Sogyal Rinpoche

Sogyal Rinpoche is the author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which has sold over two million copies since its publication in 1991. It has been published in 30 languages and 59 countries. The compassionate approach to death the book promotes has been adopted by universities and medical schools and used extensively by nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals. Sogyal Rinpoche has been teaching for over 30 years and continues to travel widely.

Sogyal Rinpoche was born in eastern Tibet in 1947, and recognized as the incarnation of Lerab Lingpa Terton Sogyal, a teacher to 13th Dalai Lama, by Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, who is one of the most revered spiritual masters of the 20th century. Jamyang Khyentse not only supervised Sogyal Rinpoche’s training, but he raised him as a son. In 1971 Sogyal Rinpoche went to England for a Western education to add to his training. He studied comparative religion at Cambridge University and after graduation studied with many other great masters of Buddhism.

He is the founder and spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of 106 Buddhist centers in 23 countries. Rigpa is a Tibetan word which means intelligence or awareness. In the highest teachings of the Buddhist tradition in Tibet, Rigpa has a deeper meaning, that of “the innermost nature of the mind.” This is what the entire teaching of Buddha is aimed toward—the state of enlightenment, a universal truth, a primordial omniscience which goes beyond religion and all limits.

Sogyal Rinpoche’s goals are to make the teachings of Buddha available to as many people as possible, and to offer those following the Buddhist path a complete course of study and practice, and the correct environment in which to do it. His centers feature retreats and teachings as well as distance learning courses. One of the activities dear to his heart is the Spiritual Care Program, based on teachings of his book, which aims to show practical ways in which compassion and wisdom of Buddhist teachings can be used to help the ill and dying and their families.

Says Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, “Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. Our lives are lived in intense and anxious struggle, in a swirl of speed and aggression, in competing, grasping, possessing, and achieving, forever burdening ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations. We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don’t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.” He then goes on to discuss how meditation is the way to bring the mind home. “It is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being, beyond all habitual patterns.”

Sogyal Rinpoche appeared in 1993 in the film Little Buddha, by Bernardo Bertolucci, in the role of Kenpo Tenzin. In 2000 Rinpoche hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his retreat in Lerab Ling, his main retreat center. The Dalai Lama taught “The Way to Enlightenment” to 10,000 students from around the world.