Born Sheng-yen Lu in Chiayi, Taiwan, in 1945 amid WWII, His Holiness experienced extreme poverty and hardship in his childhood.
At the age of 26, an unexpected mystical experience at a Taoist temple changed the direction of his life. His divine eye was opened by the Golden Mother (a Taoist deity), revealing his original nature. He realized he is a White Mahapadmakumara in human form, an emanation of Amitabha Buddha.
Through decades of arduous practice spanning Christianity, Taoism, Zen, Mahayana, and Tantrayana Buddhism, he attained the ultimate perfect enlightenment of anuttara samyaksambodhi. He holds lineages from all four sects of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug, and has attained the highest fruition in all four traditions.
The profundity of his sublime realization empowers him to present authentic Buddhadharma (the teachings of the Buddha) in a new light for modern times.
Since his ordination as a monk in 1986, His Holiness has been residing in Seattle, USA. There, he formally established Zhen Fo Zong (真佛宗 ) – True Buddha School – and built his head temple in Redmond, WA. There are now over three hundred temples, chapters, and centers globally.
Over the years, His Holiness has spread Buddhadharma and conducted numerous grand ceremonies in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the USA, Canada, England, Australia, and more. His weekly ceremonies in Taiwan from 2010-2019 were regularly attended by tens of thousands of people from all over the world.
His vow to liberate every sentient being at the cost of his own life manifests powerfully in his great compassion and wisdom. Countless rinpoches revere him as a living buddha, and his disciples address him fondly as Grandmaster Lu or Shizun.
His Holiness teaches authentic Buddhadharma, including the Buddha’s fundamental teachings of self-liberation, moral ethics, enlightenment, and bodhicitta (loving-kindness), which liberates oneself and others. He shows how to generate compassion and develop transcendental wisdom – the profound, brilliant wisdom of the tathagata (one who has transcended life and death).
As a guru, he demonstrates the qualities of unrelenting willpower, discipline, diligence, single-mindedness, kindness, and soft-heartedness.
To assist practitioners and remove obstacles on the spiritual path, His Holiness also teaches life fulfillment, including wealth practices, harmony and magnetization, and health and longevity practices, among others. He emphasizes actual practice, which means that applying the concepts to real life and practicing every day is extremely important.
True Buddha School is probably the only formal school in the Tantric tradition that openly discloses the pith instructions of many dharma practices that historically have been kept entirely secret.
His Holiness has spent many years discoursing on Tantric teachings such as Hevajra, The Great Perfection, and Lamdre.
He also gave a complete exposition of many sutras: the Heart Sutra, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, the True Buddha Sutra, the Ksitigarbha Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, the Platform Sutra, the Vajra Sutra, together with teachings on excerpts from various sutras: the Lankavatara Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and treatises, e.g., Tsongkhapa’s The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, the MulaMadhyamakakarika, the Madyamakavattara, the Prasangika, the Madhyamaka, the Mahaprajnaparamitasastra and more.
All this is in addition to transmitting myriad dharmas and publishing almost 300 books to date, endeavors that would be impossible without genuine enlightenment.
He writes down all of his teachings, including the True Buddha Tantra, the most secret tantric practices, pointers and pith instructions to enlightenment, the most effective meditation methods, in-depth answers and clarifications to questions and doubts raised by disciples during Q&A sessions, life philosophies, the spirit world, and more.
His Holiness’s teachings have been translated into English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese.
