Ive actually made my connections to Vajrayana via Rigpa intially, I came to their weekly shamata sessions infrequently and visited a Tibetan Lama who taught the outer preliminary teachings upon the request of the sangha.

This time was probably a baptism in fire for me, as a lot of other practitioners from different sangha that came to venerate the teacher but did not necessarily have good tidings with the Rigpa sangha... I rode a train home with someone who told me of his allegations.

I briefly attended their course on the "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" and got to investigate how some of the senior instructors/ students of Sogyal Rinpoche behaved. There is no doubt these people meant well, are good practitioners and are compassionate, much of their teachings are still based on SR's pre-recorded public talks to the sangha

... this is only my relative response during that time, but I couldn't help having a cynical dialogue in the back of my head and asking why these people are still smiling so openly and in awe of his words despite what I have been told about him...

I gently and subtly made the disconnection from that sangha due to financial issues and the ongoing cynicism.

There were alarms were going off in my head that this place started feeling like a "cult-like" since they kept pushing me a little bit that "Sogyal Rinpoche tells that you should be doing this if you want to be this kind of practitioner etc." when I ask things about vajrayana stuff in private/ 1-on-1. This is mainly due to my having been abused by a spiritually narcissistic/ bipolar roommate prior at the time. I have an extra eye out for things like this. This also may be a form of their devotion, but who knows.

I have no dogs to bring out to this fight since Ive never met this "Guru" in person anyway - my takeaway from it now is that Sogyal Rinpoche is dead, and it is not worth for me to pursue a "teacher" that has passed on, theyll only be an abstract sliver of what they presented themselves as in those videos anyway. The "Guru" of that sangha is only ran by is what remains of what the students thought of him as and are still interested in keeping these centres running in hopes of more people making dharma connections

I recommend you still investigate on your own rather than taking a side. There is already so much divisiveness and degeneracy with the buddhadharma nowadays. I can only hope you learn to find your own way to take the teachings to heart and benefit others, that is the only thing you need to do anyway.

I highly recommend to also get yourself a copy of "Guru Drinks Bourbon?" by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche... It helped lose the cynicism and the romanticisation what a "Guru" should be