However, the donations were returned when the Trust found irregularities involving identical signatures and consecutively numbered money orders. They also found donors listed who did not have the financial means to give that amount of money. The year-long scandal had a negative effect on her organisation, further damaged perception of the Clinton administration, and rather than the intended "boomerang of international support" for her efforts, resulted in an extensive investigation and a congressional subpoena.
Operations Loving Hut logo Ching Hai supports many vegetarian and vegan restaurants, and is described as the innovator of the international Loving Hut vegan restaurant group, with restaurants worldwide in Admission to her public seminars is free.
She launched an expensive clothing line in New York and Paris in Her business activities have led some detractors to question her motives, and she has also been criticised because her disciples are reported to buy much of her artwork, which is seen as a de facto donation. In , she stated that she earned more than former U. Followers respond that much of the money she makes is used for helping the poor and providing necessities to refugees and victims of environmental disasters.
The books consist of hundreds of photos described as being personally taken by Ching Hai. The group maintains websites in at least 17 languages, offering in-house news magazines, RealAudio and downloadable MP3 versions of radio broadcasts, and online WindowsMedia versions of Supreme Master television programs for those without access to cable stations. The main website of the group contains a prominent link to the "Celestial Shop", along with the Suma Hai Ching publishing company.
Items available online include a line of "Celestial" apparel and jewelry designed by the Supreme Master, along with a range of other items that included, as of August , products from the Loving Hut restaurant chain, and many assorted lamps with names such as The Lucky Bagwa, At One With All Creation, Blessing Light, and Celestial Rain, among many others.
Her organisation runs a string of vegetarian restaurants around the world, some of which sell her merchandise. Veganism, clean energy, and tree planting were promoted as a solution to climate change and pollution.
According to political scientist Patricia M. Thornton at the University of Oxford, the Ching Hai World Society's heavy reliance on the internet for text distribution, recruitment and information-sharing, marks the group as a transnational "cybersect. The source of wealth behind the group's charitable efforts and its media empire is a mystery, according to Thornton.
Like the Qigong organisations that came to the fore in China in the s and s, Suma Ching Hai International adopted the structure of a business enterprise early on. Much of the media produced by Suma Ching Hai International is heavily self-referential and promotional, according to Thornton, and aims to "build a public record of recognition for group activities. She claims to be the next "master" following in the likes of Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed.
In the lectures, she also reminds her adherents that they should not be ashamed of making money, "people will make you feel guilty about making money…it's none of their business. She also sometimes advocates something called breatharianism, which is a denial of food and water in favor of spiritual "sustenance.
Read more : Vegan is the new black. In the following decades, she founded Supreme Master Ching Hai International, selling jewelry and clothing and books authored by Hai. The company also produces content for Supreme Master Television, which is usually played on large screens at Loving Hut locations, in which Hai, photoshopped onto glowing and sparkly backgrounds, recites aphorisms about time travel and different dimensions.
Ching Hai, who also goes by Celestia De Lamour in the US where she is now based, has been described by the media as a cult leader for decades, and according to Humanewatch. Read more : French butchers call for protection from vegan activists.
She has also run afoul of the authorities on several occasions. In China, a group of her followers was accused of using an electronics company as a front for recruiting Quan Yin members and organizing initiation rituals. And according to University of Oxford political scientist Patricia Thorton, the origin of Ching Hai's vast fortune is unknown. However, unlike practices used at better-known cults, Ching Hai does not seem to be calling on her followers to cut themselves off from their friends and family nor hustling them for their money.
According to her website, her lectures, which are attended by hundreds of devotees, are free of charge. Their offices declined DW's request for a comment. She then embarked on what became a two year journey in search for spiritual understanding.
Finally in the deepest reaches of the Himalayas in India, she found an enlightened Master who imparted to her the Quan Yin Method - a meditation technique which contemplates on the Inner Light and Sound.
After a period of practice, she became fully enlightened. Soon after her return from the Himalayas, at the earnest request of those around her, Master Ching Hai shared the Quan Yin Method with others, encouraging them to look within to find their own greatness.
The peace and love that we most often talk about and seek we have within ourselves. People from all walks of life found that through the Quan Yin Method of meditation, they attained greater fulfillment, happiness and peace in their daily lives. As well as being a noble example of humanitarian aid, Master Ching Hai also encourages people to beautify the world we live in. Future is in our hands, so you make it beautiful or you make it worse, it's up to you.
Through meditating with the Quan Yin Method, Master Ching Hai has realized many spontaneous talents that she expresses through artistic paintings and creations, music and poetry, aesthetic jewelry and clothing designs, expressing the inner and outer beauty of the cultures and people she has met.
In , upon the demand of the public, her clothing creations were toured on the international fashion circuit, including London, Paris, Milan and New York. The sales of all her artistic endeavors have enabled Master Ching Hai to create an independent source of funding for humanitarian activities, highlighting her pragmatic view that we should always try and create our own means from which to give others.
Although she does not seek acknowledgement of any kind, in recognition of her selfless assistance, Supreme Master Ching Hai has been given awards worldwide by government officials and private organizations on numerous occasions. She brings love around the world where there is hate.
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