Michael Roach

Michael Roach (born December 17, 1952) is an American businessman, spiritual leader, and former Buddhist monk and scholar who has started a number of businesses and organizations, written books inspired by Buddhism, and translated Tibetan Buddhist teachings. He has at times been the center of controversy for his views, teachings, activities, and behavior.[1][2][3][4][5]

For other uses, see Michael Roach (disambiguation).
Michael Roach
Personal
Born
Michael Roach

(1952-12-17) December 17, 1952
Los Angeles, California, United States
ReligionBuddhism
SchoolGelugpa (Reformed)
Education
Senior posting
Based inPhoenix, Arizona
Websitegeshemichaelroach.com

Early life and education

Michael Roach was born on 17 December 1952 in Los Angeles, California to traditional Episcopalian parents. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona along with three brothers. After his high school graduation, he received the Presidential Scholars Medallion from U.S. President Richard Nixon,[6] then attended Princeton University in 1972.[6] He traveled to India in 1973 to seek Buddhist instruction, while still in college. He returned to the United States and received a scholarship to return to study in India in 1974. While in India, Roach learned about a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in New Jersey led by a Mongolian-born lama, Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin. Roach returned to Princeton, living at the monastery from 1975 to 1981.[7] In the year before his graduation in 1975, both of his parents died due to cancer and then his brother committed suicide.[8] In 1983 he was ordained as a Gelugpa Buddhist monk at Sera Monastery in South India, where he would periodically travel and study.[9] In 1995, he became the first American to qualify for the Geshe degree.

Career

From 1993 to 1999, Roach developed and taught 18 courses loosely inspired by Tibetan Buddhism in New York City. These courses were based on the training monks receive in Tibetan monasteries, but organized to be taught by laypeople in a few months or less.[10][11][12]

From 2000 to 2003, Roach organized and led a three-year silent retreat in the Arizona desert with five other participants, including Christie McNally with whom Roach had a complex and controversial relationship and shared a room with during this time. The retreat was run along guidelines that fall outside of Tibetan traditions.[13][14]

In 2004, Roach established Diamond Mountain Center, a retreat center in Arizona.[15]

In 1981, Khen Rinpoche, the teacher of Roach, challenged him to apply Buddhist values to the "dirtiest business and make it clean".[16][17] Since then, Roach has helped to found and develop the corporation Andin International, a jewelry manufacturer based in New York. The activities of Andin International started with a loan of $50,000 and three employees. By the time Roach left the firm in 1999 as vice president, the company's annual turnover was $100 million per year.[17] In 2009, Andin achieved a turnover of more than 200 million dollars, and was acquired by Richline Group Warren Buffett. He used the money from his work to create funds to finance various projects, such as food fund Sera Mey.[18] For seveteen years, and while studying Buddhism, Roach commuted to a day job in Manhattan.[16]

In 1999, the publishing house Doubleday Corporation, which is now part of Penguin Random House, invited Roach to write a book about the style of management he used for business and life. In "The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life", Roach explains how to apply the lessons of the Sutra of the Diamond Cutter (Diamond Sutra) in the context of business.[19]

Charity

In 1987, Roach founded the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP).[20] He founded this project in order to create a complete and accessible version of Kangyur and Tanjur in electronic form along with related philosophical commentaries and dictionaries. ACIP contains more than 8500 texts - almost half a million pages, which he provided for free, and has digitized 15286 books over the course of 31 years. It is one of many non-profits that sell Roach's teachings to the public.[21][22]

ACIP donates to many causes.[23] The Asian Classics Institute (ACI) pursued multiple projects to foster the learning and preservation of Tibetan Buddhism and meditation. These projects include organizations such as the Asian Legacy Library (ALL) and the Diamond Cutter Classics organization, and platforms like “The Knowledge Base” which offers free course in a variety of subjects in multiple languages. The Asian Legacy Library alone has digitized over 16 million pages, according to Roach. In 2021, ACI launched the Castle Rock Fund as a vehicle to acquire the Castle Rock Mini Storage in to finance the cost of ACIP’s headquarters in Sedona, Arizona and to ensure the financial stability of the organization.[24]

Controversies

Diamond business

Beginning in 1981, Roach helped found and run Andin International, a jewelry manufacturer based in New York. He used proceeds from his work to set up financial endowments to fund various projects, in particular the Sera Mey Food Fund.[13]

In his 2015 book "A Death on Diamond Mountain",[25] journalist Scott Carney wrote:

As for the chief diamond procurer at Andin International, Michael Roach selected Surat in the Indian state of Gujarat as his primary source for diamonds.

Marriage

In 1996, Christie McNally became Roach's student and they began a "spiritual partnership", a Buddhist practice that encourages both partners to face their own flaws. The experiment included vowing to never be more than 15 feet (roughly 4.5 meters)[16] apart, eating from the same plate, reading the same books together.[15] They were married in a Christian ceremony in Rhode Island in 1998. The marriage was kept secret. When news of the marriage emerged in 2003, Roach explained to the New York Times that they had wished to honor their Christian heritage and that he wanted McNally to be entitled to his possessions if something happened to him.[26] He also argued that the future of Buddhism in America relies on being more inclusive of and welcoming to women.[15][27][5]

When Roach proposed to teach in Dharamshala in 2006, the Office of the Dalai Lama rebuffed his plan, stating that Roach's "unconventional behavior does not accord with His Holiness's teachings and practices";[15] the teaching took place in nearby Palampur instead.

McNally and Roach separated in the middle of 2009.[26]

Sexual misconduct allegations

In 2005, during a tantric initiation practice, retreatant Sid Johnson, a musician who was briefly on the board of directors of Roach's organization Diamond Mountain, recalls that Roach invited him to lie down in his and Christie McNally's bed. She then began to massage him from his head down to his penis before finishing with a kiss on the lips.[28] Roach was part of a handful of Western Tibetan Buddhist teachers facing such allegations in the 2000s including Surya Das and Ken McLeod.[29] Some[lower-alpha 1] claimed he had had sexually promiscuous relationships while still donning monk's robes.[30]

Ian Thorson

Ian Thorson was a close student of Roach and McNally and served as their attendant after he began attending lectures at Three Jewels Outreach Center in New York City in 1997.[31] In 2000, Thorson's mother hired anti-cult investigators to stage an intervention after her suspicions grew.[28] In 2010, one year after the dissolution of her marriage to Roach, McNally married Thorson.[15] A few weeks later, they entered a three-year retreat at the Diamond Mountain Center; McNally was appointed as the retreat director and guiding teacher.[32] After reports emerged of a series of erratic and even violent episodes between Thorson and McNally, and bizarre behavior by McNally in talks to the community, the Diamond Mountain board of directors asked McNally and her husband to leave the retreat, giving them $3,600[33] and offering them airfare to any desired destination.[34] Thorson and McNally left the Diamond Mountain property on Monday, February 20, at 5 am and were picked up on a public road according to an email from their assistant to the board of the university.[33] They set up a camp in a cave on Bureau of Land Management property within the retreat boundaries, secretly supplied by a number of retreat participants who felt themselves loyal to the pair.[35][36] Thorson, aged 38, died in April 2012 of dehydration and exposure while McNally, then 39, would recover from dehydration and exposure.[4][1][2][3][37][32] Authorities said that there was no suspected foul play in his death, and that there was no criminal responsibility on behalf of Roach.[38] However, several journalists have claimed that Roach's unorthodox teachings through ACI may caused dangerous outcomes.[39][40] The whereabouts of McNally have been unknown since this deadly incident.

Teachings

Roach has fielded critiques of cult like behavior after his many controversies. In an interview with NBC News, Robert Thurman, Columbia University Professor of Buddhism, says Roach's organizations have "become a kind of cult although there is a lot of good learning in it".[41] Roach has been uninvited to teach at FPMT centers across the globe in addition to being publicly rebuked by the office of the Dalai Lama.[42] When asked in an interview about his admission of realizing emptiness, Roach says, "if a lot of people thought I was being a bad person or a bad monk or even a corrupt person, that was less important than doing what I felt a divine being wanted me to do, even if everyone thought it was crazy. And I’ve never had a doubt about that. I think that it's more important for me to get enlightened and to follow what I perceive to be direct divine instructions than to be thought of as a bad person."[43]

Bibliography
  • The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life, Three Leaves, 2000. ISBN 0-385-49791-1
  • The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga, with Christie McNally, Three Leaves, 2005. ISBN 0-385-51536-7
  • The Garden: A Parable, Image, 2000. ISBN 0-385-49789-X
  • How Yoga Works: Healing Yourself and Others With The Yoga Sutra, with Christie McNally. Diamond Cutter Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9765469-0-6
  • The Tibetan Book of Yoga: Ancient Buddhist Teachings on the Philosophy and Practice of Yoga, Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 0-385-50837-9
  • China Love You: The Death of Global Competition, Diamond Cutter Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0692794272
  • Karmic Management: What Goes Around Comes Around in Your Business and Your Life, Doubleday Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-0385528740
  • The Karma of Love: 100 Answers for Your Relationship, Diamond Cutter Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1937114060
  • The 5 Books of the Diamond Cutter Institute Teacher Training Course, Diamond Cutter Institute, 2017. Multiple ISBN's
  • The 9 Books of the Diamond Cutter Institute Management Training Course, Diamond Cutter Institute, 2010–2016. Multiple ISBN's
  • The Garden: A Parable, Doubleday Publishing, 2000 / 210 pages. ISBN 978-0385497893
  • The Eastern Path to Heaven: A Guide to Happiness from the Teachings of Jesus in Tibet, Seabury Books, 2008. ISBN 978-1596270978
  • The Logic & Debate Tradition of India, Tibet, & Mongolia (co-translator), MSTP Press, 1979 / 281 pages. ISBN 0918753007
  • King of the Dharma: The Illustrated Life of Je Tsongkapa (1357—1419), Diamond Cutter Press, 2008. ISBN 1937114015
  • King Udrayana & The Wheel of Life (co-translator), MSTP Press, 1985. ISBN 0918753058
  • The Principal Teachings of Buddhism, by Je Tsongkapa (1357—1419) (co-translator), Classics of Middle Asia Series, MSTP Press, 1989. ISBN 978-8120817128
  • The 18 Books of the Foundation Course in Buddhism (translator), Asian Classics Institute; 1993–1999. multiple ISBN's
  • Preparing for Tantra: The Mountain of Blessings, by Je Tsongkapa (1357—1419) (co-translator), Classics of Middle Asia Series, MSTP Press, 1995. ISBN 9780918753113
  • The 18 Books of the Advanced Course in Buddhism (translator), Asian Classics Institute & Diamond Mountain Retreat Center; 2003–2010. multiple ISBNs

Notes
  1. Based on an interview that NBC had done with unknown witnesses:
    They said he had been sexually promiscuous while wearing his monk’s robes, therefore embarrassing the traditional Buddhist community. (All Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy.) I even corresponded off-the-record with a young woman who said she had a sexual relationship with Roach and was now afraid of him.
    [30] These claims were never proved to be accurate until now.

References
  1. Santos, Fernanda (2012-06-05). "Mysterious Buddhist Retreat Ends in a Grisly Death". The New York Times.
  2. "Buddhist Yoga Retreat Death Raises Questions on Ariz. Monk's 'Enlightenment' Preaching". ABC News.
  3. Plotz, Hanna Rosin, David (June 6, 2012). "Plotz and Rosin: We Decided to Imitate the Buddhist Couple Who're Never More Than 15 Feet Apart. Here's What Happened". Slate Magazine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Adams, Guy (7 June 2012). "The death of yoga student Ian Thorson – and the 'wall of meditative silence' that met police". The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, London. Archived from the original on 2022-05-14. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  5. Burleigh, Nina (6 June 2013). "Sex and Death on the Road to Nirvana". Rolling Stone. Jann S. Wenner, New York. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  6. United States. Commission on Presidential Scholars. Presidential scholars. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Washington : U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars.
  7. "Essays to Answer Questions from my Friends. ~ Geshe Michael Roach | elephant journal". June 6, 2012.
  8. Paine, Jeffrey (2005). Adventures With The Buddha. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 369–373. ISBN 978-0-393-05906-9.
  9. "Geshe Michael Roach". Diamond Mountain. Archived from the original on 2012-06-06. Retrieved 2012-06-09.
  10. "The Principal Teachings of Buddhism". 1993. Archived from the original on 2010-11-11. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  11. "The Great Ideas of Buddhism, Part 3". 1999. Archived from the original on 2010-11-11. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  12. "Asian Classics Institute". Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  13. Furber, Matt (2004-04-09). "Yoga and meditation mix to improve business acumen". Idaho Mountain Express. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2008-01-02. He said in the West there is typically a tension between business practices and having a spiritual life. Businesspeople compete and fight to get ahead like Steve McQueen, but Roach said there need not be a tension between being profitable in business and having an ethical and spiritual life.
  14. Wilson, Jeff (2000). The Buddhist Guide to New York. St. Martin's Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-312-26715-5.
  15. Leslie Kaufman (May 15, 2008). "Making Their Own Limits in a Spiritual Partnership". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-29. Their partnership, they say, is celibate. It is, as they describe it, a high level of Buddhist practice that involves confronting their own imperfections and thereby learning to better serve the world.
  16. Porter, Catherine (June 17, 2011). "Porter: The monk who gave away millions". The Toronto Star. And for 17 years while he was studying Buddhism in a New Jersey monastery, he commuted each day to a Manhattan day job, running the diamond division of a hugely successful jewelry company — since purchased by Warren Buffett.
  17. "Geshe Michael Roach". www.geshemichaelroach.com. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  18. "idaho mountain express : Yoga and meditation mix to improve business …". archive.is. 2013-01-03. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  19. "Kindle Book Review: The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your B…". archive.is. 2013-01-18. Archived from the original on 2013-01-18. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  20. "Asian Classics Input Project". Asian Classics Input Project. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  21. Hughes., Seager, Richard (1999). Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231108683. OCLC 40481142.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. Baird, Forrest (2017-10-03). Philosophic Classics: Asian Philosophy, Volume VI. doi:10.4324/9781351217460. ISBN 9781351217460.
  23. Барысюк, Таццяна (2013). "Мая Танкiяна". Białorutenistyka Białostocka. 5: 441–451. doi:10.15290/bb.2013.05.29. ISSN 2081-2515.
  24. "What is the Castle Rock Fund and why are we raising funds during the 3-day teaching with Geshe Michael Roach". Facebook.
  25. Carney, Scott (March 17, 2015). A Death on Diamond Mountain: A True Story of Obsession, Madness, and the Path to Enlightenment. ISBN 9780698186293.
  26. Fernanda Santos, "Mysterious Yoga Retreat in the Desert Ends in a Grisly Death", New York Times, 6 June 2012.
  27. Harris, Dan; Przygoda, Dan (8 June 2012). "Buddhist Yoga Retreat Death Raises Questions on Ariz. Monk's 'Enlightenment' Preaching". ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  28. "Death and Madness at Diamond Mountain".
  29. "Popular American Buddhist Teacher Lama Surya Das Admits to Sexual Relationships with Students".
  30. "My Brief Rendez-vous with the Guru". NBC News. 10 March 2014.
  31. Carney, Scott (July 31, 2017). The Enlightenment Trap: Obsession, Madness and Death on Diamond Mountain. p. 530. ISBN 978-1945604621.
  32. Roach, Michael (April 26, 2012). "An Open Letter from Geshe Michael" (PDF). Diamond Mountain Center.
  33. An Open Letter from Geshe Michael April 26, 2012
  34. "Sex and Death on the Road to Nirvana". Rolling Stone. 2013-06-06.
  35. Remski, Matthew (19 May 2012). "Tragedy at Diamond Mountain: an Update".
  36. Stillwell, John (6 May 2012). "Rebuttal: "Psychosis, Stabbing, Secrecy & Death at a Neo-Buddhist University in Arizona."".
  37. Wittig, Ainslee S. (June 13, 2012). "Case closed in death of former participant at Buddhist retreat". Herald/Review Media.
  38. "The death of yoga student Ian Thorson – and the 'wall of meditative". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-14. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  39. "Obsession and Madness on the Path to Enlightenment". 25 December 2015.
  40. "Sex and Death on the Road to Nirvana - Nina Burleigh". www.ninaburleigh.com.
  41. "WEB EXTRA: Reflections on Geshe Michael Roach: Professor Robert Thurman". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  42. "Jivamukti and Geshe Michael Roach: The Cross-Marketing Tangle of Magic Teachers". Decolonizing Yoga. 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  43. Monkyi, T. (2003). "Interview with Geshe Michael Roach and Christie McNally" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-07-29.
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