An investigative documentary on Sogyal Lakar aka Rinpoche will be aired on Vision TV in Canada on 23 May. It will also be on Bold TV in Canada. Deals with broadcasters in the USA, France and Australia are pending. The programme will be on a web site which for legal reasons is only accessible in Canada. I will receive a disc of the item soon and am willing to arrange viewings in the UK.

What happened with Sogyal, do you know? His book was hugely influential. Did it just go to his head or was he unable to live up to the level needed to be popular and run a Buddhist organization?

@Jah. Sogyal was an insatiable womaniser from puberty. Maybe before. He is a spoiled brat who exploits his power over women. He is a sadist who enjoys beating people and humiliating them in public. He is a charlatan who was never trained as a lama. He is a liar -- he did not write The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. It was ghosted for him by Patrick Gaffney and Andrew Harvey. He is a con man who heads up a multi national organisation which purports to teach Buddhism but is in fact a business designed solely to make money. There is more, but I think that will do for now.

So the two individuals you mention knowingly conspired to write the book and launch a career for Sogyal and themselves?

(quote)So the two individuals you mention knowingly conspired to write the book and launch a career for Sogyal and themselves?(unquote)

Now, now. Lets keep the focus on Sogyal, where it belongs.

And..the reason to keep our eyes on Sogyal is that the measure of character is how wisely and well a person utilizes the trust, the fame and power that comes to him, after the book has been written.

Just heard that Sogyal's lawyers are trying to prevent the Canadian documentary from being broadcast by Vision TV on 23 May. I gather the TV company is holding firm and intends to go ahead. The item has been passed by ultra-cautious media lawyers for broadcast in Canada. One has to wonder on what grounds Sogyal's lawyers are arguing that it should not be shown. Does he perhaps have something to hide? I have been told by several sources that there is a mafia-like culture of silence around Sogyal's sex life. But I also know that at least one of his recent "dakinis" is no longer afraid of him and has blown the whistle.

The Canadian documentary was broadcast on Vision TV as planned. There is hollow startement from Rigpa plus a trail and comments by Stephen and Martine Batchelor on [www.cogentbenger.com] I have DVD copies of the whole porgramme and am willing to send them to interested parties with addresses in Europe. I am sorry -- but postage to the USA is too expensive for me and I cannot break trust with the producers by putting it on YouTube. The testimonies on the programme (titled In the Name of Enlightenment) provide indisputable evidence of Sogyal Lakar's sadistic sexual predations over a 30 year period.

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corboy
(quote)So the two individuals you mention knowingly conspired to write the book and launch a career for Sogyal and themselves?(unquote)

Now, now. Lets keep the focus on Sogyal, where it belongs.

First, thanks to Blue Dakini for posting about the Canadian program, and I'm glad negotiations are in progress to bring it to the US.

Corboy, I know one of the women who gave testimony in the Canadian documentary. She also testified in the Sogyal lawsuit. She also knew Andrew Harvey back when he was a devotee of Sogyal's, and a graduate student. She said Harvey wrote the book (if there was a co-author, she didn't mention him), plus he had to write answers to pre-submitted radio interview questions, because Sogyal didn't know enough about the subject matter in the book to be able to respond during interviews. I don't think it's deviating from the topic to say that Sogyal didn't author the book, and yet not only continues to take credit for it, but the the popularity of the book is what allowed him to build a commercial empire of bereavement counseling centers and hospices, which in turn gave him access to thousands of grieving women, many of whom he molested. Andrew Harvey was a brilliant grad student who, I imagine, as an act of devotion to his guru, wrote the book (in collaboration with at least one other person, I gather from this thread). No one could have foreseen the results of that act.

Missyk, thanks for telling us this. I didnt know this about Harvey or about Sogyal.

I wrote earlier because at the time I feared the discussion was being thwarted.

With your background and contributions, this has been tied together.

Again, thank you.

Am beginning to believe that the more PR and hype surrounds a particular teacher, the greater the risks.