Guanyin Famen

File:ChingHai Sydney in 1993.jpg

In 1996, following the first Taiwanese presidential election, the government of Taiwan suppressed religious groups that did not support president Lee Teng-Hui during the election, including Guanyin Famen, through asset seizures and media manipulation.{{Cite journal |last=Tsai |first=Cheng-An |date=2021-09-20 |title=Uncompleted Transitional Justice in Taiwan: Repression of Religious and Spiritual Minorities and the Tai Ji Men Case |url=https://doi.org/10.26338/tjoc.2021.5.5.5 |journal=The Journal of CESNUR |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=68–93 |doi=10.26338/tjoc.2021.5.5.5 |issn=2532-2990}}{{Cite web |title=台灣未完成的轉型正義：受壓迫的宗教心靈少數派與太極門案 |url=http://www.act1219.org/internation-article-01.php?id=163313376000090 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=平反1219行動聯盟}} In that same year, several American followers donated $640,000 to Bill Clinton's Presidential Legal Defense Fund, which was eventually returned.{{Cite web |last=Public Eye |first=Metroactive News & Issues |date=December 1996 |title=Supreme Ordeal |url=https://www.metrosiliconvalley.com/papers/metro/12.19.96/public-eye-9651.html |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Metro Silicon Valley}} Following the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy, the fund took caution to what it deemed "suspicious" funding sources.{{Cite web |date=1997-08-01 |title=SECT LEADER BADGERED FOLLOWERS FOR CLINTON AID |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-08-01-9708010081-story.html |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=Chicago Tribune}}{{Cite web |title=AllPolitics - Ching Hai Interview - Jan. 9, 1997 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/01/09/ching.hai/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=edition.cnn.com}}

{{See also|Antireligious campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party}}

The Quan Yin method and Ching Hai's group has been banned in China since 1995.{{Cite web |last=Irons |first=Edward A |date=October 15, 2018 |title=China's Blacklist of Forbidden Religions - The Chinese Communist Party's War on Religious Liberty |url=https://foref-europe.org/blog/2018/10/15/chinas-blacklist-of-forbidden-religions/}} A 2000 report entitled "Notice of the Ministry of Public Security on Several Issues Concerning the Identification and Banning of Cult Organizations" cites anti-communist political activity and the alleged defrauding of millions of dollars from Guanyin method followers as the reason for the ban.{{cite web |title= 公安部关于认定和取缔邪教组织若干问题的通知 |url=https://www.china21.org/docs/CONFI-MPS-CHINESE.htm |publisher=Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China |language=zh |date=30 April 2000 |access-date=13 December 2023}} In 2017, the China Anti-Cult Network (a branch of the State Council) listed the Guanyin method as one of eleven "dangerous groups".

In 2002, the manager of the Wuhan Zhongzhi Electric Testing Equipment Company was accused by the Chinese authorities of using the business as a cover to "support cult teachings" associated with the Quan Yin method. The enterprise supported thirty practitioners who "masqueraded as employees and business associates." The manager was charged with using the company's offices and buildings as "retreat sites", organizing "initiations" and "screenings" to recruit members, and illegally printing and distributing more than 6,000 copies of cult texts.

{{See also|Freedom of religion in Vietnam}}

According to an official statement by Vietnamese authorities:{{Cite web |date=2020-05-13 |title=Religion Bulletin – January 2020 |url=https://www.thevietnamese.org/2020/05/religion-bulletin-january-2020/ |access-date=2023-06-05 |website=The Vietnamese Magazine |language=en}}

{{quote|“Activities spreading superstition affect the social fabric. They have the clearest and broadest influence on the population in places where these new religions (heresy, strange faiths) appear: Supreme Master Ching Hai, Long Hoa Maitreya, Treasured Temple of the Three Religions, Protestant Word of Life…”}}

Ching Hai first demonstrated the "Immeasurable Light Meditation Center and the Way of Sound Contemplation", or Quan Yin method of meditation, in Miaoli, Taiwan.{{Cite book |last=Thornton |first=Patricia M. |title=Popular Protest in China |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2008 |editor=Kevin J. O'Brien |pages=179–204 |chapter=Manufacturing Dissent in Transnational China: Boomerang, Backfire or Spectacle? |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7806399 |via=www.academia.edu}} The Quan Yin method involves meditation on the "inner light and the inner sound" of God or the Buddha. Ching claims that the Bible acknowledges the existence of this method,{{Cite web |date=24 June 2001 |title=Suma Ching Hai |url=https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/suma-ching-hai/ |access-date=30 May 2023 |website=wrldrels.org}} and that it has been used by most major religions.{{cite news |last=Young |first=Gordon |date=22 May 1996 |title=God Inc. |work=SF Weekly |url=http://www.sfweekly.com/1996-05-22/news/god-inc/ |url-status=live |access-date=15 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181423/http://www.sfweekly.com/1996-05-22/news/god-inc/ |archive-date=30 September 2007}} She also preaches that enlightenment in Buddhism, as demonstrated by the Gautama and Guanyin Buddhas, is achieved through the method.{{Cite web |title=Traces of Quan Yin in Religion - Contemplation on the Inner Heavenly Sound, Part 1 of 3 - English |url=https://suprememastertv.com/en1/v/130985368178.html#:~:text=All%20Bodhisattvas%20now%20enter%20this,should%20rely%20on%20this%20Dharma.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CThus%20the%20LOGOS%20OF%20THE,It%20supports%20the%20All. |access-date=2022-02-09 |website=suprememastertv.com |language=en-US}}

The Quan Yin method's full initiation involves a life-long commitment to a vegan diet, adherence to the Five Precepts of Buddhism, and at least two hours of meditation daily. A shorter form of initiation requires a half hour of meditation daily and abstinence from meat for ten days each month.{{cite news |date=30 September 1999 |title=Dialogue Ireland – Newsletter 11 – 1999 |language=en |work=Dialogue Ireland |url=https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/1999/09/30/dialogue-ireland-newsletter-11-1999/ |url-status=live |access-date=7 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207065258/https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/1999/09/30/dialogue-ireland-newsletter-11-1999/ |archive-date=7 February 2020}}

A 2015 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada research report states that some consider the method to be a Buddhist movement.{{Cite web |last=Canada |first=Immigration and Refugee Board of |date=2018-06-05 |title=Responses to Information Requests |url=https://irb.gc.ca:443/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.aspx?doc=456054&pls=1 |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=irb.gc.ca |language=en}} The World Religions and Spirituality Project has written: "Ching Hai’s teaching against violence towards animals is very similar to Sikhism, but her meditation teachings resemble Buddhism, and her Catholic background enables her to incorporate Christian Bible teachings as well." Religious studies scholar Jennifer Eichman notes that this particular meditation method is not part of the standard Buddhist repertoire. Ching's synthesis of the method uses a combination of jargon from Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism.{{cite journal |last1=Eichman |first1=Jennifer |date=2011 |title=Prominent Nuns: Influential Taiwanese Voices |url=https://www.academia.edu/1388514 |journal=CrossCurrents |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=345–373 |doi=10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00187.x |issn=0011-1953 |s2cid=170393485 |access-date=4 February 2020}}

Religious studies scholars, including Michael York, include Ching Hai in the Indian contemporary Sant Mat movements which involve the initiation of a member from a lineage guru or master.{{cite book |last1=York |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgR_DwAAQBAJ&q=%22ching+hai%22&pg=PA77 |title=Pagan Mysticism: Paganism as a World Religion |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-2308-1 |page=77 |access-date=2020-02-03}}{{cite encyclopedia |year=2007 |title=Sant Mat movement |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |publisher=Facts On File |place=New York |url={{Google books|OgMmceadQ3gC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |series=Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor |page=384 |isbn=978-0-8160-5458-9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020070415/https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC |archive-date=20 October 2022 |surname2=Ryan |given2=James D. |surname=Jones |given=Constance A. |url-status=bot: unknown |access-date=17 October 2023 }}

• Heterodox teachings (Chinese law)

{{Wikisource lang|zh|公安部关于认定和取缔邪教组织若干问题的通知| Notice of the Ministry of Public Security on Several Issues Concerning the Identification and Banning of Cult Organizations|(in Chinese)}}

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Category:Buddhist new religious movements

Category:Organizations designated as cults by China

Category:Religions that require veganism

Category:Religious organizations established in 1988

Category:Religious faiths, traditions, and movements

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