White Lotus Society beliefs were founded on the creator goddess (Wusheng laomu - the Unbegotten Eternal Mother) who aimed to save humanity from sin and misery by dispatching Buddhas to rescue or redeem them. Randengfo the Lamplighting Buddha and Shijiafo the Sakyamuni Buddha were unable, however, to save all people and a third was required, the Buddha Maitreya Milefo whose coming was yet to come but which was believed to be imminent. The arrival of the Maitreya Buddha would signal the end of the current cycle of 97,200 years. The arrival would be preceded by a time of great calamities and general misery, signaled by the advent of natural disasters and the fact that "the five grains will not grow."
The most recent emergence of the White Lotus Society is in the shape of the Falun Gong (Law Wheel Cultivation) movement that claims as many as 100 million adherents worldwide and is led by Li Hongzhi, whose surname (Li) is considered to be one of the names that the Maitreya Buddha would take on manifestation on earth. The Falun Gong movement has been receiving considerable degrees of persecution by the Chinese state and westerners might wonder why a group of apparently peaceful individuals seemingly interested only in public exercise and being calm should receive such treatment. It is because the Chinese state fears another popular overthrowing of the political system.
References and Further Reading
Chang, Maria Hsia, Falun Gong: The End of Days (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004).
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
My review of Maria Hsia Chang's Falun Gong book is now online at the Asian Review of Books website (www.asianreviewofbooks.com).
John Walsh, Mahidol University International College, March 2004
The most recent emergence of the White Lotus Society is in the shape of the Falun Gong (Law Wheel Cultivation) movement that claims as many as 100 million adherents worldwide and is led by Li Hongzhi, whose surname (Li) is considered to be one of the names that the Maitreya Buddha would take on manifestation on earth. The Falun Gong movement has been receiving considerable degrees of persecution by the Chinese state and westerners might wonder why a group of apparently peaceful individuals seemingly interested only in public exercise and being calm should receive such treatment. It is because the Chinese state fears another popular overthrowing of the political system.
Chang, Maria Hsia, Falun Gong: The End of Days (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004).
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
My review of Maria Hsia Chang's Falun Gong book is now online at the Asian Review of Books website (www.asianreviewofbooks.com).
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