Chong Xiu Temple History

The First Large Temple

Early Chong Xiu Temple was dedicated to civil and martial sages, the sages of the Three Teachings, Lord Guan and other benefactors. Known locally as a luantang, or spirit-writing temple, it offered customary rituals to calm fright and dispel harmful influences. On designated days, Saints and Buddhas were believed to teach through several spirit-writing mediums. In 1945, Lin Shuzhao took over his father’s work, leading the mediums in continuing the temple’s religious service.

In 1950, Li Qinghe brought Lin Shuzhao to Receive Tao at the Youth Photography Studio. As it was late and the Grand Senior Elder had to return to Taichung, Masters Lin Tingcai and Lin Qiuyu cast divination blocks before Ming Ming Shang Di to determine who should transmit Tao. Lin Tingcai performed the transmission, while Lin Qiuyu served as Introducer and Guarantor.

After Receiving Tao and understanding its value, Lin Shuzhao invited Senior Elder Chen and the Grand Senior Elder to use Chong Xiu Temple for Tao affairs. As the Youth Photography Studio had not yet encountered official restrictions, the invitation was not immediately pursued.

Other spirit-writing practitioners had also Received Tao through different lineages, whose Tao Seniors consequently came to transmit Tao there.

When government pressure forced the Holy Temple to move from the Youth Photography Studio to Taihe Inn, everyone became even more committed. Increasing numbers of visitors began affecting the inn’s business. The Senior Elder felt concerned and looked for another venue, recalling Lin Shuzhao’s invitation and sending Mrs. Chen of Taihe Inn to find Chong Xiu Temple.

Respecting her teachers and Tao, Mrs. Chen promptly made enquiries and found the temple in Zhennan. She explained the Senior Elder’s wish to relocate Tao affairs. Lin was delighted and travelled to Taichung to invite both Elders. Several lineages were then using Chong Xiu Temple. To simplify arrangements, the mediums agreed to decide its affiliation by a vote reflecting each lineage’s membership. Fa-Yi had the largest number. The other lineages and mediums withdrew peacefully and unconditionally. The source praises their integrity: everyone honoured the agreement, without personal disputes or verbal conflict.

Encouraged by the Grand Senior Elder and Senior Elder, Chong Xiu’s spirit-writing temple added a Xiantian Holy Temple and raised funds for renovation. Completed in 1954, the transition placed Chong Xiu under their formal leadership and made it Fa-Yi’s first large temple in Taiwan.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

Renovating Chong Xiu Temple and Adding the Worship Pavilion

In 1954, Chong Xiu Temple completed its transition from a spirit-writing temple to a Xiantian Holy Temple under the Grand Senior Elder and Senior Elder, becoming Fa-Yi’s first large temple in Taiwan. Its premises were small, however, and the growing number of learners exceeded capacity. A worship pavilion was built in 1956. When contributions fell short, NT$5,000 was borrowed from the farmers’ association, and various classes began.

The first Ming-De Xin-Min Cultivation Class—today’s class for cultivation and realization of one’s true nature—was held on lunar September 20, 1958. In 1961 the Three Teachings Classics Class began: the Grand Senior Elder taught the Four Books, Senior Elder Liu Quanxiang the Diamond Sutra, and Senior Elder Qi Yuxiu the Tao Te Ching. These classes guided countless Tao members. With limited indoor space, lessons took place in the partly open pavilion on backless wooden benches. Long sessions were tiring, winters cold, summers hot, and heavy rain sometimes soaked participants.

Despite these conditions, the senior Masters eagerly sought Tao’s teachings, treasuring each class like rain after drought. Between classes they travelled to introduce and guide others, and Tao affairs flourished.

The account also records a manifestation involving a Japanese spirit. Hear the Senior Elder describe the events.

Film: The Senior Elder Recounts Early Spiritual Manifestations

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

Building the Maitreya Lecture Hall

In 1960, the Heavenly Examiner was said to speak through Xu Maochuan, instructing the community to build a lecture hall beside the temple, now Maitreya Hall. Limited funds initially allowed only one floor. When approached for bricks, factory owner and Tao member Ye Bidong offered as many as needed. The Masters decided to build a second floor to give learners more space. Everyone contributed money or labour, carrying bricks and mixing cement. Though the work was exhausting, participants were filled with spiritual joy.

The source celebrates the merits of temple building, especially at Chong Xiu, Fa-Yi’s founding base, and relates that Ye Bidong’s descendants enjoyed abundant blessings.

Completed in 1962, Maitreya Hall provided a larger classroom. Although Tao activities faced restrictions, folk religious observances were permitted. The Elders therefore scheduled cultivation classes around holy birthdays and traditional ceremonies. Predecessors across Taiwan recommended participants. Classes often lasted three or four days, requiring meals and accommodation. Masters gathered firewood, vegetables, rice and offerings from those able to help. At night, sincere Tao members welcomed participants into their homes. Many Fa-Yi members still recall their cherished experiences of study and service at Chong Xiu.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

Maitreya Buddha of Maitreya Hall

Maitreya Hall was inaugurated on lunar September 15, 1962. Maitreya Buddha’s statue was commissioned from Lushanxuan in Taipei using a hollow-core moulding technique. It travelled to Douliu by train on an auspicious day. The source describes the Heavenly Examiner appearing through a medium, holding an incense burner and leading Tao members and musicians to welcome the statue from the station to Chong Xiu Temple. Participation was unprecedented.

Despite official restrictions on Tao, folk religion remained permitted. The temple organized the procession as a traditional welcoming of a deity. Crowds filled the streets, and shopkeepers set out incense tables along the route. It became a major Douliu event.

The wife of the chairman of East Asia Lighting, longing for a grandchild, vowed to sponsor Maitreya Buddha’s statue. She paid its full cost. The source recounts that a grandson was born soon after its completion and presents this as an example of the merits of temple building and sacred image making.

Note: Hollow-core image making begins with a clay model. Layers of gauze mixed with lacquer-tree sap and glutinous-rice paste are applied over it. After drying, the inner clay is removed and the finished figure painted.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

Growth after the Repentance Class

From 1959, holy mediums who had arrived from the mainland gradually retired. The source recounts Saints and Buddhas speaking through local participant Xu Maochuan in Taiwanese and instructing the community to hold a Repentance Class in 1960. The Grand Senior Elder presided, assisted by Senior Elders Chen and Liu. Ninety-nine participated, with Masters Lai and Liu the final two. The account describes historical penitential practices using a door panel, wooden board and chime mallet, selected by participants with a stated number of strokes, and carried out by Lin Yaoqing under the Heavenly Examiner’s supervision. Two participants later complained privately about the severity and doubted the manifestation. Back in the temple, another manifestation through Lin reportedly convinced them when they could not restrain his movements. The account draws a lesson about vigilance even when alone, citing the saying that Heaven hears whispered words like thunder and sees into dark rooms, along with the Maitreya Sutra and the Doctrine of the Mean. It urges practitioners to examine their thoughts and actions carefully, as if ten eyes watched and ten hands pointed.

The manifestations recorded during the Repentance Class inspired participants to make vows and spread Tao in their communities. The class became an important milestone in Tao affairs.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

The Life of Immortal Cide

Immortal Cide, Master Zhan Qian, was born in 1904 in Anxi, Fujian. At three she came to Taiwan with adoptive parents and was raised as the future wife of Chen Li. The family lived in Daxi, Taoyuan. Chen later went alone to Douliu to open Taihe Inn, while she cared dutifully for his parents. During the Japanese colonial period, business was difficult; her mother-in-law, unwilling to see the couple separated, sent her to help him. In Douliu she managed the household and frequently joined vegetarian practitioners at Zhenyi Temple to chant sutras and pray for her husband, children and family. She eventually adopted a lifelong vegetarian diet—a demanding choice in an age of material hardship. The source sees in this her deep spiritual affinity and desire to purify body and mind, recognizing worldly wealth as transient and seeking liberation from suffering.

In August 1948, the Grand Senior Elder and companions came to Taiwan under the Matriarch’s instructions. In the aftermath of the February 28 Incident, distrust of mainland arrivals and the tense political situation made propagation difficult. Li Qinghe, originally from Douliu, Received Tao in Taipei and helped interpret Mandarin for the Elders. He invited Grand Senior Elder Han south and helped find premises. In June 1949, the Youth Photography Studio near Douliu Station became available. The Grand Senior Elder sold a Taipei property for thirteen taels of gold; buying the studio cost more than NT$500, equivalent to over five taels, with repairs costing another five. Xinghua Holy Temple was established there. The predecessors rose before dawn to grind beans, make soy milk and tofu, earning their living before seeking people to introduce to Tao. After little success in the market, they looked for vegetarians and were directed to the virtuous Mrs. Chen of Taihe Inn. She Received Tao at the studio in 1949 and became a Master in 1957. A passage in the source quoting the Grand Senior Elder’s oral account of the introduction is explicitly marked as requiring verification.

Receiving Tao seemed to awaken Mrs. Chen’s original vow. She enthusiastically brought people to the studio and helped with all Tao affairs. The account particularly marvels that although she neither spoke Mandarin nor read, she could interpret the Senior Elder’s Beijing-accented speech into Taiwanese, becoming a bridge between local people and the predecessors.

As the work began to grow, government scrutiny intensified. Following trouble at Senior Elder Liu Quanxiang’s community in autumn 1949 and official attention to roadside preaching, activities at the studio had to cease in 1951 [1]. Mrs. Chen offered her own hall behind Taihe Inn so that Tao affairs could continue in Douliu. The furnishings moved into a space of only five or six ping, accommodating little more than ten people, yet preserving the foundation of Yunlin’s future community. The Senior Elder took responsibility for Douliu, with Mrs. Chen interpreting. On the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, Mrs. Chen, Aunt Qingbiao, Aunt Lin Xiulian, Chen Qin and the vegetarian practitioner worked energetically to invite others to Receive Tao.

[1] Master Ge Wenya’s biography states that he Received Tao at the Youth Photography Studio in 1951, indicating the studio was still operating that year.

Through her earlier worship and chanting at Zhenyi Temple, Mrs. Chen knew many vegetarian practitioners and introduced them to Tao. Dengji Gu, Peng Pucheng, was especially reluctant, feeling that Receiving Tao might betray the temple that had helped her in hardship. Mrs. Chen persisted compassionately. One day in 1951, she met Peng selling vegetarian ingredients in the market and said, “Congratulations! You are going to Receive Tao and worship the Buddha!” Astonished, Peng replied that Guanyin must have sent her to lead the way.

The source recounts that Peng had dreamed of Guanyin on three successive nights, being shown Senior Elder Chen and told to seek Tao transmission from her. She searched carefully, declining any transmitter who was male because the person in her dream was a woman. The night before meeting Mrs. Chen, another dream told her someone would guide her the following day. At Taihe Inn, recognizing the Senior Elder from her dreams, she embraced her in tears and begged her to stay and transmit Tao. A subsequent dream directed her to assist the Senior Elder. Throughout her life, Peng introduced many people and became a key helper in the early work.

After Xinghua Holy Temple moved to Taihe Inn, Master Zhan and other Tao Seniors helped the community grow. Increasing numbers of seekers and staff passed through the inn’s lobby, affecting business. Chen Li, the inn’s owner, did not yet understand Tao’s value, making access more difficult.

Around 1952, the Senior Elder recalled Lin Shuzhao’s invitation after Receiving Tao in 1950 to use Chong Xiu Temple. Remembering only that it was somewhere in Zhennan, the Senior Elder asked Master Zhan to find it.

Master Zhan promptly located the temple and conveyed the request. Lin Shuzhao welcomed it warmly and travelled to Taichung to invite both Elders personally. Tao affairs gradually moved from Taihe Inn to Chong Xiu. The Grand Senior Elder helped fund its conversion to a Xiantian Holy Temple, completed in 1954, making it the first large temple established after I-Kuan Tao’s arrival in Taiwan.

Severe inflation and the 1949 currency reform, exchanging NT$40,000 in old currency for NT$1 new, greatly reduced the pioneers’ resources. They lived frugally to continue their work. As activities moved to the ageing Chong Xiu Temple, Master Zhan secretly brought rice and vegetables for the visiting Senior Elder. Her husband objected, partly because police frequently checked the inn and warned him she had been deceived by a religious group. Despite opposition, she remained committed, often taking her grandson out as a reason to visit the temple. When she needed to go elsewhere to guide people, she left him sleeping there until her return. She regarded his peaceful cooperation as the compassion of Saints and Buddhas easing her difficulties.

Master Zhan promptly located the temple and conveyed the request. Lin Shuzhao welcomed it warmly and travelled to Taichung to invite both Elders personally. Tao affairs gradually moved from Taihe Inn to Chong Xiu. The Grand Senior Elder helped fund its conversion to a Xiantian Holy Temple, completed in 1954, making it the first large temple established after I-Kuan Tao’s arrival in Taiwan.

Severe inflation and the 1949 currency reform, exchanging NT$40,000 in old currency for NT$1 new, greatly reduced the pioneers’ resources. They lived frugally to continue their work. As activities moved to the ageing Chong Xiu Temple, Master Zhan secretly brought rice and vegetables for the visiting Senior Elder. Her husband objected, partly because police frequently checked the inn and warned him she had been deceived by a religious group. Despite opposition, she remained committed, often taking her grandson out as a reason to visit the temple. When she needed to go elsewhere to guide people, she left him sleeping there until her return. She regarded his peaceful cooperation as the compassion of Saints and Buddhas easing her difficulties.

Master Zhan treated members like a loving mother, affectionately calling them “children” in Taiwanese. She lived frugally and travelled to visit and assist those in need. When members faced difficulties or illness, she prayed earnestly for them. The account describes her bringing consecrated tea after a thousand kowtows, staying until it was taken, and members subsequently recovering. It presents her sincerity, selfless love and care as inspiring many to dedicate themselves to Tao.

Beyond Douliu, Master Zhan also served Shanzhuku in Xiaobantian, Lugu. She rose early, took a Taisi bus to Zhushan and a Changhua bus to Lugu, then walked more than five hours round trip to reach members. With vegetarian food difficult to find in the mountains, she carried dry provisions and water for herself and others.

She often arrived home after seven or eight in the evening, long after the family had eaten. To avoid troubling them, she ate cold rice with hot tea; peanuts or pickles were a luxury. As Tao affairs grew, she and her companions became ever busier.

With public gatherings restricted, the Elders used holy birthdays and traditional observances to hold classes at Chong Xiu. This account dates the first class for cultivation and realization of one’s true nature to lunar April 8, 1958, the Buddha’s birthday. Numbers were limited to avoid attention, and the Grand Senior Elder reserved places for other predecessors’ communities so that they could develop together. Accommodation was difficult, so Master Zhan offered visiting members free rooms at Taihe Inn, relieving the Elders of that concern.

On lunar November 20, 1965, Master Zhan supervised a Tao Seminar and cared for participants at Chong Xiu. Returning home that evening, she went upstairs, switched on the light and naturally said, “Teacher, you have come,” before gently collapsing and passing away. Her son-in-law Shen Shangsheng reportedly dreamed of her returning to Heaven with the Three Officials. On waking, he hurried home with his wife and found that she had died wearing the clothes seen in his dream.

After her passing, she sat upright on a lotus seat for a day and a half at the inn’s entrance. The account describes her face as lifelike and body soft. Guests, unaware she had died, suggested she go to bed or offered birthday wishes, mistaking her peaceful appearance for that of a living person.

More than a thousand Tao members attended her funeral, and over three hundred accompanied her to the hillside burial. Their grief moved even passers-by. Her husband remarked on the extraordinary number who came to honour her. In 1966, he donated the remaining NT$4,000 from funeral funds to Chong Xiu Temple for land acquisition.

Her eldest son, Chen Songmao, was deeply moved and gradually wound down his successful business to devote himself to Tao and charity. Commissioned as a Master in 1977, he served as a director of Puli’s Guangming Home and worked for many years at Tongren Home: director from 1980 to 1994 and board chair from 1994 to 1998. He became Chong Xiu’s Temple Host in 1973 and, from 1992 onward, its committee chair. Even in his nineties, he upheld his promise to the Senior Elder to serve until his final breath, carrying forward his mother’s respect for teachers and Tao.

Educated under Japanese rule and fluent in Japanese, Master Chen supported the Elders’ pioneering work in Japan. Over fifteen years he sold ten jia of land to fund travel, without regret. He translated Tao texts, including the Heavenly Mother’s Ten Admonitions to Her Children, expressing her longing with accomplished Japanese. A capable speaker, organizer and writer, he was devoted to the community. When the Yunlin College Section, founded in 1993, faced financial difficulty, he quietly offered support, exemplifying selfless service.

His devotion to his mother was equally moving. After her passing, the Heavenly Mother bestowed the title Immortal Cide in 1966. He carefully collected and organized every spiritual teaching attributed to her, treasuring them like letters from a mother far away. Reading them with gratitude and concentration, he embodied the Book of Odes’ call to remember ancestors by cultivating and continuing their virtue.

The Statue of Holy Mother Cide at Jiande Temple, Gukeng

The account presents Master Zhan’s attainment as Immortal Cide after her passing in 1965 as testimony to Tao’s promise of realization within one lifetime. It describes her continuing care for beings through spiritual guidance. From lunar September 12, 1969, she was said to teach through spirit-writing at Jiande Temple in Gukeng as Holy Mother Cide. The community learned of this when her goddaughter’s husband, working on the temple’s reconstruction, saw the written teachings during a lunch break. Further manifestations were recorded at Tiezhen Mountain in Dajia, Tao Seminars and review classes. Although she had been unable to read during life, the account describes her teaching through written words after returning to Heaven, affirming the completeness of everyone’s original nature.

Although she had attained an immortal’s position, and tradition gives seniority to those who have passed away, her respect for her teachers and Tao only deepened. The following examples are offered.

At a spiritual encounter on lunar May 6, 1970, the Senior Elder asked Immortal Cide to assist Tao affairs. She pledged wholehearted support and prayers to the Heavenly Mother for the easing of trials. At Guide Altar in Taipei on lunar November 28, 1977, before overseas pioneering work, the Senior Elder asked the immortals whether they would accompany the journey.

Immortal Cide immediately replied:

Great immortals and small alike wish to follow, offering all the help we can.

We share the Senior Elder’s honour; our work began in Taiwan.

To keep the Senior Elder standing leaves us uneasy and ashamed.

Brothers and young sisters, forgive these humble, imperfect words.

Please be understanding; we cannot bear to keep you standing too.

We wish only that your merits grow. It is already late to speak further.

You must all be hungry—it is time to eat. With gratitude, we will say no more…

These words express her deep respect for the Senior Elder. Rather than becoming proud after attainment, she offered even greater support and reverence.

Throughout her life, Master Zhan combined devoted cultivation with exemplary character. The source honours her as Taiwan’s first female Master, the first Taiwanese Tao member to attain immortality and the first whose seated passing on a lotus chair affirmed Tao’s value. Her love remained with everyone she helped. Humble despite her family’s means, patient through hardship and entirely loyal to the community and its Tao Seniors, she is remembered for devotion, filial care and virtue.

“Immortal Cide: Loyalty, Filial Devotion and Virtue” · To the Tune of Rainy Night Flower

Immortal Cide, Immortal Cide, mistress of Taihe Inn,

Unmoved by riches, kind at heart, vegetarian and devoted to Saints and Buddhas. (1)

Receiving Tao, cultivating diligently, the first female Master,

Patient through humiliation and trials, her unceasing sincerity moved Heaven and people. (2)

Loving Tao members as her children, helping the suffering and poor,

Passing peacefully, guided by Saints and Buddhas, returning to boundless joy in Heaven. (3)

Attaining immortality, unchanged in heart, appearing to encourage goodness,

Supporting the Senior Elder wherever she went, constant in loyalty, filial devotion and virtue. (4)

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

A Brief Biography of Immortal Huici

In 1907, life in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule was hard. In the rural town of Douliu, a girl was born to a poor farming family at noon on lunar February 18. She later became known as Immortal Huici, remembered for introducing more than five hundred people to Tao with the simple words, “Tao is good.”

Her parents were honest, hardworking and frugal, raising two sons and one daughter. Although cherished as the only girl, she willingly helped with every household task. Her father died when she was seven, leaving her mother to support the family by selling homemade rice cakes along streets and at factories. Workers recorded purchases in a notebook for monthly payment because her mother could not read. Some entered less than they owed, but her mother did not argue, teaching her daughter generosity through example.

At twenty-eight, she followed her mother in listening to visiting monks and adopting vegetarian meals. Seeing life’s hardships, she wished to cultivate spiritually. Her family nevertheless arranged a marriage in the mountains, which she firmly refused. The account describes an altar incense burner catching fire during preparations and a spirit-medium’s explanation involving three previous lives as a monk. It records a warning against the marriage and her own desperate declaration that she would take her life rather than be forced into it. Concerned for her, her mother arranged for her to leave overnight for Zhenyi Temple to enter religious life.

The Temple Host, hearing her circumstances, offered to repay the wedding-cake expense and let her stay. Grateful, she cultivated diligently, chanting, gathering and chopping firewood, carrying water and cooking. Of five women entering together, only she remained through the austere conditions, joyfully fulfilling her wish to cultivate.

She spent sixteen or seventeen quiet years at Zhenyi Temple. In 1951, according to the account, Guanyin appeared in dreams on three successive nights, showing Senior Elder Chen’s face and directing her to seek Receiving Tao and liberation from birth and death. On the third night, she was told someone would guide her the next day. While selling vegetarian ingredients, she met Master Zhan, who congratulated her on going to Receive Tao.

She exclaimed that Guanyin must have sent Master Zhan. At Taihe Inn, recognizing the Senior Elder from her dreams, she knelt and embraced her feet, imploring her to transmit Tao and allow her to help introduce and guide others. She then recounted the dreams in full.

Thereafter she travelled on foot selling vegetarian ingredients and introducing people to Tao, tirelessly visiting nearby towns and villages, including other vegetarian practitioners at her temple. Although she could explain little beyond “Tao is good,” her sincerity moved many. A new Temple Host disapproved and sometimes locked the gate while she was out, forcing her to climb the wall on returning. Still she attended Wednesday study classes and continued serving others. The Senior Elder offered to arrange a home for her at a Taichung Holy Temple, but she declined out of gratitude to Zhenyi, which had sheltered her in need. She remained there until her death, and the temple handled her funeral.

The Senior Elder, saddened by the modest arrangements for someone who had endured so much in service, held another memorial at Chong Xiu Temple. Members from surrounding towns came eagerly to help and remember her. Recalling her teachings and difficult life, many wept deeply.

The meeting of this sincere practitioner and the devoted Senior Elder became a treasured story from Tao’s early propagation. The account offers their lives as testimony to the significance of Receiving Tao, cultivation and service in seeking liberation from birth and death.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

Enlightening Guidance from Saints and Buddhas · Part One

The source teaches that entering Tao cultivation and service reflects deep spiritual affinity, while karmic obstacles can make commitment difficult. The Grand Senior Elder therefore held Repentance Classes to offer opportunities for repentance. Alongside lessons, he arranged checkpoints modelled on the Three Passes and Nine Gates to deepen participants’ appreciation of the Three Treasures.

Master Liu Jingxiu checked each participant’s recollection of the Three Treasures in the Holy Temple. Those who remembered could proceed; those who forgot could not. Seeing many overwhelmed by the solemn atmosphere, he kindly allowed them to stand aside and observe the next participant. Remembering what they had forgotten, all eventually passed.

The account then describes Saints and Buddhas appearing through a medium to caution against favouritism. Cultivation should follow principle rather than personal feeling. This ordinary class activity became an opportunity for a profound lesson in sincere practice.

More than seventy years have passed since Tao’s arrival in Taiwan in 1949. Although the source states that manifestations through mediums no longer occur today, a vast body of recorded teachings remains. Practitioners of the White Stage who study them attentively can benefit greatly, treasuring the opportunity to learn from such guidance.

Enlightening Guidance from Saints and Buddhas · Part Two

Alongside good deeds and fulfilling vows, repentance is essential to cultivation. During the early years in Taiwan, the Grand Senior Elder held several Repentance Classes to help members reflect and resolve past karma.

At one class, a Master had prepared a meal when Saints and Buddhas reportedly announced “Three Treasures Rice.” Expecting something special, participants found only plain rice, salt and water. The teaching was: “True flavour lies in simplicity. Taste the rice carefully; do not swallow without attention.” The source explains this as a call to return to an uncomplicated, original heart: practise Tao in everyday life, attend fully to eating and discover rice’s natural sweetness. Sincere awareness, rather than attachment to outward forms or careless living, reveals Tao’s true flavour.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History

The Grand Senior Elder’s Longevity Peach Buns

In the difficult early years, language barriers, official restrictions and financial hardship impeded Tao affairs. After the currency reform exchanged forty thousand old Taiwan dollars for one new dollar, the pioneers’ means were greatly diminished. Yet their work continued. On the first and fifteenth of each lunar month, the Grand Senior Elder offered five thousand kowtows to the Heavenly Mother, praying for relief from trials and for people to Receive Tao. He kneaded consecrated tea into dough to make longevity peach buns, carefully wrapped them in layers and sent them from Taichung to Douliu in large bamboo baskets for distribution to Tao members and those being guided.

The source recounts that when Peng Pucheng was seriously ill and had not improved after medical treatment, a Master telephoned the Grand Senior Elder. He asked that a peach bun and an apple be given to her. The account reports that she recovered soon afterwards.

The Grand Senior Elder’s concern for all beings, the Heavenly Mandate and the support of Saints and Buddhas are presented as reasons to treasure the opportunity to Receive Tao and devote oneself to cultivation and service.

Source: Chong Xiu Temple History