Dear Mr. Kofi A. Annan,
        Mrs. Mary Robinson,

Religious Power in the wake of a devastating earthquake.

People who died in the quake are Buddhas because they died for the Taiwan 22 million people on island. Their death has saved the future generation, we called them teachers because they have taught us a lesson with their own lives as the teaching materials. We should have hope because we are alive, we should be grateful to them and strive for rebirth in post-quake reconstruction. --- Master Sheng Yen, founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain organization, prays at a quick site in Taichung county.

In the wake of a devastating earthquake, one of the most important tasks is to provide psychological rehabilitation for people in quake-stricken areas, a prominent Buddhist leader in Taiwan said.

Master Sheng Yen founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) organization, said many people were greatly shocked when they saw that their homes were destroyed or that family members were killed during the quake last month. For many of them, the terrible experience was quite unbearable. Unless such people are treated for quake trauma, they cannot lead a normal life, he said.

The magnitude 7.3 killer quake which struck central Taiwan on Sept. 21 was the strongest to hit the island in a century, seismologists said. The temblor killed more than 2,300 people, injured 8,000 others, and toppled or damaged 85,000 houses, leaving more than 100,000 homeless.

Natou, Taichung and Changhua counties, all in central Taiwan, were the hardest hit areas. Less-severely affected districts included Taipei City and County in northern Taiwan.

As the first stage of rescue and rehabilitation is nearing completion, the nation now turns to reconstruction of devastated communities and psychological rehabilitation of people in the stricken areas. Master Sheng Yen was one of the first advocates who called for psychological rehabilitation for quake survivors.

He said material losses can be replaced, crumbled houses can be rebuilt, and damage can be repaired in a relatively short period of time. But quake trauma inflicted on people will last for a long time. In some serious cases, the trauma may accompany them for the rest of their lives if untreated, he warned.

Psychiatrists, social workers and experts in other related fields must work together to assist these people as quickly as possible. Religion, such as Buddhism, can also play a very important role in helping them.

Buddhism, which emphasizes wisdom and compassion, is a great curing force in helping these people repel the trauma from their minds. By regaining a peaceful mind, Master Sheng Yen said, people will be able to live in peace and contentment.

Buddhist groups, such as Tzu Chi, Fukuangshan and the DDM have been highly praised for their timely and effective relief work. The DDM was among the first Buddhist groups to extend a helping hand to quake victims.

As soon as news of the disaster was broadcast, the DDM immediately decided to donate NT$5 million for relief. That donation was followed by a contribution from funds set aside for construction of the DDM spiritual study complex. Master Sheng Yeng said the contribution may postpone the construction project a little, but relief should be the top priority.

In addition the DDM quickly set up relief stations in quake-stricken areas to better help victims. A donation system was also established at DDM branches islandwide to accept money and relief goods from followers and the general public. DDM personnel and volunteers were also sent to central Taiwan to support the activities of the stations.

The main tasks of these stations were: to offer relief materials, to comfort the suffering people, and to hold Buddhist ritual for the deceased.

Just hours after the temblor struck, Master Sheng Yen visited a disaster site in Hsinchuang in Taipei County. He said he was shocked by the tragic sight: many people were killed, many were injured, many were trapped in fallen buildings, and many were crying for help. He then ordered the DDM to do all it could to help the victims.

Over the next few days, Sheng Yen went to visit more disaster sites in central Taiwan to meet with victims. He also gave instructions to DDM relief stations on how to best help them.

To encourage and comfort people in stricken areas, Master Sheng Yen told them:
"People who died in the quake are Buddhas because they died for the 22 million people on Taiwan. Their death has saved the future generation." He also called them teachers "because they have taught us a less with their own lives as the teaching materials."

"We should have hope because we are alive. We should be grateful to them and strive for rebirth in postquake reconstruction," he urged.

To implement psychological rehabilitation, the DDM launched a campaign known as the "Easing the Mind" program to help people recover from quake trauma. Under this program, three "Easing the Mind" service stations will be set up in central Taiwan --- one in Tungshih in Taichung County, and one each in Puli and Chushan, both in Nantou County.

A DDM official said that so far more than 500 followers and volunteers have completed training for work under the program. They will be sent to the three stations later this month. Their main jobs include reciting Buddhist scriptures, practicing "chan" meditation, and providing relief information for people in the disaster areas.

Another program is the issuance of a pamphlet entitled "At Ease DIY", which outlines a do-it-yourself approach to achieving a peaceful mind by getting rid of quake trauma. Up to now, some one million copies of the pamphlet have been distributed to students, teachers, parents and others in affected areas.

Master Sheng Yeng said the two above-mentioned and other programs under the DDM plan will be very helpful. Satisfactory results will be achieved after all of them are implemented, he said.

As the government and the people are busily engaged in post-quake rehabilitation, to help people have a peaceful mind is very important. A happy and harmonious society lies not in material things, but rather in a peaceful mind of the people, he stressed. "If everybody has a peaceful mind, a happy and harmonious society will emerge naturally," he concluded.

In mainland China, the nation estimates some 5 million mainland Chinese are loyal to the Pope but must practice that their religious underground. John Paul urged them never to "allow hardship and sorrow to diminish your devotion to Christ."

Mao Zendong offered Communist China revolution; Deng Xiaoping offered the Chinese riches.

But mainland China today has no driving vision, leaving a large spiritual gap through which the mass movement Falun Gong has burst to threaten the very authority of the communist party.

That is why, political analysts say, the government has sustained a ferocious crackdown against a sect which has attracted ordinary Chinese in their millions.

In the search for reasons behind the popularity of Falun Gong, many analysts point to current President Jiang Zemin's less-than-inspiring guiding vision: "The Three Stresses."

At a time when many Chinese are adrift in a sea of change, fretting about their jobs, health care and education of their children, Jiang is exhorting the nation to "stress theoretical study, political consciousness and healthy trends."

Analysts say it is this emptiness of modern Chinese Communism, and failed attempts by the government to define a new legitimacy, which lie behind an explosion of new cults and religions, and explain the ferocity of the crackdown.

Above all, they point to the figure of Jiang, who has little of charisma of Mao or Deng, the two outstanding "helmsmen" of communist China in the 20th century.

"Even party and state officials have no time for the political message in the 'three stresses' campaign," said one Western envoy.

"I don't think they believe that Falun Gong is a severe ideological threat to them, that people will be converted from communism to Falun Gong. But he added: "The moral basis for party rule is in fact very slight indeed". In that sense, Falun Gong holds a mirror to what some see as the Chinese Communist Party's growing self doubt.

The Communist Party's sledgehammer response to the Falun Gong spiritual movement is rooted in a deep understanding of the chaos that can suddenly appear when ruling dynasties lose their moral underpinnings, or the "mandate of heaven."

In 1850, a great rebellion grew from similar conditions of social and economic upheaval, as the last Imperial Ching dynasty of China collapsed under corruption, mismanagement, and aggressive encroachment by colonial powers.

It is estimated that more people were killed in the 14 years of the Taiping Rebellion than in any war before World War Two.

"The Taiping rebellion sprang from the same problems of poverty, alienation, corruption and collapse in authority," a second Western envoy in Beijing said.

"The situation isn't as bad now as it was in the 1850s, but still the root causes of the Taiping rebellion are remarkably similar to the Falun Gong," the diplomat said.

It is a deep irony that the Taiping was admired by the founding fathers of the Chinese Communist Party as one of the great pre-socialist popular rebellions.

But the government is itself now straining to maintain social stability as it radically reforms a command economy to pull its people into a freer market system --- still led by Communist principles.

Falun Gong, a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and exercises, was designed by its reclusive, comfortably well-off U.S-based founder Li Hongzhi as a form of salvation from a world he preaches is corrupted, and decadence.

Claiming millions of members in mainland China, the movement first stunned the Beijing leadership when more than 10,000 emerged without warning in April to sit silently protesting outside the leadership's own Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing.

Last week, Beijing declared the movement an illegal cult, and legislation was passed at the weekend that promises jail terms for its organizers.

Dozens of leaders had already been detained and trials are expected to start soon.

Two decades of economic reform have eroded the strict moral codes and control of the days of founding Chairman Mao Zedong.

Tens of millions live in poverty. Corruption is rife. The wealth gap is growing fast. Once-guaranteed jobs may vanish tomorrow. Once free education and medical mow coast money.

Many members say they are drawn to Falun Gong because, apart from the physical benefits from its meditation and exercise practices, it gives them a moral framework for life.

It is not the first time the Communist Party has gone all out to destroy what it sees as a rival for the loyalty of the people.

In the years after sweeping to power in 1949, the Communists unleashed a terror against secret societies, religious sects and gangs that competed with them for popular support.

They banned the popular Yiguan Dao as a cult and executed dozens of its priests accused of helping the Japanese invaders and the defeated Nationalists, who moved to Taiwan after losing a civil war to Mao's Red Army.

The Communist Party sees Falun Gong as an even greater threat than the banned opposition China Democracy Party (CDP).

"Whether it's labor unions or the CDP, any group which has the ability to organize is potentially a threat to the authorities," the second Western diplomat said.

To the Communists, the CDP is less of a threat because it is largely a group of pro-democracy activists with no clear aim beyond rehabilitation of demonstrators arrested when the army crushed a student-led protest in 1989, also in Tiananmen Square.

The CDP is not known to have organized mass protests. Falun Gong, however, has mounted more than 300 since April.

Said an Asian diplomat: "The Communist Party has always been very uncomfortable with any organization that is outside its control."

It is too much tolerance to handle the human rights in mainland China, who dare to say the "frank protest" over the issues of so-called "internal affair" under Beijing authority?

Chinese needs your help.