Why are we blaming Sogyal for doing what is in the teachings to do?
My own disillusionment came when I realized that Tibetan Buddhists believe in tantric sex and that you need it in order to become enlightened:
Lama Thubten Yeshe (Introduction to Tantra, 147) wrote: "There is a certain point in the mastery of the completion stage where physically embracing a consort is necessary . . . ."
Je Tsong Khapa who founded the Gelugpas, agreed that to attain Buddha-hood in one lifetime, it is necessary to use an actual consort (karma mudra) saying,
"A female companion is the basis of accomplishment of liberation."
That is, in order to generate an illusory body as that of a particular deity with all the qualities of existence, another person must interact with it.
Tsongkhapa, founder of the Tibetan Gelugpa sect is of the same opinion:
“A female companion is the basis of the accomplishment of liberation”
The Dalai Lama said he would not reach enlightenment in this lifetime because he did not have a consort.
The Dalai Lama also said that many within Buddhist schools believe that the Shakyamuni became enlightenment with a consort under the Bodhi Tree and that his was edited out in many iconographies and written accounts.
It is generally understood in the tantric tradition, that it is not possible to bring all five winds into the central channel at the same time unless one performs karmamudra. The yogi will do the practice at an advanced stage. Milarepa did karmamudra with dakinis. The source for the oral instructions on the completion stage of the Kalachakra Tantra by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey of the Gelugpa. I've also heard this from the Drikung Kagyu lamas. In some lineages an advanced yogi who is a monk will take a consort and it is not seen as violating vows, because this is what the Buddha said to do as part of the tantric method.
In Dzogchen and essence mahamudra, karmamudra is not important, and works with different channels.
From The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings by Dalai Lama:
"Yogis who have achieved a high level of the path and are fully qualified can engage in sexual activity, and a monastic with this ability can maintain all the precepts."
And while I was trying to understand just what my own teacher taught, I was met with hostility for questioning, which in turn caused me to realize that Tibetan Buddhism is not actually about peace. I even wrote to Stephen Batchelor who wrote back and told me that it is about sex and for me to be careful.
I do not believe that you have to incorporate sex in meditation in order to become enlightened. But I can also understand why Soygal was like he was, that is, he was only following the tantras. So how can we say that he was bad or evil unless we also make the claim that the entire Tibetan Buddhist system is evil, and actually one Tulku has called it a cesspool:
[www.youtube.com]
But actually he isn't the only one that feels this way, as there are others.
Tashi Tsering was part of the Dalai Lama's dance troop, and was raped but also given to an official lama for this lama's own pleasure. He in turn wrote the book, The Struggle for Modern Tibet. He also talked about how the Dalai Lama took truck loads of gold and silver out of Tibet before the Chinese arrived. It was horded in the monasteries. I wonder why it wasn't used to help his people? But that is another topic.