Separating the Teaching from the Teacher

I recently included Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das into my book recommendations list – it was the first formative book for me. But I wanted to reflect here on the second book that changed me just as much: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.

That book was transformative. Beautiful. I read it several times across different phases of life, and each time it seemed to speak directly to the moment I was in — as if it knew where I was on the path and met me there. The teachings on impermanence, compassion, dying with awareness — they opened something inside me.

But a few years ago, I found out that Sogyal Rinpoche had been accused of serious improprieties with some of his female students. Multiple allegations, deep pain, and no real resolution before his death. It shook me. Deeply.

How could someone so wise — someone who had written such profound words — fall so far out of alignment? If even a teacher of that calibre could stray so far from the path… what hope is there for the rest of us?

It knocked me around.

The one who helped me reconcile this was Ram Dass.

In one of his talks, he spoke gently but clearly about the difference between the teaching and the teacher. He had grappled with this himself, particularly in his relationship with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whose behaviour was often controversial, including heavy drinking — yet the truths Trungpa spoke still carried great depth and clarity.

Ram Dass reminded me — truth is truth. It doesn’t belong to the teacher. It moves through them.

I think it was Ramakrishna who said something like: “From many spouts the rainwater pours off the roof, but it is all the same rain.” (If anyone knows the precise quote, please send it my way.)

I haven’t fully come to terms with Sogyal Rinpoche, and maybe I never will. But I can say this: the teachings in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying remain deeply true. They still touch the heart. They still serve.

And maybe that’s enough.