True Buddha School

The True Buddha School (Chinese: 真佛宗; pinyin: Zhēn Fó Zōng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chin-hu̍t-chong) is a relatively new (Vajrayana oriented) Buddhist sect, that includes practices and deities from Taoism, and thus could arguably be defined as a new religious movement. Its headquarters are in Redmond, WA, USA, and the school has a large following in Taiwan and East Asia.[1] There are also many temples and chapters worldwide, except in Mainland China where the sect is among those persecuted and is reportedly on a list of banned religious organisations.[2]

Part of a series on
Vajrayana Buddhism
Vajra
Traditions
Historical traditions:

New branches:
History
Pursuit
Practices

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Fourfold division:

Twofold division:

Thought forms and visualisation:

Yoga:
Festivals
Tantric texts
Symbols and tools
Ordination and transmission

In 1975, Lu Sheng-yen (盧勝彥) established Ling Xian Zong (School of Efficacious Immortals) in Taiwan, a name with strong Taoist connotations. He officially changed its name to True Buddha School on March 1, 1983.[3] Lu is said to be a fully enlightened buddha,[3][4] known by his disciples as "His Holiness Living Buddha Lian Sheng" (蓮生活佛) and Grandmaster Lu. Huófó (活佛), which literally means "living buddha", is the Chinese equivalent to tulku, a Tibetan term for a reincarnated teacher or deity. He is also referred to as the Root Guru by his disciples. Lu is a prolific author who has written 294 books [as of May 2023].[5] As of Feb 2013, the organization claims over 5,000,000 have taken refuge through him,[3] although only a minority have become active students of the school and attendees at one of its temples.[4]

True Buddha School's funding relies heavily on donations, as no price is set for any ceremonies or services rendered. This is supplemented with the income from the publication of Lu's books. The money is used for dharma propagation, and for charity work through the Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation[6].

Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington, the head temple of the TBS.

Teachings

According to the True Buddha School Introductory Handbook, Living Buddha Lian Sheng has “condensed the teachings into a series of simple, concise, and yet effective practices specifically tailored to meet the pace of a modern society.”[3] Members of the True Buddha School emphasize the necessity to cultivate diligently for the benefit of spiritual advancement, as is the general practice of Vajrayana Buddhism. Empowerments are required for refuge practices, which may be received either directly from Living Buddha Lian Sheng or accredited Acharyas (Masters). Living Buddha Lian Sheng has lineages from all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Chinese Buddhism (both Vajrayana and Sutrayana) Japanese Shingon Buddhism, and Taoism. In addition, Living Buddha Lian Sheng claims direct lineage from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (through meditation), and to be an emanation of 'Padmakumara', from the Pure Lands, who is in turn an emanation from Vairocana Buddha.

A Tantric Buddhist practitioner does not rely solely on 'external practices' of listening or reading spiritual doctrines, or simply worshiping and paying respect to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as the method to achieve the goal of spiritual liberation. All students are expected to follow the fourteen Root Tantric Vows (known as Vajrayana samaya) along with the Five Precepts that all Buddhists should follow, and to respect the Root Guru.

There is a structured curriculum to guide the student's practice, and at each level, a specific yoga is practiced. To advance to the next level, the student must achieve yogic response from the yoga being practiced in the current level and receive empowerment for the yoga of the next level.

As a beginner, there are specific yogas that are practiced to establish a strong foundation. The yoga practiced in the first stage is Vajrasattva yoga, a great repentance yoga to purify bad karma. The next level is Guru Yoga, followed by Personal Deity yoga and then the inner body practices of energy yoga.[3]

True Buddha School is probably the only formal school in the Tantric tradition that openly discloses the pith instructions of many dharma practices that historically have been kept entirely secret.

Living Buddha Lian Sheng has spent many years discoursing on Tantric teachings such as Hevajra, The Great Perfection, and Lamdre.[7] He also gave a complete exposition of many sutras: the Heart Sutra, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, the True Buddha Sutra[8], the Ksitigarbha Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, the Platform Sutra, the Vajra Sutra[9], together with teachings on excerpts from various sutras: the Lankavatara Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and treatises, e.g., Tsongkhapa’s The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, the MulaMadhyamakakarika, the Madyamakavatara, the Prasangika, the Madhyamaka, the Mahaprajnaparamitasastra and more. In 2022 he began a detail exposition of the Vimalakirti Sutra.[10]

True Buddha School disseminates Buddhist teachings through Living Buddha Lian Sheng's talks, books and articles. These materials are supplemented with talks and articles by other acharyas (masters) of the school. Hi books are mainly published in Chinese, with a limited number currently being translated into English. However, more translations are slowly being made to reach a wider audience. Many of the major True Buddha School sadhanas (liturgies) and practices are available in English.

Lineage
Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Nov 12 1996
Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu shows the Dalai Lama the True Buddha School Introductory Handbook in Dharamsala, Nov 12 1996
Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu with the 100th Ganden Tripa, at the Gyuto Tantric College, Dharamsala, Nov 12 1996
The 100th Ganden Tripa, Lobsang Nyima Rinpoche, visiting Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu at the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington

Living Buddha Lian Sheng has lineage from the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and well as the Shingon school of Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism, as follows:

Nyingma: Reverend Liao Ming 清真 (d.1971). He was a highly accomplished Taoist master who became a student of Nyingma guru Gara Lama Sonam Rabten (1865–1936). His mastery of both Buddhist and Taoist teachings was very influential in the development of the True Buddha School.[11]

According to the True Buddha School Introductory Handbook, Lu was also directly taught the eighteen volumes of the Great Perfection by Guru Padmasambhava who appeared to him in a vision.[3] Translations from the series of discourse he gave over several years are now being published in English. [12]

Kagyu: The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1924 -1981),[11] from whom he received the highest empowerment of the "Five-Buddha Dignified Crown", on January 1, 1981[13], in upstate New York. The Karmapa gave him several lineage emblems including white crystal mala beads used by the Karmapa himself, a treasure vase from Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, and other precious objects.[3]

Sakya: Dezhung Rinpoche - referred to in Chinese as Master Shakya Zhengkong.[11] He was the second highest guru in all of the Sakya lineage, and one of the first Tibetan lamas to settle and teach in the United States. He lived in Green Lake, Seattle, one of the principal temples of the Sakya tradition. He also founded centres in New York, Minneapolis, Boston, and Los Angeles.[14]

Gelug: Li Tingguang 李廷光, more commonly known as Vajra Acharya Thubten Dargye (1931-2006), a Chinese Tantric master who also had a Tibetan name. He was the disciple of Thubten Nima, who was the highest master of the Mongolian Gelug tradition. Thubten Nima had studied under the reputable Mongolian Sweet Dew (Ganzhu VII) (1914–1978) of the Gelug tradition. Thubten Dargye also studied under venerable Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987) of the Nyingma school, a Tibetan monk living in Nepal who established centres both in New York and Paris.[11] True Buddha School's Kalachakra[15] and Mahamudra[3] lineages come via Thubten Dargye. Grandmaster Lu was also given emblems belonging to the 17th Kanjurwa Khutughtu[16], including two clay statues of Vajrapani and Vajravarahi, and a golden Kalachakra statue.

Shingon: Ven. Pufang 普方, a Chinese master of the Shingon tradition, who was the head of the Zhong Chi ("All Inclusive") temple in Taipei, and from whom Lu received the Cundi empowerment.[11]

Over the years Lu has met with several eminent Tibetan Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama and the 100th Ganden Tripa in Dharamsala on Nov 12, 1996. Subsequently, the Ganden Tripa visited Lu's main temple in Redmond, Washington, USA.

Worldwide chapters

True Buddha School has chapters across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, though the size of each local chapter varies. The main temple, known as the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple is located in Redmond, Washington, USA. Living Buddha Lian Sheng lived in Tahiti with his wife Lian Hsiang in solitude for six years before re-emerging in the US in 2006, returning to his home in Redmond.

The majority of the followers of the True Buddha School are located in Asia, and many devotees are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Across North America, Australia, and Europe, the majority of the students are immigrants of Asian descent.[1]

Controversy

Lu and the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple Seattle were sued unsuccessfully in civil court by a former Malaysian immigrant disciple over an allegation of sexual misconduct whilst living in the temple dormitories. The King County, Washington prosecutor declined to file charges for lack of evidence. The case was dismissed by King County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned citing constitutional issues. In the case S.H.C. v. Sheng-Yen Lu,[17] the Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1, granted the Temple's motion for summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals later "affirm[ed] the order granting summary judgment of dismissal to the Temple."

Of the incident, Lu said:

"That woman student was very good at distorting the truth. She could twist ideas in a way that was hard to take. My earlier statement about withdrawing my foot after a close call was a reference to this student. I did not go to her bedroom, but I clearly recall that it was she who came (in her nightgown and unannounced) to my bedroom.

Well, the amazing thing was that I was completely in control of my elements and did not fall into her trap. I listened to her stories and, when she finished, I saw her out the door. That was all that happened. My clothes were tidily in order without a single button undone.

One comes across such things in life. This is why, when Buddha Shakyamuni was alive, defamatory stories were in wide circulation. There were incidents where various women made false accusations against the Buddha. Why? They found monks and spiritual cultivators to be easy targets. This is also why "refraining from sexual misconduct" is included in the Five Precepts."[18]

Notes
  1. Ho, Jacqueline (2015-05-01). Insular Buddhist Communities and Attendance Patterns: The True Buddha School and the Calgary Pai Yuin Temple's Outreach to the Wider Community (PhD thesis). University of Calgary. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26564.
  2. Yang, Fenggang (2018). Atlas of religion in China: social and geographical contexts. J. E. E. Pettit. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-35885-0. OCLC 1028838788.
  3. "True Buddha School Introductory Handbook" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. J. Gordon Melton; Martin Baumann, eds. (2010). Religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices (Second ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-204-3. OCLC 711782366.
  5. 真佛般若藏. tbboyeh.org. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  6. "Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation". Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  7. 2016.8.7 The Teachings of Lamdre by Living Buddha Lian-Sheng (Padmakumara Homa), retrieved 2023-05-17
  8. "True Buddha Sutra – The Sutra of Authentic Dharma Which Removes Hindrance and Bestows Good Fortune". truebuddhasutra.org. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  9. 7/25/2021 Expounding the Vajra Sutra, by Living Buddha Lian-Sheng (Padmasambhava Homa Ceremony), retrieved 2023-05-17
  10. 5/7/2022 Expounding the Vimalakirti Sutra, by Living Buddha Lian-Sheng (Amitabha group practice), retrieved 2023-05-17
  11. Gray, David B., Overbey, Ryan Richard (2016). Tantric traditions in transmission and translation. Oxford University Press. pp. Chapter 8 - The Tantric Teachings and Rituals of the True Buddha School: The Chinese Transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism. ISBN 9780199763696.
  12. "英文书 Dzogchen, The Nine Stages of the Great Perfection (Volume 1)". 一福文化有限公司 Yifu Culture Sdn.Bhd. (前称 大灯文化（马）有限公司). Retrieved 2023-05-16.
  13. "蓮生活佛盧勝彥金剛上師與西藏黃教、紅教、白教、花教的法王、長老、仁波切的深厚情誼". 蓮生活佛盧勝彥遭抹黑的真相. 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  14. "Dezhung Rinpoche - Rigpa Wiki". www.rigpawiki.org. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  15. "TBSN".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. Hyer, Paul; Jagchid, Sechin (1984-06-30). A Mongolian Living Buddha: Biography of the Kanjurwa Khutughtu. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-0739-5.
  17. S.H.C. and F.M., Appellants, v. Sheng-Yen LU, an individual;  and Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple, Inc., a corporation, Respondents
  18. Lu, Sheng-yen (1997). An overview of the Buddhadharma. Janny Chow (1st ed.). San Bruno, CA: Purple Lotus Society. ISBN 1-881493-06-7. OCLC 36755794.

References
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