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.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS