The Tibetan lama, whose violent outbursts include punching a nun in public, stands accused of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at his Rigpa organisation and using his teachings to shame and blame his victims
In August last year, Sogyal Rinpoche, the Tibetan lama whose book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (1992) has sold more than three million copies around the world, and made him probably the best known Tibetan Buddhist teacher after the Dalai Lama, gave his annual teaching at his French centre, Lerab Ling.
Sogyal’s organisation, Rigpa – a Tibetan word meaning the “essential nature of mind” – has more than 100 centres in 40 countries, but Lerab Ling, situated in rolling countryside in L’Hérault, is the jewel in the crown. Boasting what is said to be the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in the West, it was formally opened in 2008 by the Dalai Lama, with Carla Bruni Sarkozy, then France’s first lady, and a host of other dignitaries in attendance.