Liite Buddhism uses Christian and Christian-sounding terminology. However, few of the terms mean the same as they do among Christians and indeed most of the important doctrines mean exactly the opposite of their Christian counterparts.
This makes studying Liite doctrine confusing. However, Liite terms do have exact equivalents in traditional Chinese Buddhism. Once these are known, understanding Liite doctrine becomes easier.
Following is a list of the more important Liite terms with the equivalents I could find in traditional Chinese Buddhism. LSM stands for "Living Stream Ministry," the Liite Vatican in Anaheim, California.
The interesting thing about making this list is I feel I can see what Li was thinking when he introduced each of these to Americans. I am not sure if how good a thing it was to get a glimpse inside Li's head, but I did anyway. Li took what he was familiar with (Buddhism) and translated for his audience in America, a traditional Christian country.
Banner - koan
Calling - mantra
Eating Jesus - dharma
Full Time Trainees (FTT) - bhiksu
Getting saved - good roots
Jesus - Indra/Sakraderanam
Heaven - pure land
Leading brother - bodhisattva
Liite - upasaka/upasiki
Lord's Recovery - Buddha land
LSM literature - sutra
Mingling - dharma wheel
New Jerusalem - sumeru
Pray-reading - dharani
Redemption - nirvana
Regional coordinator - mahasattva
Salvation - bodhi
Souls - sentient beings
Spirit, soul, and body - three realms (cf. Pelagianism)
Trainees - paramita
Tripartite Man - skandhas
Witness Lee (Chang-Shou Li) - Buddha
About
- Good Christian Boy
- This website is not a blog. I am committed to Christ and active in a Bible-believing church. I dedicated my life to Christ, thanks to a school teacher, as a young boy. Sadly, as a youth one parent went astray and took the family to the Liite cult, known to most as the Local Church of Witness Lee. I never missed a training and read every book published under Witness Lee's name. I learned every dogma; but really it is quite simplistic: it comes down to the dharma wheel, which Liites call "mingling." That is, God came to terminate man's soul, replace man's evil nature with his own, and then absorb it back into himself. It's Buddhism with a twist. The twist is: send money to the LSM.
