[17] Just after 1584 several warnings were presented to the throne, against the influence of Luoism linking it to the earlier White Lotus movement, a label which by that time had become a derogatory designation used by official historians to demonise religious groups considered heretical by the established orthodoxy.

[20] Documents produced by the Buddhist establishment condemning Luoists testify the activity in the late 16th century of the branches known as Great Vehicles (大乘 Dacheng)[g] and Timeless (无年 Wunian)[h] Luoism.

[25] She founded a branch named Sudden Stillness (圆頓 Yuandun)[i] which by the late Ming dynasty no longer claimed connection to Luo's wife.

[33] Records of the late 18th century testify the contribution of three persons surnamed Qiang, Wen and Pan, to the diffusion of the religion in southeast China.

[38] He became the leader of a Luoist group and reformed it into the Venerable Officials' teaching of fasting (老官斋教 Lǎoguān zhāijiào), which in later centuries gave rise to the Xiantiandao.

[39] Yin Ji'nan organised his movement into a hierarchy and integrated the belief of Maitreyanism, the Wusheng Laomu and the Three Suns eschatology within the original Luoist doctrines[40] through the influence of a Hunyuan sect.

[41] Years after Yin's death, Yao Wenyu (1578-1646) rose as the leader of the religion with strong opposition from other influential members, although he greatly expanded the sect's empire.

[45] Another important indirect branching is that started by Sun Zhenkong, claiming to be the fourth patriarch after Qin Dongshan and Master Zhao, a disciple of Luo who founded and independent group called Wujidao (无极道 "Way of the Unlimited").

[46] Patriarch Sun incorporated the theology of Maitreya and Wusheng Laomu just half a century after the death of Luo and called his group the Namodao (南無道).

[49] Zhenkongdao (真空道 "Way of the True Void")[m] founded in Anhui in the 1860s, is another Luoist branch promoting sitting meditation, healing, and scriptures recitation.

[52] At the age of twenty-eight, for his distressful sentiment of forlornness,[53] he went on a spiritual quest and studied with several teachers,[54] although he was unable to establish permanent relationships.

[55] Only at the age of forty, apparently without a direct guidance of a teacher,[56] he reached enlightenment:[57] awareness to be united with the absolute principle of reality.

[59] Written in a lucid vernacular language, Luo's texts are characterised by an egalitarian tone, erasing differences between lay and clergy, upper and lower classes, and men and women.

[71] Other symbols of the source of being, also common to other traditions, are Wújí (the "Unlimited"), Zhēn (真 "Truth", "True Reality"), Gǔfú (古佛 "Ancient Awakened").

[72] These symbols are commonly combined in sect's precious scrolls to express the impersonal absolute origin according to the tastes of different social groups.

[75] However, he also talks of Holy Patriarch of the Unlimited (无极圣祖 Wújí Shèngzǔ)[76] and of the mother as a duality, the Eternal Parents (無生父母 Wúshēng Fùmǔ).

Given the crucial role that meditation plays in the "Book of the Dragon Flower" (龍華經) as the way to salvation, it is evident that for the initiate the Native Place was not to be sought in some other worlds but within oneself through the realization of one’s true nature.

[88] Early Luoist sects emphasized the importance of finding a enlightened master to transmit the way of salvation, an initiation ritual to open the mysterious door (玄關).