In 1986, when Master Samantha took refuge in Living Buddha Lian-sheng, the Living Buddha recognized her as the incarnation of the Purple Lotus Bodhisattva (Purple Padmakumara), one of the eighteen Great Padmakumaras from the Maha Twin Lotus Ponds in Sukhavati, the Amitabha Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. After giving her the Acharya Empowerment in 1987, the Living Buddha asked Master Samantha to disseminate the True Buddha School Dharma, Buddhist Philosophy and principles of moral living to more sentient beings.

Since then, Master Samantha Chou has worked tirelessly and with the utmost effort to disseminate the Buddha dharma. She has traveled to Canada, Central America, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, Singapore, China, and Europe, over twenty countries in her mission to spread the dharma. With great compassion and effective spiritual means, Master Samantha has helped countless individuals around the world. Many regard her as a Living Kuan Yin.

Not only did individuals benefit from Master Samantha’s ceremonies, the world at large benefited greatly from her ceremonies as well. She blessed the world with ultimate effort so all sentient beings could live in a peaceful and harmonious way. Whenever there are disasters around the world, she responded quickly with disaster elimination/purification Homas, often delivered in person at the disaster sites. In the past 18 years, Master Samantha has hosted more than one thousand ceremonies solely dedicated to elimination of disasters and growth of peace in the world. In year 2001 alone, she hosted more than 300 Homas, 15 to help alleviating California’s power shortages, 51 to help reduce warfare casualties in US and Afghanistan conflict, including 2 to eliminate the damage of bio-warfare, 222 to ease world disasters and to restore peace in the world. She always did her best to help without any reservation, usually hosting 4-7 Homas a day! It is unlikely that any other individuals could have completed such a gargantuan undertaking. Master Samantha believes we are belong to one global family, regardless of religion, body color or language and therefore share in the suffering others.

Living Buddha Lian-sheng has praised Master Samantha as a Master with great transcendental powers. While placing a dharma ceremonial headpiece on Master Samantha, Living Buddha Lian-sheng prophesied that she is certain to attain Buddha hood in the future.(Please see Grand Master Lu’s Book No. 87, The Mysterious Experiences of True Buddha Disciples, Pg 88) .

Master Samantha currently resides in San Francisco Bay Area where, or May 2, 1987 she founded the Purple Lotus Society, a local chapter of the worldwide True Buddha School. She also established the Purple Lotus Publishing Company, S.F. Lotus Light Charity (a local branch of the International Lotus Light Charity), and Mandala (a religious art supply store). In July of 1997, Master Samantha founded the Purple Lotus Buddhist School, a private school providing unique education to kindergarden though twelfth grades. This wonderful school is located in Union City, California. The core mission of the school is to integrate Buddhist teachings with traditional education.

Under the leadership of Master Samantha, the Purple Lotus Society purchased a five-acre plot in the city of Fremont, California to erect the Purple Lotus Temple so that more sentient beings can benefit from the Buddha-dharma. Construction is expected to be completed in 2008. Her lifelong goal and mission is to establish a Buddhist university, the Wa Guang Purple Lotus University, so that more people can be educated in the art of pure awareness through the practice of the True Buddha Tantric Dharma.

Every Saturday afternoon at the Purple Lotus Society, Master Samantha provides personal consultation by appointment. All fees are on a voluntary basis.