Sogyal Rinpoche
Buddhist lama who spectacularly fell from grace after allegations of sexual abuse and profligacy
SOGYAL LAKAR, known as Sogyal Rinpoche, who has died aged 72, was a Tibetan Buddhist lama whose book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, made him, after the Dalai Lama, perhaps the most globally recognised Buddhist teacher. Published in 1994, and notionally based on an ancient mortuary text known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Sogyal’s book provided a readily accessible introduction to the Buddhist teachings on a happy life and good death. The growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, largely through the activities of the Dalai Lama, and the rise of the hospice movement and a more open discussion about “how we die”, made the book extremely timely.
Clinicians and psychologists applauded it for the comfort it offered to the terminally ill, and the actor and comedian John Cleese described it as “one of the most helpful books I have ever read”. It went on to sell more than three million copies around the world, making Sogyal something of a spiritual celebrity and enabling him to establish teaching centres in America, Europe and Australia.
But he was later engulfed in allegations of sexual and physical abuse against his followers that would lead to his downfall. A man once celebrated as one of the most eminent and skilful exponents of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings became instead a symbol of the perils that may arise when Westerners fall in thrall to esoteric spiritual teachings which they may not fully understand, and when Eastern teachers are exposed to the glamour and temptations of celebrity worship.
Sonam Gyaltsen Lakar (Sogyal is a contraction of his first two names) was born in 1947 into a wealthy family of traders in the region of Kham in eastern Tibet. Little is known about his father, but when Sogyal was six months old his mother put him in the care of her sister, Khandro Tsering Chodron, who was the young consort – or spiritual wife – of an eminent Tibetan lama, Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, who became Sogyal’s effective guardian.
In 1955 the family fled from the invading Chinese army to Kalimpong in West Bengal, where Sogyal was educated at a Catholic primary school, St Augustine’s. Jamyang Khyentse died when Sogyal was about 10 or 11, and his education continued at an Anglican school, St Stephen’s College in Delhi. In 1971 he arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking a course in religious studies, although he never got a degree.
Sogyal was an exotic presence; a Tibetan who could speak fluent English and seemed to know what he was talking about, even if he had not been exposed to the intensive monastic studies usually required for a lama. Assuming the honorific Rinpoche (it means “precious one”), Sogyal set himself up as a teacher in the Vajrayana, or tantric, tradition – a deeply esoteric aspect of Tibetan Buddhism, through which, it is believed, a student can unshackle the
chains of ego and attain enlightenment in a single lifetime – “the helicopter to the top of the mountain”, as Sogyal put it.
At that time there were only four Tibetan lamas living in Britain – three of them in Scotland at the Samye Ling centre. There were no centres in London. Sogyal’s first teachings were conducted in a North London squat. But his following rapidly grew, and he was able to establish his first centre in London with the help of a £100,000 donation from a well-known comedy actor.
Sogyal adopted an unorthodox, often jokey, teaching style, but he was a compelling orator with an ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand and convey the Buddhist teachings in a clear and understandable way. The combination of his personal charisma – a purveyor of ancient wisdom in touch with the modern world – and the mystique of Tibetan Buddhism proved a potent lure for new followers.
The Tibetan Book of Living and
Dying was based on his oral teachings, although much of the actual writing was done by Patrick Gaffney, one of his students, and the author Andrew Harvey. The book made Sogyal a celebrity. He appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s film Little Buddha, and travelled the world, establishing new centres. His organisation Rigpa – a Tibetan word meaning the essential nature of mind – would eventually number more than 100 centres in 40 countries.
But the first storm clouds were already gathering. Sogyal was not a monk, and there was theoretically no prohibition on him marrying or having carnal relations. But his sexual
conduct was becoming a cause of increasing controversy in Buddhist circles – not least his surrounding himself with an effective harem of young women, whom Sogyal described as his “dakinis” – a Tibetan term meaning spiritual muse.
In 1994, an American student using the legal pseudonym Janice Doe brought a suit against Sogyal, alleging that using the justification of his spiritual status he had sexually and physically abused her, turning her against her husband and family.
The case was settled quietly out of court. And in an age before the internet, most readers of The Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying remained happily oblivious of any hint of scandal; his reputation as a teacher remained unscathed.
In 2008 his centre in France, Lerab Ling (it means Sanctuary of Enlightened Action), boasting what is said to be the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in the West, was formally opened by the Dalai Lama, with Carla Bruni Sarkozy, then France’s first lady, and a host of other dignitaries in attendance.
The offerings provided by his growing following maintained Sogyal in a lifestyle of profligate extravagance. At Lerab Ling he lived in a chalet, decorated with cedar wood panels, which overlooked his own heated swimming pool. There was a giant television on which he enjoyed watching his favourite American action movies. In the “lama kitchen”, attendants were available day and night to provide his favourite dishes at a moment’s notice.
Sogyal’s sybaritic lifestyle was kept hidden from the thousands of visitors who would attend his retreats and teachings, but stories of his sexual excesses and authoritarian behaviour began to percolate on to the internet.
In 2011 Mary Finnigan, an English author and former student, published a document Behind The Thangkas, claiming that there was a group within Rigpa known as Lama Care, set up specifically to make sure that women were available for sex with him wherever he travelled, and that “dakinis” had been pressurised against their will to take part in orgies.
In 2015 the President of Rigpa France, Olivier Raurich, resigned, explaining in an interview to the French magazine Marianne that “I had come for teachings on humility, love, truth, and trust, and I found myself in a quasi-stalinist environment and permanent doubletalk”.
Sogyal, he said, “did not hesitate to brutally silence and ridicule people in meetings. Critical thinking is prohibited around him. Negative feedback never reaches him – only praise is reported because people in the close circle are afraid of him.” The following year a French academic, Marion Dapsance, published a book, Les dévots du bouddhisme, containing further allegations of abuse, and the “cult-like” behaviour of Sogyal’s inner circle.
In 2017 matters came to a head when a group of senior and long-standing devotees, among them an Australian nun who had served as his personal attendant, wrote a letter to Sogyal accusing him of a catalogue of transgressions including serial sexual coercion and abuse and physical violence which had left “monks, nuns, and lay people students of yours with bloody injuries and permanent scars”.
Sogyal, it went on, had led a “lavish, gluttonous and sybaritic lifestyle”, which had been kept secret from the large body of his followers, and financed by donations by students “who believe their offering is being used to further wisdom and compassion in the world”.
Copied to the Dalai Lama, and Sogyal’s most senior devotees, the letter quickly went viral, shaking the foundation of Rigpa to the core. While the Dalai Lama had frequently condemned unethical behaviour among Buddhist teachers, and urged students to speak out against it, he had never specifically commented on Sogyal by name. But following the release of the letter he publicly referred to Sogyal being “disgraced” – an acknowledgement of the scandal that, in the Buddhist community, was tantamount to excommunication.
Just a few days after the Dalai Lama’s remarks, Sogyal announced that he was “retiring” as spiritual director of Rigpa, citing the “turbulence” the allegations around him had caused. He retreated to Thailand, where he had been receiving treatment for colon cancer before his death.
Sogyal Rinpoche, born 1947, died August 28 2019