This is a guest post from someone who had an ‘enlightening’ experience at Lerab Ling. It’s anonymous, but none-the-less truthful. The author simply doesn’t want to open themselves up to abuse. This person’s experience shows the attitude at the core of the Rigpa organisation towards to issue of Sogyal’s abuse.
I wrote the following after visiting Lerab Ling last September. I chose not to publish it at that time as I wanted to give Rigpa the chance to “do the right thing” in responding to the report that had recently been published upholding the abuse allegations against Sogyal Rinpoche. I am sharing it now for two reasons. Firstly, nine months have gone by without Rigpa accepting the testimonies in the report as true. Secondly, via a third party I received a message that Vinciane Rycroft of the Rigpa “Vision Board” had requested I share what happened when I was there. I have chosen to do this publicly rather than privately as I feel it would be more beneficial.
Lerab Ling open day
I decided to take a week out to travel from
around Montpellier in France down to north-east Spain, where I was to go on a
Salvador Dali-related pilgrimage. Through the wonders of Google I discovered
that the Buddhist centre at Lerab Ling, in a lovely location near Montpellier,
was having an open weekend at that time, where one could even stay overnight.
Although I have some Buddhist friends, I had never been anywhere like that in
my life, so I booked a night.
However, between booking and arriving I saw
news in the press about the report of the independent investigation into the
abuse allegations about Sogyal Rinpoche, which made pretty shocking reading. So
I hoped that while I was there I might get some insights into how they were
feeling about it.
When I arrived, they explained that there
was an organised retreat going on (the nature of which no one would tell me)
but that there were also private retreatants staying and said I was welcome to
join them for a meditation class in the morning. Having never tried meditation,
I immediately agreed.
A meditation class
After breakfast, I gathered with others
outside the impressive temple. The class was in an upstairs room in the temple
with a vista of the woods. A picture of the Dalai Lama was prominently
displayed, as it was in the temple below (I saw no images of Sogyal Rinpoche there).
I was pleased to be allowed to meditate from a chair as I’m not good
cross-legged.
The class was led by Sinsi Ong, who, from
his bio
on the Lerab Ling website seems to be one of the regular meditation
teachers. I recognised him from dinner the night before, where I had seen him
engaged in lengthy and intense conversation with some retreatants, who seemed
to be listening closely to him.
I enjoyed the class and the meditation.
Sinsi encouraged us to ask questions and whilst meditating I felt strongly that
I would like to have a conversation with him. So afterwards I waited while he
patiently and clearly explained to one of the private retreatants the
difference between “self-cherishing” and simply being egotistical, which made
me feel even more sure he was a good person to discuss my first meditation
experience with.
Broaching the topic of abuse
We then spoke about that for a while and,
since he seemed happy to talk, I broached the subject of what I had read in the
press and asked him what he thought about it. He started by saying that
“something had clearly gone wrong”, that people had been harmed and that they
needed to look at how this had happened.
I recounted that the previous night I had
been chatting to a German student who was on the main retreat, who called
Sogyal Rinpoche “my teacher”. When I asked if he was still her teacher she had
gone silent and blanked me. Sinsi explained that some people couldn’t accept it
and were very closed: he tried to talk with them, but in the end he had to
respect that where they were was different from where he was.
I asked him how he personally viewed Sogyal
Rinpoche and he replied with a Japanese word, which he said meant “a riddle” –
in terms of weighing up what he had done versus the benefit of his teachings. He
told me they viewed it as an opportunity for learning.
He said that Sogyal was his teacher but had
retired and was now on retreat. I asked if Sogyal was still his teacher, in the
sense of receiving teachings. He didn’t reply. I tried asking more directly if
Sogyal was still teaching in some way. He did not reply.
In terms of the meditation classes, he
said, “People are begging us to continue with the classes. They say, “We know things have happened but please
don’t stop.” That’s the reason that I stay and continue.”
Attitude towards those who broke the silence
Then came something I really hadn’t
expected.
“Anyway,” he added with a shrug, “These
people were arseholes.”
“Who?” I asked, “The people who wrote the
letter?”
“YES!! They were arseholes!”
I must admit, it was not a word or an
attitude I had expected to come from the person who had been patiently and
peacefully leading me through my first meditation a short time before. He went
on to explain that everybody at Lerab Ling considered them to be problem
people. He said that talking with them had made him feel shame because of the
things they said and their wrong ideas.
“Even the monastics?” I asked.
“YES!!”
I pointed out that to take up precepts as a
nun or monk was a huge commitment, a bigger commitment, surely, than he himself
had ever made. He replied that it had taken him years to see monastics as not being
perfect. That was clearly not a problem any more.
I mentioned that many of the people he
referred to were key helpers or leaders. He replied, “You can’t always get good
people,” adding that you just have to put up with what you have.
In Tibet it’s normal for students to be hit
He stressed that all the letter writers had
problems with learning Sogyal Rinpoche’s teachings and went on to discuss at length
the fact that in Tibet it is normal for students to be hit and said that they
need it. He told me how Tibetan teachers throw stones at students, but what
they are doing is hitting their chakra points, like in their forehead, to open
their minds. I replied that punching someone hard in the stomach, as had been
described, is not anything beneficial. He answered, “There’s a chakra point in
the stomach!” with great relish, as if it cleverly settled that argument.
I discussed a personal story about a teacher
I liked very much in secondary school who, after 4 years, hit me. It didn’t
help me at all, it just made me feel sorry for him, that he had lowered himself
to doing that, and it made me lose my respect for him and my trust in him.
Sinsi nodded but did not reply to this.
I argued that surely if this method of
hitting people worked, then one should see results: an improvement, not just
suffering. If a teacher hit somebody 10 times, without any beneficial effect
then surely that wasn’t working? Is he supposed to hit them 20 times, 50 times?
Sinsi did not answer.
So I said “One of the witnesses in the
report was hit over 200 times: surely it was therefore not working?”
He replied, smiling, “I don’t know. I can’t
say.” as if this was just a mystery of Buddhist wisdom.
Minimising the issue
Sinsi pointed out that Rigpa itself had
commissioned the report – which was evidence of their good intentions. He kept
talking about the witnesses in the report as “these 20 people” in a manner
which implied that this was the total number of people who had ever had a
problem with Sogyal Rinpoche, as opposed to the ones who had been brave enough
to talk. I also found it interesting that he (or someone) had counted them.
More than once he stated that Sogyal
Rinpoche had apologised, but I have not since come across anything that could
be described as an apology – in the conventional sense of recognising what you
did wrong and then saying sorry.
Culturally subjective ethics
Sinsi talked about the limitations of
thinking in terms of “good or bad”, arguing that morality and ethics were
culturally subjective and varied from one place to another. So, I asked if it
would be OK for a teacher to kill someone.
His reply was to tell the story of “Captain
Super Compassionate” – a previous incarnation of Buddha – killing a man on his boat who he had realised
would was going to kill all 500 passengers. Not only did he do good by saving
their lives but he also prevented that man from going to hell as a result of
committing murder. Captain Super Compassionate still suffered for doing it, but
it was with good intention and he was taking the bad karma on himself – so it
was a kind of compassionate self-sacrifice to kill the man. I tried to say that
the same could be said of people who reluctantly fight in war to protect
others, but he insisted it could not be applied because their intention was not
pure. (I failed to see why Captain Super
Compassionate didn’t simply tie up or lock up the bad man, rather than killing
him, but didn’t say this.)
So Sinsi’s reply to the question of whether
it was OK for teachers to kill people was a story of justifiable homicide. When
I pushed him further on the subject of ethics, his manner changed, as if
realising he may have gone too far and he pointed out that Rigpa had now drawn
up an ethical code and stressed, “There is no place for abuse at Lerab Ling.”
This sounded like a rehearsed statement and flatly contradicted the opinions he
had expressed just moments before.
He argued that Sogyal came from Tibet, so
would naturally have the mindset from that culture. I pointed out that Sogyal
had left Tibet as a child and had actually spent the vast majority of his life
in the West, so surely he should understand Western culture very well. I cited
that I had lived abroad for 7 years and soon learned the different cultural
norms in terms of behaviour and did not have a big problem adapting. Sinsi did
not reply to this.
I brought up the necessity of abiding by
the laws in the countries where you are. I mentioned the answer Jesus gave,
when asked about whether people should obey the invaders – the Romans – which
was, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and render to God what is God’s.”:
meaning that whilst honouring your beliefs, you must also behave according to
the law of the land. Sinsi seemed reluctant to agree with this.
Women enjoyed the sex
Instead, he began telling me that plenty of
women really enjoyed having sex with Sogyal and were happy to do so. I replied
that most rapists have also had conventional, consensual sexual relations. He visibly
bristled at this.
“Let’s not go too far,” he said, “The
report doesn’t say anything about rape.” I explained that I wasn’t referring to
Sogyal Rinpoche, just making the general point that a person may have
consensual sex and yet also be a rapist. He visibly reacted when I mentioned
the word “rapist” again.
It comes down to karma
Referring to those who complained of being
abused, Sinsi commented, “They were free to go any time they wanted. But they
stayed. Why didn’t they go?” I asked him if he
would simply go if there was something he didn’t like or if he would persevere.
He said he would stay because of the benefit. So I suggested that the same
thing might have happened to these people: despite being unhappy, they stayed
in the hope that things would improve and/or because they didn’t want to throw
everything away. It is a lot to walk away from after many years of commitment.
He stressed again that they were free to go.
He summed up by saying that “It comes down
to karma”. It was the karma of those people, he explained, what happened to
them, either to do with something in this life or past ones.
Following his lead, I replied, “I see. So
if that’s the case, then what is happening to you now and to everybody here is
YOUR karma.” He sort of winced, whilst nodding. I went on, “And what has
happened to Sogyal Rinpoche is HIS karma.”
He seemed reluctant to look at it like that
but didn’t argue back. He told me that he had things to do and left.
NOTE: If anybody in Rigpa wishes to communicate with me about this, I can be reached via the person Vinciane Rycroft contacted about it.
How do you feel about this?
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