To bring Suma Ching Hai into focus, imagine Martha Stewart as the Dalai Lama. The Supreme Master, 46, is an elegant hostess--and clever merchandiser. At a vegetarian dinner with a TIME correspondent last week in Alhambra, California, she wore a bright yellow dress that she designed herself--embroidered with the Supreme Master monogram (SM) and available to followers by catalog. When she gestured with her hands, she flashed gold and diamond rings with the SM design, part of her Celestial Jewelry collection--available by catalog as well. (Also for sale: Celestial purses, hats, gold dinnerware, chopsticks, inspirational videos, floor lamps.) A petite woman with long, dark brown hair that cascades past her shoulders, the Supreme Master is passionate, earthy (she says she needs a husband) and more fun than the average saint. "Of course I'm divine," she says, laughing. "But so are you."
At the moment, Suma Ching Hai is more than divine: she is controversial. Late last year, officials of Bill Clinton's legal-defense fund rather shamefacedly disclosed that they had returned a donation of more than $600,000 from the followers of the Taiwan-based mystic, adding to the President's "Asian money" scandal. Nevertheless, the Supreme Master remains a fervent Clintonite. "The poor man," she says, erupting in his defense. "You must respect his office. How can he solve America's problems if he is distracted? He's in debt. He's a suspect. This is terrible." She knows what it feels like to be investigated: the Taiwan government is looking into alleged "fund-raising improprieties" by her sect, including the transfer of $2 million out of the country.
Scandal-plagued politicians are not the only objects of Suma Ching Hai's charity. Whenever there is a natural disaster, she is there--with money. She says she has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims of the 1993 Mississippi River floods and to survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing. "Before we enter the spiritual world, we are in the mundane world," she says. "If the Buddha isn't a helpful Buddha, he is a boring Buddha. He is a useless Buddha."
The core of Suma Ching Hai's teachings is what she calls Quan Yin meditation. It involves no chanting, no mantras, but a "contemplation of the inner sound stream," as her disciple and U.S. spokesperson Pamela Millar describes it. The Supreme Master's lectures are laced with Taoist, Buddhist and Christian references (she likes the Bible verse "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.") She denies she is an incarnation of the Chinese goddess of mercy. Still, her publications and Website always capitalize pronouns that refer to her. Suma Ching Hai simply says she is enlightened and that "there are certain things that I know."