Lin Chi-hsiung, Haizi Dao Supreme Lawgiver

Q: Haizi Dao is one of Taiwan's new religious groups. Most people don't know much about it. Could you please describe the story and conceptions behind its founding?

A: Most people think that newly founded religious groups are totally new, but Heaven long ago planned for the true new religions to emerge. But not everyone can understand this. For instance, the Ministry of the Interior has decided if the main deity a group worships is different from other religions, then it should be classified as a new religion. We worship the Exalted Xuan Xuan [Xuan means "occult" or "mystic"], who is like the "mystic among mystics." This isn't taken from Laozi's Dao De Jing; rather it's something you can find in all the classics. By the way, in my last incarnation, some 2,600 years ago in China, I was Li Er-a.k.a. Laozi.

In this lifetime I was born into an unremarkable family, neither poor nor rich, surnamed Lin in Fengyuan, Taichung County. In the 41 years of my life before I awoke to the truth, nothing went smoothly for me. You could say that I was a failure in every endeavor. This was probably a case of "the gods wanting someone to experience hardship and hunger before giving them an important mission." When I was 41 and 42, I grew enlightened, as if by an imperceptible but inexorable divine influence. It started when a voice in my household shrine said, "Your chief deity is the Exalted Xuan Xuan." Only later did I learn that our Heavenly Father came from the 108 millionth level in the sky, the "Level of the Sacred Heaven," and that I was his First Imperial Son, the Donghua Emperor. The Heavenly Father sent me to Earth to create a new religion. All religions have their historical backgrounds, and were likely most "with it" after just being founded. The customs and ways of thinking in traditional religions only have become tired and staid after having been passed down over centuries. I want a new culture and new ethics for my religion, and I even want to wear clothes that are the height of fashion.

Q: How do you know that your edicts have come from the Heavenly Father?

A: Because the Heavenly Father established the Xuan Ji Zong Gong Temple here, and every time we ask him questions he refers to himself as "zhen" [a term the Chinese emperors used to refer to themselves]. I have heard my son and daughter use this term when they recite what they have heard.

Because I am the eldest son of the Heavenly Father, I am the god of the central government and can give orders to the local government gods. For instance, in Chungho there was a household god who was refusing to speak. The head of the household asked me to come over and have a look. I went and asked their leading god to come out. This god used the body of the household head's wife to spin around and cry out loud. It sang sadly for a long time. I couldn't understand a lot of what it was saying-it was just a barefoot local god. It turned out that the god had become upset because the head of the household wasn't doing things according to his instructions. But I usually don't talk to those low-class local gods, because I don't want people to laugh at them.

As for my abilities, because I'm on a mission from Heaven, I have great supernatural powers. Whatever I decide to do, God makes sure that I succeed. If my disciples have doubts, I resolve them right there on the spot. This is my great ability and also God's great ability.

Q: The Bible says that Jesus is the Heavenly Father's only son. Hong Xiuquan of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace said that he was Jesus' younger brother. In which case, what is your relationship to them?

A: I haven't heard that about the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace before. It ought not to be true, because we find our basis in the Holy Scriptures of the world's five major religions.

As for Jesus, he, like me, is a son of God, but I was created by combining three spirits: the Exalted Xuan Xuan (the Heavenly Father), Daode Tianzun (Taishang Laojun), and the Donghua Emperor. The spirit of the Heavenly Father is also within my body, and so I have a higher status than Jesus, who is just the son in the trinity of the "Father, Son and Holy Ghost."

Q: What are your great powers? Can you heal the sick?

A: Yes, I can. For instance, several days ago one of our masters called from America and said that she had a stomachache and a rash, and that it seemed as if it was a case of "demonic disturbance." I told her to take the receiver and move it slowly around her abdomen, and then I sent the "air of the Dao" over there. Immediately, she said that she had received it, and that the rash had quickly stopped spreading. I then told her to go buy some medical cream to rub on it, and soon it was cured.

Of course, some illnesses are simply illnesses, but because the end of the world is near and society is such a mess, most sickness is connected to karmic power. For instance, cancer is a kind of demon that results from the deterioration of karmic power. In this case, one has to negotiate with demons. And so you've got to tell the ill to do good deeds, to give money in exchange for them leaving you alone. That's a convenient way to deal with them. After the crisis of the illness passes, you can then use medicine to help the body recover, and there will be no problem.

Q: How do you engage in religious cultivation? Do you meditate?

A: I am very much opposed to the idea of closing your eyes and practicing "blind religious cultivation." I believe that you must cultivate spirituality as a part of your life. You've got to put spiritual cultivation to practical use if you are to become an immortal spiritual being. There are some people who say that they practice Zen meditation for their health, and to them I say, why bother? Wouldn't you do better by just by gettting some exercise? And if you say that you meditate to calm the mind, in that case just go and get some sleep. Especially now, as the end of the world approaches and the skies are full of flying demons, you shouldn't meditate. It's too easy to get infected by them, all the while thinking that you are hearing some sort of Buddha or god. Why would a god be so casual about entering your body? The ones that come are demons, and you end up getting sick.

Q: Do you believe that we have come to the end of the world?

A: The present day doesn't count as the end of the world. According to Taiji Qitian, one era for Heaven and Earth lasts for 129,600 years. This is divided into 12 epochs, each of which lasts 10,800 years. We are only 50-60,000 years into our current era, and there is a long time to go before the whole world is destroyed. Now it's only about the time of the autumn harvest. So, the calamities don't have definite dates, and there's no point in getting people all worked up about them. The calamities come gradually.

Nevertheless, "the calamity at the end of the third period" is still a warning. The first calamity is the "water calamity." Many ancient peoples have legends about massive floods. The second is "fire calamity," which was World War II. The third is "wind calamity," like the "winds blowing in high places" as described in Daoist texts. Something similar to this would be the extremely hot wind created by a nuclear bomb. In regard to these, if the people aren't willing to believe, then there is no way to save them. If they do believe, then they've got to come right away to embrace Haizi Dao. Therefore you can say: "As long as you have confidence, you can relax!"

Q: You have described the Masters of the Sun and Moon as the 64th generation of the Gold Thread Orthodoxy. Could you please explain what this is?

A: For that, let's start with Qingyang, the middle period of Taiji Qitian. Qingyang begins with Donghua Emperor lighting the golden thread. Down here on earth it stretched from Fu Xi who introduced farming, fishing and animal husbandry to the people all the way to Mencius in the 18th generation. Then came the Hongyang period, which began with Prince Siddhartha (Sakyamuni) and continued on through 28 generations of Indian living Buddhas. It continued with Bodhidharma, who brought his Zen sect eastward into China. It was passed down from one generation to another until the 63rd generation, when Zhang Kueisheng and Sun Suzhen founded the Yi Guan Dao religion. Zhang Kueisheng and Sun Suzhen were the ninth Imperial Son and Imperial Daughter, and I am their eldest brother, but even the followers of Yi Guan Dao don't know about this.

The Heavenly Father sent me down because the work of "wrapping everything up" is a major responsibility, necessitating the presence of the First Imperial Son. But the leaders of Yi Guan Dao, the 63rd generation of the orthodoxy, weren't willing to relinquish their position. It would be kind of like a new president getting elected, yet the old president not being willing to leave. As for the question of why the following generation is the last, that is because there are only 64 hexagrams used for augury in the Book of Changes, and so we only have 64 generations.

Nevertheless, there is no reason to worry. These days my daughter often comes to the temple, and when my son returns from study in America, he too will take up responsibility for Haizi Dao's affairs. When we die, our countless spiritual particles will linger among the people and free the souls of the masses. It's like how Christianity was able to survive after Jesus left the world of man.

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Lin Chi-hsiung, Haizi Dao's Supreme Lawgiver, stands next to a carving of his godly form. He holds in his hand a "dragon cane" given to him by Korean followers.

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The image of the Exalted Xuan Xuan worshiped by devotees of Haizi Dao is based entirely on the way he appeared in Lin Chi-hsiung's dreams.

The image of the Exalted Xuan Xuan worshiped by devotees of Haizi Dao is based entirely on the way he appeared in Lin Chi-hsiung's dreams.