Sogyal Rinpoche - Tibetan Buddhist teacher under the magnifying glass of skeptics

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The second person in world Buddhism after the Dalai Lama was convicted of sexual abuse, keeping a harem and spending donations on alcohol and tobacco.

The inhabitants of the planet, rushing about in search of moral guidelines and spiritual mentors, are terrified - a wave of high-profile revelations demolishes those who have sometimes been considered examples of virtue for decades.

Friend and ally of the Dalai Lama

Disappointed in everything in the world went to Tibet, dreaming to learn the truth under the guidance of shaking off the dust of all worldly lamas.

But Buddhism has not kept its purity either. One of the most famous teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, Sogyal Rinpoche, turned out to be a rapist and a sexual pervert.

A native of Eastern Tibet, Sogyal Rinpoche was a member of the Dalai Lama's entourage for decades, and in the early 1970s became one of the organizers of his first visit to Europe.

Sogyal Rinpoche began teaching in Europe in the mid-1970s. Having established the Rigpa organization in 1979, he began to open Buddhist centers in major cities in the United States and Western Europe.

The Book of Life and the Practice of Dying: How Sogyal Rinpoche Became a Star

Sogyal Rinpoche became one of the largest figures in world Buddhism after the publication in 1992 of The Book of Life and Practice of Dying. The work, to which the Dalai Lama personally wrote the foreword, became a bestseller. The author managed to present the spiritual teachings of the East in a form that turned out to be easily understandable for Europeans and Americans.

The Book of Life and the Practice of Dying has been translated into more than 30 languages and published in more than 60 countries around the world.

Sogyal Rinpoche created the Tibetan equivalent of The Divine Comedy. One can imagine that this is what Dante would write if he were not a Christian poet, but a Buddhist metaphysician,”wrote the New York Times about the book.

He has become a world star. Director Bernardo Bertolucci filmed him in one of the roles in the film "Little Buddha". His organization has grown to more than 130 Buddhist centers and communities in three dozen countries around the world. It was an honor for billionaires, presidents, music and film stars to meet with Sogyal Rinpoche. In 2008, he opened the largest Buddhist temple in Europe in France together with the country's first lady, Carla Bruni.

The disciples expose

In 2017, Sogyal Rinpoche turned 70. The gift for the anniversary turned out to be quite unexpected - his closest students posted a letter on the Internet, in which they accused the guru of greed, a thirst for power and money, and most importantly, of forcing him to have sex and direct sexual violence.

In the first weeks after the letter appeared, many followers of Sogyal Rinpoche defended him, accusing the students of ingratitude and lack of understanding of the essence of the teachings.

But soon the accusations made by the students began to be supported by such facts that the supporters of the author of The Book of Life and the Practice of Dying were forced to shut up.

Sogyal Rinpoche left the post of head of his organization, and the Dalai Lama actually disowned him. The journalists recalled that there was already one bad story in the teacher's biography. Back in 1994, a lawsuit was brought against him, in which Sogyal Rinpoche was accused of involving female students in sexual relations. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and this story was forgotten.

I thought it was a blessing

Now it turns out that the master of Tibetan practitioners was a voluptuary throughout his biography.

New Yorker Victoria Barlow tells reporters that she was still a child when Sogyal Rinpoche began to molest her in 1976. “I was shocked, but then I thought it was a blessing,” she admits. A resident of Great Britain, who does not give her name, admitted that she had an intimate relationship with a guru for seven years. At the same time, she knew that Sogyal Rinpoche had at least three regular girls with whom he slept, and, in addition, there were a lot of those with whom he was close only once.

Journalist Mary Finnigan, who once worked with and glorified the guru, now reveals that she knew very well about his antics. According to her, Sogyal Rinpoche's sexual appetite demanded that he constantly have a harem of girls around him, ready for anything. Beating was part of Sogyal Rinpoche's training. He could easily hit one of the disciples on the head with a statue of Buddha. They did not pay attention to this at all - violence for educational purposes on the part of the teacher is considered acceptable by many Buddhists.

"Spiritual closeness" through intimate communication

But elite alcohol and Cuban cigars, which the guru always had at hand, is not exactly what you expect to see in a person who has reached a high stage of enlightenment. Especially if all this is purchased with donations from followers. It is said that Sogyal Rinpoche shamelessly took expensive gadgets from wealthy students. They did not argue, considering this to be part of the path to truth.

The guru was not original. It is known that many sect leaders force their followers to have sex, explaining to them that in this way they achieve "spiritual intimacy with the teacher." Sogyal Rinpoche told the ladies exactly the same thing, forcing them to enter into an intimate relationship with him. Some people today say that the guru simply raped them. The Rigpa leadership engaged the independent law firm Lewis Silkin in an investigation to find out if the allegations were true. The report did not leave a stone unturned on the reputation of Rinpoche - he beat, humiliated, raped followers, grabbed the guys by the genitals and did a lot of other things that would lose the balance and calmness of the Buddha himself.

In recent years, the already middle-aged teacher surrounded a whole group of young girls whom he called "dakinis". Besides the fact that some of them had to have sex with him, Rinpoche forced them to wipe his ass after using the toilet and take chewed food from mouth to mouth.

He was misunderstood

It is unlikely that Sogyal Rinpoche will end up behind bars. He is now 71 years old and suffers from colon cancer. Explaining everything that happened, he wrote that all his actions were aimed at "awakening the true nature of the disciples." However, according to Sogyal Rinpoche, “not everyone understood his“good intentions”correctly. Admitting that his "teaching methods" were not suitable for everyone, the guru apologized to those whom they had humiliated and insulted.

Well, at least he apologized. Now is the time for Sogyal Rinpoche to visit high-ranking Catholic priests convicted of pedophilia. It seems that they will have many common topics for conversations on the eve of eternity.