Tenets
Xiantian Tao doctrine holds that the creator of the universe was Wusheng Laomu, “The Unborn or Eternal Venerable Mother” (無生老母), who created all living 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 Heaven was no longer possible. For this reason, the merciful Venerable Mother sent a range of envoys to bring Her children back to Heaven. The Dipankara Buddha (燃燈佛 Randeng Fo) saved 200 million suffering children as the first salvage. Gautama Buddha afterwards saved another 200 million. The remaining 9.2 billion live beings will be saved by the Buddha of the future, Maitreya Buddha.
The individual Xiantian Dao sects all see themselves as carrying out the Mother's intentions by converting people and guiding them on a path of cultivation and reform that will ultimately lead them back to Heaven. The cultivation urged on members is divided into "inner" and "outer" work (neigong, waigong), i.e., meditation and good deeds, so as to accumulate merits and purify the mind. As the focus is on a primordial deity superior to all other gods, Xiantian Dao sects claim to represent a Way (Tao) that transcends and unites all other religions. Consequently, an explicit syncretism is a noticeable feature of these groups, who claim that their teachings aim to unify the "Three Religions" (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), the "Five Religions" (the former three plus Christianity and Islam), or even the "Ten thousand Religions". Most Xiantian Dao groups rely heavily on spirit-writing as a means of communicating with the Mother and lower-ranking deities.
Read more about this topic: Way Of Former Heaven
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