That is funny, and a valid point.
RickRoss, on the other hand, is a cult expert who is not trying to sell another set of superstitions as an alternative.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have gathered much dirt on the Supreme Master yet, at his Website, though he does have a few articles.
rickross.com/groups/suma_ching.html
Google has included Ching Hai’s organization, the Tzu Chi Foundation, on their holiday donation list.
google.com/advertising/holiday2009/
They probably think anything that pretends to be Buddhism is cool. I would have thought they would have done their due diligence.
Tzu Chi is not Ching Hai’s association.
I’ll second that, Tzu Chi is definitely not affiliated with Ching Hai.
There are many religions which, however silly or wrong-headed their beliefs, their adherents routinely live normal, happy lives.
The group following Supreme Master Ching Hai [Qinghai] is not one of those religions. Neither is Scientology.
My two cents.
[quote=“shanghaisky”]Google has included Ching Hai’s organization, the Tzu Chi Foundation, on their holiday donation list.
google.com/advertising/holiday2009/
They probably think anything that pretends to be Buddhism is cool. I would have thought they would have done their due diligence.[/quote]
Where’s the irony smiley when you need it? 
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
I never could figure out what her shtick was, [/quote]
Her shtick is that she knows there’s a sucker born every minute. Actually, given the exponential population increase, that proverb should be updated to something like every 1/2 second.
Isn’t this the same nut case group that are spreading all that vegan advertisement about the fact that the world can only be saved if we all become vegans?
I had a taxi driver hand out some crap about it to me once and I’ve seen people on the MRT handing out this shit and generally pester people about it…
For a moment there I thought it said, “I have come to take YOUR home.” 
Probably not too far from the truth, though…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Isn’t this the same nut case group that are spreading all that vegan advertisement about the fact that the world can only be saved if we all become vegans?
I had a taxi driver hand out some crap about it to me once and I’ve seen people on the MRT handing out this shit and generally pester people about it…[/quote]
There’s actually a good case to be made for that. That said, I don’t think they’re the same people (I could be wrong, tho). In any event, I like meat way too much to be sucked into something like that.
Yes, and Tzu Chi is a world class org. Their hospital in Hualian saved my buddy’s life after a totaly brutal surfing accident. He was there for 5 months, and did not have NHI. The charge?
Nothing, zip, nada. Because my friend owns a factory in Shanghai, he insisted on a large donation to the org. , but nice to know that they would take care of some surfer bum, if required.
They also helped out my wife and I when I was in the States having heart surgery. Mostly, they helped my wife, but it was support greatly appreicated.
I have never heard any bad shit related to the lady that founded Tzu Chi.
Yep I have a lot of respect for Tzu Chi as far as charity work goes, their hospitals are world class, go to the one in Xindian, it’s like a five star hotel and they always have tonnes of volunteers available if you need any help.
She teaches a simple meditation technique that works well to calm you mind and to improve your life.
She is a great money maker
She shares her money with poor and needy
I learnt her meditation techniche and I had never give her or to the organization not a penny,
I have eaten in her restaurants as I am a vegan and the food is delicious
and is also delicious the food she makes with the “Loving Hut” brand name
I do not find anything wrong about a great bussiness woman who helps so many people
The “Supreme Mistress” is a scamster and a cult leader.
Any bozo can teach meditation techniques that calm your mind. And if you paid to eat at her restaurants or buy her “Loving Hut” products, then you have given her organization money.
[quote=“Chris”]The “Supreme Mistress” is a scamster and a cult leader.
Any bozo can teach meditation techniques that calm your mind. And if you paid to eat at her restaurants or buy her “Loving Hut” products, then you have given her organization money.[/quote]
Clearly a cult leader. Thats hardly worth stating. Scamster is quite a bit less clear. Her lifestyle doesn’t appear to be very aesthetic, and a Googling turns up some more specific issues. On the other hand, some good appears to be done. (If you ate at their restaurants you have not “given” the organisation money, you have paid for goods and services recieved)
I was invited to one of their environmental “Go Green, Be Vegan, Save the Planet” conferences a couple of years ago, asked a question, and subsequently have appeared on their TV Channel a couple of times.
People who know me were, I think, rather surprised and disappointed that my question was not hostile or embarrasing, but I was a guest, it wouldn’t have been shown, and I’d decided that the end justified the means.
While I have little time for religion or cults of personality, their environmental message and consciousness-raising activities (on issues I think important) are positive and relatively effective in Taiwan. This is not a very rational country, and scientists or politicians “selling” an environmental message have a hard time finding an audience. There were quite a few local and national politicians at that conference, who must see some value in it, if only for themselves.
In the 70’s I once argued to a televised theatre full of enraged lefties that the ongoing carpet bombing in SE Asia (look up War in Indo-China) was a good thing because it would buy some time for the tropical rain forest (it did but its gone now). If B52’s and landmines are my buddies a blonde buddhist should bother me not one bit.
Tzu Chi is one of the reasons Taiwan is the most progressive society in Asia. The type of Buddhism Master Chenyan advocates is called Renjian Fojiao, this worldly Buddhism, and is all about bringing the Dharma to daily life: in other words, taking the Buddha’s teachings of compassion for all humanity and applying them to the real world.
Chengyan’s story is fascinating. She came from an very wealthy Taichung family but ran away from home at 24 and wandered Taiwan with another nun, living in caves and studying Buddhism as a lay nun until Yinshun, the master from Foguangshan took her in as his last student.
Will write more when I have time. Great great story. She basically is the Buddhist counterpart of people like Wang Yung-ching.
A Taiwanese co-teacher told me that a Tzu Chi volunteer must donate a million NT for the privilege of wearing one of their snazzy blue uniforms. I completely respect their organization, but this seemed pretty strange to me.
As for the Loving Hut, I eat their often. It’s $80 NT for a delicious and healthy meal. I think they do it to promote vegetarianism, they can’t make too much of a profit. I get a kick out of the nonsense playing on their TV channel, it’s propaganda, but at least it’s positive.
Electrical wall sockets have positive inputs. Doesn’t mean you need to stick your finger in them.
I’ve eaten at the Loving Hut three times now and each times I thought it was terrible food. I kept going back hoping some other dish would be better but it never was.
[quote=“Chris”][quote=“chinghai bullshit”]Yes, she will suck you in. Then take your money.
Please visit cultwatch.com [/quote]
Hmmm… Cultwatch happens to be run by religionists. Christians, to be exact. I find this quite ironic: “Don’t believe in those religions… they’re false. Ours, however, happens to be true!”
Physician, heal thyself![/quote]
At that conference I mention above they put me next to an Irish priest (can’t remember, or didn’t know, the denomination). Bit of ice-breaking conversation about relative merits of Scotch and Irish whisky and we were getting along fine. Then a rather left-field question about UFO’s/aliens (which are apparently taken seriously, maybe even a part of the belief system) got him spluttering with indignation.
I said “Well, is it any dafter than any other religious belief involving supreme beings? Christianity, for example?”
He wasn’t so friendly after that.
Mods, can we split out the Tzu Chi parts, hate to see a good organization lumped in with a questionable one. ???