A woman has filed a lawsuit accusing the leader of a Buddhist sect of coercing her into having sex after she sought blessings to help overcome a panic disorder.
The 41-year-old woman, identified only as S.H.C., is seeking unspecified damages against Grand Master Lu Sheng-yen (盧勝彥), 55, for "negligent pastoral counseling" at the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington. The lawsuit also accused Lu of preying on other female worshippers.
Lu moved to the US from Taiwan in the early 1980s and built the temple in Redmond in 1984.
Revered by followers as a "living Buddha," he has written scores of books on Buddhism and Taoism. His True Buddha School has about 4 million followers and more than 300 chapters worldwide, including 30 temples, according to officials at the suburban temple.
Karen Goater, a lawyer who filed the case yesterday in King County Superior Court, said Lu told the woman, who is married and has three children, that she would die if she didn't join him in an ancient "twin-body blessing," which turned out to be sexual intercourse.
The claims were denied by Colleen Barrett, a lawyer for the suburban temple, which also is named as a defendant, and by Master Teng Teck-hui, president of the temple's board of directors.
"This is the first and only allegation of this nature," Teng said in a prepared statement.
"No one at the temple has any reason to believe the accusations against Grand Master Lu are true."
Barrett said she would ask that the lawsuit be dismissed on the ground that negligent pastoral counseling is not a cause of action.
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