by admin » Sat May 04, 2019 4:59 am
Lavish, gluttonous and sybaritic lifestyle
It is alleged that Sogyal Lakar demands money from his students to fund his lifestyle, which involves a steady supply of sensual pleasures: personal chefs, entertainment, cigars, drivers, masseuses, and expensive restaurants. It is alleged that he demands free labour.
It is apparent that Sogyal has a taste for the finer things; he does indeed have a staff available to him around the clock, including masseuses, drivers and chefs. Many of these people, however, appear to donate their time, without charge, as part of a personal offering, or people worked in exchange for free accommodation and food on retreat. Some witnesses explained that there is an expectation within Tibetan Buddhism that a high lama would have these things. Whilst it was understood that some lamas would reject such trappings and live a simple life, it was acknowledged that Sogyal is not one of them. He was described as being from an old school, aristocratic family with certain expectations.
Several witnesses spoke about Sogyal having very specific, and expensive, taste when it came to meals that were cooked for him and restaurants that were frequented. It was accepted by Rigpa management Witness N that the cost of such hospitality would be met by the local Rigpa group, not by Sogyal personally. It is not clear to me the extent to which these costs were met by the Rigpa entities or by individual students within the local sangha; it appears that there was a mixture of both.
Several witnesses described the fact that at the end of a retreat, students are invited to give a financial offering to Sogyal Lakar. The offerings were encouraged through a speech known as the ‘offering pitch’ in which a senior student or monastic would explain that the money people had already paid was to pay for the infrastructure of the retreat, accommodation and food. It was explained that Sogyal did not personally receive any of this money and that there was now an opportunity to express gratitude to him for the teachings and to ‘accumulate merit’. It would be explained that the teachings were priceless but this was nonetheless an opportunity to make a gesture. Students would be informed that they could donate by cash or cheque. This speech would then typically be followed by a statement from Sogyal about the fact that he did not keep the money for himself (although some witnesses suggested he would indicate that he might keep a small amount to cover daily necessities), but would use it to donate to worthy Buddhist causes, such as supporting monks in Tibet who were in retreat, or to help build temples.
Some of the witnesses I spoke to were involved in collecting the offerings. They told me that the money collected would be counted up by Rigpa staff and kept in personal safes within Sogyal’s living quarters at the relevant Rigpa centres. Witnesses that I spoke to were involved in providing detail to Sogyal of exactly how much had been donated and they confirmed that this would run to many thousands of pounds.
Two of the witnesses that I spoke to confirmed that Sogyal would ask for some of the money (typically 500 euros per person) to be put in envelopes and delivered to his mother and to two of his girlfriends. Witness E explained that they had been asked to deliver significantly larger sums to two girlfriends of Sogyal.
Several witnesses also told me that when they travelled overseas they would be asked to carry 10,000 euros in cash in order to move Sogyal’s money across country borders.
There is a significant amount of evidence to suggest that Sogyal enjoys what has been described as a “five star existence”, however, based on the evidence provided to me, there is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. The problem arises if he is doing so using money which has been donated for a different purpose. Most significantly, it seems to me that it is essential that the money should not have been donated on the understanding that it would be used for benevolent purposes, if it was, in fact, going to fund Sogyal’s chosen lifestyle.
I have received evidence that people working for Rigpa are the ones who count, account for, store and move the money that is offered at the end of a retreat. Despite this, the Rigpa management witnesses displayed a lack of knowledge about what happens to that money and what it is for. Witnesses gave evidence that there are safes located at various Rigpa centres which are believed to contain significant amounts of cash (said to be in excess of £0.5 million each). Some of Sogyal’s girlfriends are alleged to receive payments of around £50,000 per year out of these cash reserves. The cash is also alleged to fund their yoga retreats in Thailand, botox and expensive lunches, though I did not see any direct evidence of this.
Whilst I have not found evidence to support the allegation that Sogyal Lakar demands money from his students to support his lifestyle, it appears to me that there is at least the potential that money has been collected by or for him under false or misleading pretences, or that the money received has not been fully accounted for by him. I do not have sufficient evidence to make a definitive finding about this and, subject to the points below, I consider that this requires further investigation, particularly in relation to the role that Rigpa students are alleged to play in explaining what the donations will be used for.
Close consideration should also be given to the extent to which (if at all) charitable money has been used to fund extravagant personal expenditure when local Rigpa centres host Sogyal. I do not have sufficient information to reach my own findings on this point.
The UK trustees have explained to me that there has recently been a process of enquiry, investigation and accounting to the Charity Commission (in the UK) about the UK Charity’s fundraising and I am told that “this has been gone through meticulously with the auditors and solicitors for the UK and disclosed to the Charity Commission”. As a result of this process, I am told that the UK trustees are satisfied that all money received by the UK charity has been properly used and accounted for. I am not in a position to assess any aspect of this financial investigation or the conclusions that were reached, so I would simply invite the UK trustees to review the findings of fact and areas for further investigation which are set out above (particularly in relation to what is said during the offering pitch) to ensure that this does not impact upon the advice that they have received or the position detailed to the Charity Commission.
To the extent that it has not been done already, it seems that a similar process of enquiry, investigation and accounting should be undertaken in all of the other relevant jurisdictions in which Rigpa operates to ensure that appropriate financial practices have been adopted.