Michael Roach
Encyclopedia
Michael Roach is an American teacher of Tibetan Buddhism
of the Gelugpa school, and was the first Westerner to qualify for the Geshe
degree at Sera Monastery
in India
. He received the degree after twenty-two years of (part time) training in both India and abroad. He is a scholar in Tibetan
, Sanskrit
, and Russian
.
He currently teaches Buddhism at ACI Phoenix, a branch of Asian Classics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona
, which he founded in 2010. He also tours the world, teaching Buddhism and ethical business practices. He has founded several other endeavors, including Andin International, the Asian Classics Input Project, the Diamond Abbey in New York, and the Enlightened Business Institute.
in 1952 to Episcopalian parents and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona
. He was a choirboy
at his local church. He received the Presidential Scholars Medallion
following high school graduation from U.S. President Richard Nixon
, then graduated from Princeton University
in 1974. Shortly before his graduation, he lost both of his parents to cancer and then his brother to suicide. Following graduation, he moved in to a Buddhist monastery in New Jersey
with his lama Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin
.
Roach returned to the United States
in 1981 and gave Dharma teachings on WBAI radio in New York City
. In 1983 he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and received the Geshe
degree in 1995.
Roach went on to found Andin International, a jewelry retailer based in New York. At Andin, he built a lucrative international business in the diamond industry, turning an initial $50,000 investment into hundreds of millions of dollars. He later left the company and relinquished his holdings, setting up financial endowment
s to fund various projects. He used these experiences as the basis for his classic book, The Diamond Cutter, in which he explains the practice of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the context of business.
From 1993-1999, Roach taught a series of academic courses on Tibetan Buddhism in New York City. These courses together constituted a seven-year program of study and cover the Six Great Books of Buddhism.
Roach also founded the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) which compiles important Buddhist texts on CD-ROM
. ACIP has input over 8,500 texts—nearly half a million pages—which it has made available for free. ACIP also provides a means of earning income for many Tibetan refugees.
During the 1990s he hosted a television program on public-access television
in Manhattan
, as well as a weekly broadcast for Mongolia
that garnered approximately 500,000 viewers. He founded Diamond Abbey in New York (a Tibetan training center for monks and nuns) and also the Enlightened Business Institute (an institute that helps train people to make money by implementing Buddhist ethics
). Roach also founded Godstow Retreat Center in Redding, Connecticut
which is now Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace
.
From 2000-2003, Roach engaged in a traditional three-year silent retreat in the Arizona
desert with five other retreatants.
In the Fall of 2004, Roach and his partner Christie McNally established Diamond Mountain, a Buddhist retreat center and seminary in Arizona. They taught an eighteen-course curriculum on the Vajrayana
path. This eighteen-course advanced series was completed in 2010. A new three-year retreat, with students from Diamond Mountain's first graduating class, began in 2010 in the retreat valley at Diamond Mountain.
(a yogic practice involving sexual intercourse with a partner) without breaking their monastic vows. Roach and McNally, his disciple at the time, began such a partnership in 1998, and in keeping with tradition, initially kept it secret. The couple took personal vows together, one of which was that they would never be more than 15 feet apart.
In 2003, citing the impossibility of keeping it secret any longer, Roach and McNally made their partnership public. This gave rise to controversy in the Buddhist community, both in the U.S. and in India. To avoid the appearance of impropriety, Roach and McNally were requested not to attend a teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 2006. The partnership ended in 2009 when McNally began a relationship with one of their students; Roach and McNally continued to teach together.
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
of the Gelugpa school, and was the first Westerner to qualify for the Geshe
Geshe
Geshe is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks...
degree at Sera Monastery
Sera Monastery
Sera Monastery is one of the 'great three' Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet, located north of Lhasa. The other two are Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. The origin of the name 'Sera' is attributed to a fact that the site where the monastery was built was surrounded by wild roses in...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He received the degree after twenty-two years of (part time) training in both India and abroad. He is a scholar in Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
, Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
He currently teaches Buddhism at ACI Phoenix, a branch of Asian Classics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, which he founded in 2010. He also tours the world, teaching Buddhism and ethical business practices. He has founded several other endeavors, including Andin International, the Asian Classics Input Project, the Diamond Abbey in New York, and the Enlightened Business Institute.
Biography
Michael Roach was born in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in 1952 to Episcopalian parents and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
. He was a choirboy
Choirboy
A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble.As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" refers to someone who is considered honorable or conscientious.- History :The use of choirboys in Christian...
at his local church. He received the Presidential Scholars Medallion
Presidential Scholars Program
The United States Presidential Scholars Program is the highest possible honor for graduating high school seniors in the United States of America....
following high school graduation from U.S. President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, then graduated from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1974. Shortly before his graduation, he lost both of his parents to cancer and then his brother to suicide. Following graduation, he moved in to a Buddhist monastery in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with his lama Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin
Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin
Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche , was a scholar of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.-References:*...
.
Roach returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1981 and gave Dharma teachings on WBAI radio in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1983 he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and received the Geshe
Geshe
Geshe is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks...
degree in 1995.
Roach went on to found Andin International, a jewelry retailer based in New York. At Andin, he built a lucrative international business in the diamond industry, turning an initial $50,000 investment into hundreds of millions of dollars. He later left the company and relinquished his holdings, setting up financial endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
s to fund various projects. He used these experiences as the basis for his classic book, The Diamond Cutter, in which he explains the practice of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the context of business.
From 1993-1999, Roach taught a series of academic courses on Tibetan Buddhism in New York City. These courses together constituted a seven-year program of study and cover the Six Great Books of Buddhism.
Roach also founded the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) which compiles important Buddhist texts on CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
. ACIP has input over 8,500 texts—nearly half a million pages—which it has made available for free. ACIP also provides a means of earning income for many Tibetan refugees.
During the 1990s he hosted a television program on public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, as well as a weekly broadcast for Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
that garnered approximately 500,000 viewers. He founded Diamond Abbey in New York (a Tibetan training center for monks and nuns) and also the Enlightened Business Institute (an institute that helps train people to make money by implementing Buddhist ethics
Buddhist ethics
Ethics in Buddhism are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha, or other enlightened beings who followed him. Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition...
). Roach also founded Godstow Retreat Center in Redding, Connecticut
Redding, Connecticut
Mark Twain, a resident of the town in his old age, contributed the first books for a public library which was eventually named after him.-Government:...
which is now Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace
Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace
The Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center located in Redding, Connecticut. It offers classes and meditation retreats in the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.-History:...
.
From 2000-2003, Roach engaged in a traditional three-year silent retreat in the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
desert with five other retreatants.
In the Fall of 2004, Roach and his partner Christie McNally established Diamond Mountain, a Buddhist retreat center and seminary in Arizona. They taught an eighteen-course curriculum on the Vajrayana
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
path. This eighteen-course advanced series was completed in 2010. A new three-year retreat, with students from Diamond Mountain's first graduating class, began in 2010 in the retreat valley at Diamond Mountain.
Spiritual Partnership and Controversy
Though normally celibate, Gelugpa monks in some cases undertake the practice of karmamudrāKarmamudrā
Karmamudrā is tantric yoga involving sexual union with a physical partner, or a visualized simulacrum thereof. The aim of the practice is to control one's sexual energy, and the most advanced forms of yab-yum practice are often done mentally, without using a physical partner...
(a yogic practice involving sexual intercourse with a partner) without breaking their monastic vows. Roach and McNally, his disciple at the time, began such a partnership in 1998, and in keeping with tradition, initially kept it secret. The couple took personal vows together, one of which was that they would never be more than 15 feet apart.
In 2003, citing the impossibility of keeping it secret any longer, Roach and McNally made their partnership public. This gave rise to controversy in the Buddhist community, both in the U.S. and in India. To avoid the appearance of impropriety, Roach and McNally were requested not to attend a teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 2006. The partnership ended in 2009 when McNally began a relationship with one of their students; Roach and McNally continued to teach together.