Constitution, liberation is not something given or earned. It is not something that once found cannot be lost. (To avoid dispute on this point it is not "found" by going anywhere to "get" it or by having anyone "give" it to you. Both liberty and liberation are "found" by realizing it is your right to be free and acting on that understanding. It is "lost" in the same way by forgetting or neglecting to act on that truth.) Like the secular liberty the DoI invokes and the Constitution defends liberation is an ongoing process of being free of artificially imposed constraints and working to remain in that state. In the case of government the constraints are externally imposed. In the case of mind the constraints are created and imposed by mind itself in mind itself and on mind itself.
Happy Independence Day, Matchett-PI. It's a good day to celebrate being born free in a country founded on the principle that government exists only to defend our liberty and that government has no right to exist except by the consent of the governed.
Now I need to go exercise my liberty by combusting some charcoal, scorching some carcinogens into some BBQ chicken and hot dogs and abusing my digestive system with 100% animal based nutrition, a lime daiquiri and more cigarettes. I should have bought a cigar for the day but that's OK. Every day is a good day to celebrate being an American.
So your creator is part of you and everything else and as such he doesn't stand outside his creation?
That's one clever way to jettison the Gospel - just get rid of "sin" and voila! there goes the need for a sinless Saviour. And even if sin exists it's part of your creator, and the idea of your creator being saved from sin is silly. :)
Which of these "schools of belief" - Pantheism, Panentheism, Cosmotheism, Pandeism, or? - do you embrace, may I ask?
Our nation's creed, The Pledge of Allegiance, sums up our way of life and it's based on a three-legged stool of God, liberty, and justice. All three must be there. If God is not there, ethics and rights are defined by whoever has the most power. And in order to have liberty, we must have justice. The first role of government is to prevent evil (Romans 13:1-5, 1 Peter 2:13-17) so that the rest of society can live in peace. Evil is only meaningful within a biblical context.
"Evil" means different things to the different "schools" of Buddhism. What standard do you use to determine which one of the schools and which "teacher" has the right definition? For instance, some schools think it's "evil" if any sentient being is harmed. That's why that particular school makes sure all the earth worms are individually picked out of the soil before any construction can take place.