Revered founders
It is the charismatic leaders of these religious groups-lofty-minded individuals who have freed themselves from bounds of convention and social etiquette-that make the biggest impression on people.
When the Grand Master Lu Sheng-yen, a living Buddha of the True Buddha sect, was 26, he found himself by chance at the Taichung's Jade Palace Temple, where the Fairyland Gold Mother helped him open his "Deva-eye." Later he studied with Taoist priest Ching Chen of Nantou's Chingcheng school and many other Sutrayana and Tantrayana Buddhist masters. He has come to believe that he is the white lotus boy of the Maha Twin Lotus Ponds of the Great Western Paradise, who was personally ordained as a Buddhist monk by Sakyamuni and has drifted down to earth on the instructions of Amitabha, the Buddha of infinite qualities. At the center of True Buddha School altars sit statues of none other than the Grand Master Lu Sheng-yen himself.
"My master is the lotus boy who was a reincarnation of Amitabha. What's wrong with being together with Amitabha?" asks the Dharma Master Lian-ying, who is the executive director of the group.
Dr. Lin Chi-hsiung, the "Supreme Lawgiver of the Haizi Dao Religion," describes himself as having descended to earth wanting to assist the Great Saviors, the Masters of the Sun and Moon. He too has placed himself in the middle of his cult's altar. When believers come to worship, they first bow down before him in the flesh and then to his statue on an altar to the side.
"I'm a god among men. But the image on the altar is of my godly form in Heaven. Of course, you should bow to it too," says Lin, as if any reasonable person should agree with him.
In his book Zhuan Falun ("turning the wheel of the law"), Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi does not go as far as to say that he is a demigod or Buddha that has descended to the world of men, but he does stress that he is the only person "in China or abroad who can truly teach this discipline at the highest level-at a level, for instance, that is higher than the Buddha-to-be."