Sheng-yen Lu

Sheng-yen Lu

Lu Sheng-Yen (Chinese: 盧勝彥; pinyin: Lú Shèngyàn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lô Sèng-gān, born 27 June 1945), commonly referred to by followers as Grand Master Lu (師尊) is the founder and spiritual leader of the True Buddha School, a new Buddhist sect with teachings taken from Sutrayana and Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism), as well as Taoism. Lu is known by the sect as Living Buddha Lian Sheng (蓮生活佛, Liansheng Huófó) and is revered by his disciples as a Living Buddha.

According to the sect, over five million students have taken refuge under Lu. There are also more than four hundred local chapters of the True Buddha School over the world. The majority of his disciples hail from Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. He has dual American and Taiwanese citizenship, and often travels between the two countries.

Lu is married to Lian Hsiang, who is also a vajra master, and is referred as Grand Madam Lu in Chinese. Before Lu became a monk, the couple already had two children.