I used to be the primary scholar to go to the “Second Dwelling” in Thailand of a novel non secular household that mixes Buddhism, esoteric traditions, and religion-based “communism.”
by Massimo Introvigne
Article 1 of 6.
In April 2021, one of many courageous citizen journalists risking imprisonment for sending information from China to “Bitter Winter” alerted us to a little-known however dramatic occasion unfolding in China’s Guizhou province. He shared paperwork, images, and police studies a couple of group few outdoors China had heard of: Lifechanyuan, also referred to as the Life Zen Temple (生命禅院).
What we uncovered was chilling. On April 28, 2021, beginning at 1 a.m., Public Safety forces and brokers from the anti–xie jiao unit—accountable for cracking down on so-called “heterodox teachings”—raided two distant communal settlements in Tongzi and Anlong counties. By daybreak, they’d taken management of the websites, the place round 100 folks from 13 provinces lived peacefully. Authorities known as the operation a textbook “cult” crackdown. Members have been detained, informed their motion was banned, and brought away for “deprogramming.”
Based on official studies, many resisted—not with violence, however with tears and cries of defiance. “We might somewhat die than depart,” some shouted. But inside three months, most had been “reeducated” and positioned underneath the supervision of family. Authorities claimed this was solely the start: Lifechanyuan had over 2,000 members, many nonetheless in hiding, and their chief lived safely in Canada. The hunt continued.
Our article in “Bitter Winter” introduced this story to gentle. It was later learn and appreciated by Lifechanyuan members, who thanked us with gratitude and additional testimony. Then, on July 3, 2025, a second wave of repression struck. Coordinated by China’s Ministry of Public Security, the crackdown detained eighty-two members throughout a number of provinces. Houses have been raided, units seized, and people coerced into signing ideological denunciations of their beliefs. A second article adopted, together with encrypted correspondence with a member named Jiejing.
Via Jiejing, I used to be invited to go to the “Second Dwelling” of Lifechanyuan—a neighborhood of exiled members who had relocated to the borderlands between Thailand and Myanmar. In September, I accepted.
After this current go to to the neighborhood in Thailand, I really feel compelled to put aside the scholar’s pen and converse from the guts. I had studied their neighborhood from afar—poring over web sites, studying poignant testimonies of unjust persecution, and exchanging emails with Sister Jiejing. But no quantity of studying or distant dialogue might put together me for the quiet revelations that come solely by way of immersion.
There’s a precept in social scholarship known as participant remark. It means that to really perceive a neighborhood, one should dwell its rhythms, even briefly. So, I did. Throughout these few days, I didn’t simply observe—I shared meals, laughter, silence, and the delicate grace of their each day lives. What I skilled was not solely a worldview however a dwelling testomony to it: a neighborhood that embraces simplicity as liberation, faces challenges with pleasure, and finds success by way of connection.
Each individual I encountered had a narrative—some marked by hardship, others by quiet resilience—however all converged in a shared pursuit of happiness and non secular readability. Their peaceable neighborhood is a vivid counterpoint in a world that usually equates success with materials wealth and standing. Maybe few will select the trail they stroll, however even these of us who don’t should have a look at them as a mirror and a reminder.
Lifechanyuan is difficult to categorize. It’s a non secular motion, a communal experiment, and a metaphysical faculty. Based by Information Xuefeng, a charismatic thinker and mystic, it attracts from Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, the Communist custom, and science—however reinterprets them by way of a novel cosmology. Members name themselves “Celestials.” Their teachings give attention to concord with nature, easy dwelling, and non secular development.
Their theology is expansive. It begins with Wuji—the primordial non-state of chaos and potential—and traces the emergence of Taiji, the delivery of the Biggest Creator, and the formation of gods, angels, and people. Their cosmology, which I’ll discover in a subsequent article, affords a sweeping narrative of the universe’s origin and humanity’s non secular variety.
However Lifechanyuan isn’t just a perception system. It’s a lifestyle. Members dwell communally, share sources, and domesticate pleasure by way of service and neighborhood work. They reject materialism, hierarchy, and violence. Their houses—whether or not in China, the place they’ve all been raided and closed by the police, or exile—are known as “Second Houses,” reflecting their perception that true belonging lies in non secular kinship, not geography.
In China, Lifechanyuan has been labeled a xie jiao—a “heterodox educating—a designation that carries extreme authorized penalties. The time period is commonly used to suppress non secular actions outdoors state-sanctioned frameworks. Lifechanyuan’s communal way of life and metaphysical educating have made it a goal.
But in contrast to different teams branded as “cults,” Lifechanyuan has by no means been accused of violence, coercion, or felony exercise. Its members are peaceable, articulate, and deeply dedicated to moral dwelling. The persecution they face is just not a response to hazard however a response to distinction.
This text is the primary in a sequence exploring Lifechanyuan’s historical past, theology, cosmology, and communal life. Within the coming items, I’ll delve into their metaphysical framework, their reinterpretation of non secular texts, and their imaginative and prescient for humanity’s non secular future.
Whether or not you’re a scholar, a seeker, or just curious, I invite you to discover the guts of this extraordinary neighborhood. In a world divided by ideology and concern, Lifechanyuan presents a quiet but radical concept: that peace, goal, and pleasure are, in reality, human rights.
