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Ching Hai
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==Life and career== Ching Hai was born to a Vietnamese mother and an [[Hoa people|ethnic Chinese]] father,<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2013-08-29 |title=The Dui Hua Foundation-Dialogue – Issue 52: The "Cult" of Buddha |url=https://duihua.org/dialogue-issue-52-the-cult-of-buddha/ |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=[[Dui Hua Foundation]] |language=en-US}}</ref> on 12 May 1950 in a small village in the [[Quảng Ngãi Province]] in Vietnam.<ref name="young">{{cite news | last = Young | first = Gordon | title = God Inc. | work = SF Weekly | date = 22 May 1996 | url = http://www.sfweekly.com/1996-05-22/news/god-inc/ | access-date = 15 April 2007 | archive-date = 30 September 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181423/http://www.sfweekly.com/1996-05-22/news/god-inc/ | url-status = live }}</ref> At the age of 18, she moved to England to study and later to France and then Germany, where she worked for the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]].<ref name=Maragay>{{Cite web |last=Maragay |first=Fel V. |date=20 November 2006 |title=Master of Charity |url=https://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_nov20_2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523231717/https://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_nov20_2006 |archive-date=23 May 2007 |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=[[Manila Standard]]}}</ref> In 1969, she began a relationship with a German scientist.<ref name="partridge" /><ref name="guzman">{{cite news | last = Guzmán | first = Rafer | title = Immaterial Girl | work = Metro | date = 28 March 1996 | url = http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.28.96/suma-9613.html | access-date = 5 January 2006 | archive-date = 21 December 2005 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051221055938/http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.28.96/suma-9613.html | url-status = live }}</ref> They married, but separated after two years to focus on spiritualism and she moved to India to study different religions.<ref name="young"/> In 1979, she met a [[Buddhist]] monk in Germany whom she followed for three years, but his monastery denied entry to women.<ref name="guzman"/> Ching Hai attempted to buy a copy of the [[Bhagavad Gita]] from a bookshop near the [[Ganges]]. Despite the shopkeepers' assertions that they did not have a copy, an extensive search revealed one in a sealed box. This led to rumours of her having a [[third eye]] circulating by 1982.<ref name=thornton08/> In 1983, she met a Vietnamese Buddhist monk in [[Taiwan]] named Jing-Xing, who ordained her in 1984 as "Thanh Hai", meaning "pure ocean".<ref name="guzman"/> According to her official biography, Ching Hai was born to a well-off [[naturopathy|naturopathic]] family in [[Âu Lạc]], Hanoi, Vietnam. Though raised as a [[Roman Catholic]], she learned the basics of Buddhism from her grandmother. A Himalayas spiritual teacher showed her a particular meditation method which she named ''Quan Yin method''.<ref name="offbio">{{cite news | last= Hai |first = Ching Hai | title = God's Direct Contact | publisher = Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association | date = March 2009 | url = http://godsdirectcontact.us/bio.html | access-date = 11 March 2009 | archive-date = 2 February 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120202064328/http://godsdirectcontact.us/bio.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> According to Ting Jen-Chieh (Ding Renjie), assistant [[research fellow]] in the Institute of Ethnology, [[Academia Sinica]], by the early 1990s Ching Hai was at odds with the Buddhist establishment in Taiwan. Rather than submit to their demands, she severed all connections to Buddhist organizations, abandoned the traditional robe, grew out her hair, dressed fashionably, and set out to create her own independent group.<ref name=eichman/> Currently, Ching Hai does not operate under the guise of traditional Buddhism. Her home page calls her "Supreme Master Ching Hai, a renowned humanitarian, artist, and spiritual leader" (lingxiu daoshi 領袖道士). Her current irreverence for religious traditions in general, have made her more synonymous to a [[Zen master]].<ref name=eichman/> [[Transpersonal psychology|Transpersonal psychologist]] Timothy Conway writes: "Though Ching Hai can be stern from time to time with her disciples, she often can be seen happily singing simple, romantic folksongs with them for hours at a time. This attractive blend of power and simplicity, virtue and joy, has many people revering Ching Hai as a manifestation of [[Guanyin|Guan-yin]] Bodhisattva".<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last1=Conway |first1=Timothy |date=October 2017 |title=Women of Buddhism |url=https://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Women_of_Spirit_Chapter_Two_Buddhism.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718062849/http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Women_of_Spirit_Chapter_Two_Buddhism.html |archive-date=18 July 2018 |access-date=9 February 2020 |website=Enlightened-Spirituality.org}}</ref> Ching Hai calls her meditation method the Guan Yin (Chinese) or Quan Yin method because She gave her first public teachings in Taiwan. Quan Yin is a Chinese term that means "observation of the inner vibration".<ref name=taeyoung1/> Her meditation centres in American cities such as Los Angeles benefit from tax-exempt status as religious organizations.<ref name="young"/> She presides over an organization which owns restaurants and sells her jewellery and clothes.<ref name="guzman"/>
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