The 71-year-old is the most famous Buddhist teacher after the Dalai Lama, and his The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying has sold more than three million copies and influences numerous celebrities.
Yet for the women who claim they were sexually abused by Rinpoche he is anything but a wise and pious holy man.
Other ex-devotees accuse him of brutal beatings and using donations to fund a lavish lifestyle of fine wines, Cuban cigars and chauffeur-driven Mercedes.
Rinpoche surrounded himself with a “harem” of beautiful young women he called his “Dakinis” or angels. Their duties, ex-followers say, included wiping his backside after he used the toilet.
One male student told of his “abject humiliation” when Rinpoche grabbed his testicles in front of a group of attendants.
Another ex-devotee told The Sun: “Sogyal is part-tyrant and part-spoiled child.
“He seems to be addicted to sex, food, smoking and hitting.”
Last year Rinpoche stepped down as spiritual head of his global Rigpa organisation, after some of his inner circle of students went public with the allegations.
Now a bombshell report, commissioned by Rigpa and undertaken by law firm Lewis Silkin, has confirmed that he subjected some of his inner circle “to serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse”.
Rinpoche surrounded himself with a “harem” of beautiful young women he called his “Dakinis” or angels. Their duties, ex-followers say, included wiping his backside.
It also found that senior individuals within Rigpa “were aware of some of these issues and failed to address them”.
This week the Charity Commission said it was investigating the handling of the scandal by the Rigpa Fellowship, the organisation’s British wing, and called the allegations “extremely concerning”.
Rinpoche twisted his Crazy Wisdom teachings to carry out sexual abuse and violence, former students told The Sun.
One, in her forties, who joined Rigpa in 2011, said: “Sogyal and the girls thought everything that went into him and came out of him was holy.
So the girls wiped his a*** for him. He liked to have work gatherings while he took a s*** with the door open. He also chewed his food then exchanged it with a kiss to the girls.
I think he partly believed what he did was good for his students. But his main focus was on sex
“I think he partly believed what he did was good for his students. But his main focus was on sex and sensual pleasure.”
In a 2011 Canadian TV documentary, In The Name Of Enlightenment, former Dakini Mimi (not her real name) claimed Rinpoche had sexually exploited her.
Recalling an incident that happened two months after she began working for him, Mimi, 39, said: “There was a moment when I was alone in his room with him. And then he said, ‘Undress’ . . . I just considered it another test of devotion.”
Rinpoche then had unprotected sex with her, saying: “Look into my eyes, this is the moment you connect with your master.”
Mimi explained that, under the leader’s Crazy Wisdom doctrine: “If he beats you or has sex with you, he’s actually opening your path to enlightenment.
“He asked me to swear never to speak about it to anyone. If I talked about it, it would sever this connection.
“I feel very sad because I lost myself and I was in a group of girls who had lost themselves even more.”
Today the Rigpa organisation that Tibetan Rinpoche founded spans 130 Buddhist centres across 30 countries, with premises in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. Yet it had humble beginnings in a hippy squat in Kilburn, North London, in 1974.
Journalist Mary Finnigan helped set up Rinpoche in the squat but is now one of his fiercest critics.
She says he had “a voracious sexual appetite” and claims he funded his work through “Tibetan wallet massage” — donations from his followers.
At one retreat Rinpoche blessed a devotee who was wearing a Rolex watch. It is said he told the man: “You have to put this in the offering bowl at the end.”A British woman, who was Rinpoche’s girlfriend from 1980 to 1986, told me: “I understood that I was one of four girlfriends and came to accept that, since the other three lived in France.
“Then, on a Rigpa summer retreat in France, I discovered he was having sexual relations with many other women.
“They included a woman who was on a cycling holiday and had popped into the retreat while passing by.
“I realised Sogyal was just using me for sexual gratification.”
Rinpoche’s fame was secured by the success of his 1992 best-seller, feted by everyone from Monty Python star John Cleese to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.
The following year he co-starred with Keanu Reeves in the film Little Buddha. Former devotees say the adulation that followed saw Rinpoche becoming increasingly obsessed with power and money.
Journalist Mary said: “His behaviour became more and more extreme until he had a harem of women that he used for sex.”
Then, in 1994, Rinpoche was sued by an American who claimed she had been sexually, mentally and physically abused by him.
In court papers seen by The Sun she claimed she was “coerced into an intimate relationship” having visited Rinpoche at a retreat.
The case was settled out of court. Yet it led to others speaking out.
New Yorker Victoria Barlow, who had been abused as a child, sought out Rinpoche for spiritual guidance in 1976. She said: “He sat really close and started stroking my cheek. Then he was lying on me.
“I was stunned. Fool that I was, I thought it must be a blessing. But it was not remotely tantric or meaningful. He conned me.”
The guru seemed untouchable. In 2008 Rigpa opened the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Europe — Lerab Ling in Herault, southern France. It was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama, with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, then France’s first lady, at the ceremony.
Rinpoche enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, say former students, smoking Cuban cigars and indulging his taste for cognac and whisky.
Insiders also say he is obsessed with The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando, which he has watched more than 40 times. Strangely, he would turn down the film’s volume and provide his own voiceover after memorising the dialogue.
Rinpoche’s world collapsed in July 2017. A damning letter to him signed by eight of his inner circle was leaked online.
It claimed: “You use your role as a teacher to gain access to young women, and to coerce, intimidate and manipulate them into giving you sexual favours.”
The Dalai Lama called him “disgraced” and Rinpoche quit as the spiritual director of Rigpa.
Last year, a retired teacher in her sixties told police that Rinpoche had hit her at a retreat at a private school in Hertfordshire in 2014.
She told The Sun: “Sogyal hit me really hard on the head with a little statue of the Buddha. I remember being dazed and seeing stars.
“I told other students, but they all laughed and said, ‘Oh, he does that sometimes. It means you’re getting a strong blessing’.”
Rigpa said Rinpoche no longer has any role in the charity, adding: “We feel deeply sorry and apologise for the hurt experienced by past and present members.” Rigpa UK said it would “co-operate fully with any police investigation and offer our support to any victims”.
Rinpoche is thought to be in Thailand recuperating from surgery after he was diagnosed with colon cancer last year.
In a letter to law firm Lewis Silkin, he wrote: “Whatever I have said or done when interacting with my students has been with the aim of helping them to awaken their true inner nature.
“Nonetheless, I see this intention has been misunderstood and my actions have been judged otherwise. For some, this way of training may not have had the desired outcome.
“I must accept my own responsibility in this, and apologise to anyone who feels this way.”
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