Fo Guang Shan 佛光山(lit. 'Buddha-Light Mountain')
Master Hsing YunFo Guang Shan is a huge Taiwan Buddhist organisation, with branches worldwide. I have a friend who is a member and have had numerous pleasant contacts with my local branch over the years. Admittedly, on occasions where I have attended a
dharma lecture, or read the lectures of the founder,
Master Hsing Yun, I have found the doctrinal position of this group to be problematic. (See
'Humanistic Buddhism'). (I hope to discuss this philosophy in more detail when I have the time.)
There has been significant criticism of the group's organisational structure, financial practices and prosperity - see
here, as well as its leader's political activities (see
here). Their practices are certainly non-traditional from a Buddhist standpoint, and I think there are strong correlations between this and their doctrinal views. Incidentally, Fo Guang Shan is described on Wikipedia as "a monastic order, and not a doctrinal school of thought per se" due to the group's claim to be an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism". I strongly disagree with this assertion. Firstly, this way of amalgamising the "Schools of Chinese Buddhism" has a strong doctrinal basis in Ming dynasty (and earlier) attempts at sectarian synthesis. More importantly, as I mention above, Fo Guang Shan lectures seem to be infused with the philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism, which has its own defining character.
There is a case to be made, I think, for someone to revise those Wiki articles I have cited. To take the example of the entry on Hsing Yun, regarding criticism of his political activity,
Such criticisms fail to see the stagnating situation of Chinese Buddhism in the Ming and Republican / Communist periods, largely due to ossification of authoritarian roles.This is obviously a point of view stated as fact. Scholars of Buddhism since Hsu Sung-peng (1979) have argued that the 'stagnation' of Ming Buddhism is largely a myth, perpetuated not least of all by highly active and innovative Buddhist leaders during the Ming period itself! (Like many before them, they were simply criticising their peers.)
From the entry on Fo Guang Shan, regarding allegations of 'un-Buddhist' extravagance:
The quarters of the monks and nuns themselves, are in fact very simple and unpretentious.That last line was entered by an anomymous user, who had at the same time deleted or modified a large amount of the critical views cited by Wikipedia. See the (rather amusing) edit
here. The article has changed somewhat since then, but that line I quote above still stands for some reason. I couldn't resist looking this up on Wikiscanner: sure enough, the
IP address belongs to . . .
!!!
Related post:
Recent update to topic 'Re: Wiki says: article on Lama reads like an advertisement' (another Wikiscanner adventure 
)
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