Black Sect Tantric Buddhism
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Black Sect Tantric Buddhism is a new religious movement established in California in 1986. It encompasses Buddhist and Tantric Buddhist thought and Tibetan, Indian, and Chinese ideas and philosophies.
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[edit] Background
Black Sect Tantric Buddhism, originated by Thomas Lin Yun and incorporated as a U.S. church in 1986, teaches and promotes a system it markets as feng shui and as a synthesis of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and folk wisdom as well as modern psychology and design principles.[1]
The church says:
along with theories established by Professor Lin Yun himself, such as the theory of ch'i, the theory of ling particles, and the theory of multi-causes of karmic generation, etc., Professor Lin Yun has been able to clarify and expand the ancient Buddhist teachings.[1]
According to an early press release,
Black Sect Tantric Buddhism seeks to modernize the ancient Buddhist religion by reforming through contemporary concepts in order to interpret doctrines of the past. It does not promote the strict adherence to disciplines ... it emphasizes the convergence of Buddhist spiritual principles with the realities of everyday life.[1]
[edit] History
According to the official press releases of the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist church, the phases of its belief system are as follows:
- Its origins in Tibet's Bön religion before the introduction of Buddhism. The Black Sect church, like missionary Augustine Waddell, claims that "primitive Bon religion" was known as Black Sect. According to Reverend Waddell, Bön was the shamanic religion of indigenous Tibetans.
- Bon's exposure to Indian Tantric Buddhism and its various offshoots. ("The Bon religion of this second stage," says the church, "is the convergence of ... Bon with Buddhism .... represented by the Menri Bonpo Monastery") Reverend Waddell said that Bon adherents use Buddhist and other religious symbols but reverse them to show their opposition to Buddhism (and their interest in sorcery).
- When Tibetan Tantric Buddhism spread to China and intermingled with other practices and belief systems. "Only the Black Sect absorbed traditional Chinese philosophies and ideologies as well as its folkloric culture," claims the church.[citation needed]
- The introduction of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism to the West in the latter part of the twentieth century. Black Sect Tantric Buddhism is an American religion. Its first church, Yun Lin Temple, was founded at Berkeley, California in 1986 by "His Holiness Grandmaster Professor Rinpoche" Thomas Lin Yun, acknowledged "supreme leader of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism at its present fourth stage,". Lin Yun is identified by his followers as a Rinpoche (teacher) as well as a living buddha. The second temple (Lin Yun Monastery, founded 1994) is located on eight acres of land at Long Island, NY.
[edit] Financial portfolio
The church has also been busy building "sanctuary shrines" (Yun Shi Jing She, Inc.), companies (Purple Rainbow, Clarinet Overseas Ltd.), a lucrative real estate portfolio that includes buildings leased out to civic authorities in San Francisco, and a TV production[2] on feng shui. A video produced by the church is often shown on public television.
