[quote]“It looks to me like one of the fastest-growing cults in the world,” says Dr. Margaret Singer, perhaps the country’s first and foremost cult expert. Dr. Singer, who has been following modern cults since their appearance in the late 1950s . . . considers Ching Hai unusual only in that most large, far-reaching organizations are led by men. . .
Only within the last nine or ten months has she begun receiving calls from men and women. . . almost all from San Francisco and San Jose-- who have lost their spouses to the Ching Hai organization. . . Singer says that the callers also complained about the tremendous sums of money their spouses gave to the Ching Hai organization. . .
A tireless publicity seeker, Ching Hai never misses an opportunity to gain credibility and clout for her organization. She often claims to have been invited to the conspicuously prestigious locations for her lectures–Georgetown University, UCLA and the United Nations buildings in Geneva and New York–but rarely says by whom. . . In Taiwan, the story goes, Ching Hai even set up two front organizations to bestow awards upon her in a public ceremony. . .
Ching Hai’s knack for self-promotion shines in her official biography, which . . . is a paean to the Master’s humility, humanitarian efforts and impressive output of saleable products. . .
. . . the Supreme Master was born Hue Dang Trinh on May 12, 1950, in a small village in Vietnam. . . Trinh then moved to India to study Buddhism. It was here that she became a prize pupil of Thakar Singh.
"Thakar Singh turned out to be the most scandalous guru. . . had embezzled money, indulged in sexual affairs with numerous women, and had engaged in violent interactions with disciples. . . But by the time Singh’s crimes came to light, Ching Hai had already learned from him the “light and sound” meditation technique, and had left for Taiwan.
. . .in Taiwan, in 1983, Trinh studied with a Buddhist nun named Xing-jing. . . Returning to Taiwan in 1986, Ching Hai lured followers away from her former master, Xing-jing, and set up a makeshift temple in an apartment in the Taipei suburbs. . .
And now she is among us in San Jose . . . Cries of adoration greet Ching Hai when she appears in the portals of Gate A8. As she walks, her path is strewn with flowers, prostrate bodies and outstretched hands. She smiles modestly. Once outside, she is escorted into the back seat of a black Isuzu Trooper. She waves to the undulating crowd as the car speeds away, heading for the nearby Red Lion Hotel. For the next hour, the short-term parking lot of the San Jose Airport is jammed with cars heading for the exit to follow her. . .
“Thank you for your love. I don’t know if I’m good enough for you.” She sighs. “I just try to be ordinary citizen. Then someone must come along and remind me I am Supreme Master Suma Ching Hai!” All laugh heartily. . .
Ching Hai wraps up her talk well after midnight. She makes her last rounds through the audience, touching a head here, smiling beatifically there. A black man in African garb shrinks in his seat as she passes, his hands clasped together in worship, sobbing in great gasps, looking into the Master’s face while tears stream down his. . .
According to Millar, the Master’s clothing and jewelry are “very expensive, but it’s very high quality.” In the same breath, Millar also tells me that when the Master wishes to donate money to charities, she establishes a bank account to which followers can contribute. God has certainly been kind to Ching Hai: in 1993, her Los Angeles branch alone took in $395,518. . .
The interview is done, and the Master and I shake hands. . . “You were so close, right next to her,” a wide-eyed girl exclaims, stroking my shoulder.
It occurs to me that I may now be seen on a videotape in the Ching Hai library: the American reporter conducting an interview with the Supreme Master. Our words may end up on a Web site, or in the Suma Ching Hai magazine, or condensed into an aphorism in a book. Against my will, I had become another prop in Ching Hai’s magic show. . .[/quote]
metroactive.com/papers/metro … -9613.html
[quote]In Taiwan she reportedly has 300,000 followers. However, when the government closed down her headquarters (it had been constructed without a license), the sect produced a membership list of only 804 names. . .
The secretary-general of the Taoist Association says he has information that she has bought up vast tracts of land in Cambodia. Master Chinhsing, a Buddhist monk of Vietnamese origin who may have been Ching Hai’s mentor, disapproves of her departure from the austere ways of Buddhist tradition. He has reportedly warned her never to identify herself as his former student. . .[/quote]
time.com/time/magazine/artic … -2,00.html
