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Way of Former Heaven Wikipedia

The Way of Former Heaven, or Hsien-t'ien tao (先天道) encompasses five religious groups of Chinese origin. They claim to strive for unification of Christianity, Islam, Confucianism Taoism and Buddhism. They were violently suppressed by the People's Republic of China. The sum of adherents of these groups possibly exceeded 5 millions in 1947.

The sectarian can be traced up to Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It is usually refered as White Lotus or 'Motherist' or 'Maternist sectarianism'. The term White Lotus religion (Bai Lian Jiao) has a negative meaning in Taiwan and is associated with secret, illegal, rebellious sects.
Xian Tian Tao doctrine believes the creator the universe as Wu Sheng Lao Mu (The Unborn or Venerable Mother) which created all live beings, 9.6 billion in total. These children went astray and ended up in the earthly world where they forgot their divine origin. The wheel of reincarnation started and the return to the heaven was no longer possible. For this reason, the merciful Venerable Mother sent a range envoys to bring Her children back to Heaven. The Dimpakara Buddha (Ran Teng Ku Fo) saved 200 millions of suffering children as the first salvage. Sakyamuni or Siddharta Buddha afterwards saved another 200 millions. The remaining 9.2 billion live beings will be saved by the Buddha of the future, Maitreya Buddha. The founder of Xian Tian Dao is Huang Dehui (1624-1690). Both I Kuan Tao and Xian Tian Tao considered him as the 9th patriarch.

Last Modified:   2005-11-04