the altar." Although this practice follows logically from the concept of the Supreme Deity, one cannot help thinking, bearing in mind that no temple in Chinese religion, whether at present or in the past, is devoted to one deity alone, that this must have been the result of Lo's Protestant up-bringing.
iii. Human destiny
According to Tan Tse Tao, man's final destiny is to return to the Supreme Deity after death.24 This immediately brings up a number of questions with regard to the human constitution. Is there life after death? Do such places as heaven or hell exist? What sort of union with the Supreme Deity is envisaged?
First of all, Patriarch Lo recognizes the separate existence of the body and of the soul. “If the body functions but the soul is dead, that person is really dead even though his body is alive; if the body is dead but the soul exists, he is really alive even though his body is dead.”25 Indeed, the soul has three destinies. If a man's deeds are good, he goes up to heaven and may even become a god after death. If his deeds are evil, he goes below ground and becomes a ghost. If his deeds are neither good nor bad, he becomes a wandering soul,26
Given this belief in the existence of the soul after death and notions of reward and punishment, the belief in the existence of a heavenly paradise and hell becomes unavoidable. Tan Tse Tao recognizes this fact, but it tries hard to avoid crude notions of sensual gratification in heaven and of instruments of torture in hell.27
Perhaps the more intriguing and difficult question is one about the nature of the union with the Supreme Deity. Will the identity of an individual be lost and the individual be merged with the Absolute in the final destiny or will the soul retain its individuality? Patriarch Lo did not discuss this problem in his writings. According to informants, the correct interpretation is that the soul retains its individuality. This is in keeping with the practice of keeping an altar in memory of dead disciples.28