Michael Roach: Difference between revisions
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In addition, Roach's practice of appearing in public with McNally raised concerns. When Roach proposed to teach in [[Dharamsala]] 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"; the teaching took place in nearby [[Palampur]] instead. The New York Times reported that McNally's marriage to Roach was a "stark violation of the Buddhist tradition to which he belongs."<ref name=Santos /> |
In addition, Roach's practice of appearing in public with McNally raised concerns. When Roach proposed to teach in [[Dharamsala]] 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"; the teaching took place in nearby [[Palampur]] instead. The New York Times reported that McNally's marriage to Roach was a "stark violation of the Buddhist tradition to which he belongs."<ref name=Santos /> |
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McNally left Roach in the summer of 2009.<ref name=PSM>{{cite web |url=http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20100211/Monk+y+Business+Controversial+NYC+guru+Michael+Roach |title=Monk-y Business: Controversial NYC guru Michael Roach |accessdate=2010-06-24 |author=Beth Landman |date=Feb 11, 2010 |publisher=Page Six Magazine}}</ref> Roach filed for divorce in September, 2010; McNally married one of Roach's senior students, Ian Thorson, on October 3 the same year.<ref name="NYT"/> |
McNally left Roach in the summer of 2009.<ref name=PSM>{{cite web |url=http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20100211/Monk+y+Business+Controversial+NYC+guru+Michael+Roach |title=Monk-y Business: Controversial NYC guru Michael Roach |accessdate=2010-06-24 |author=Beth Landman |date=Feb 11, 2010 |publisher=Page Six Magazine}}</ref> Roach filed for divorce in September, 2010; McNally married one of Roach's senior students, Ian Thorson, on October 3 the same year.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="open"> |
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{{cite web |
{{cite web |
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|date=April 26, 2012 |
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|publisher=[[Diamond Mountain Center]] |
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|accessdate=June 16, 2012}}</ref> |
|accessdate=June 16, 2012}}</ref><ref name=ind/><ref name="nytimes.com"/><ref name="abcnews.go.com"/><ref name="slate.com"/><ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155340/Diamond-Mountain-retreat-death-Ian-Thorson-dies-fleeing-mysterious-yoga-retreat-wife.html</ref><ref>http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/news/article_9a724b6c-b4da-11e1-8c99-001a4bcf887a.html</ref> |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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Revision as of 05:17, 14 July 2012
 |
Geshe Michael Roach | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Geshe |
| Personal | |
| Born | 1952 |
| Nationality | American |
| Partner | Christie McNally (2003-2009) |
| School | Gelugpa |
| Education | Princeton University Sera Monastery |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Phoenix, Arizona |
| Website | aciphx.org |
Michael Roach (born 1952) is an American non-traditional teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. Ordained as a Gelugpa monk, he was the first American to receive the Geshe degree at Sera Monastery in India.[1] He has started a number of businesses and organizations, written books about Buddhism, and translated Tibetan Buddhist teachings.
Roach has written and lectured that yoga, meditation, and a practice of helping others—even competitors—leads to financial prosperity.[2] He has at times been the center of controversy for his views, teachings, activities, and behavior.[3][4][5][6]
Biography
Michael Roach was born in Los Angeles, California in 1952 to Episcopalian parents, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. After his high school graduation, he received the Presidential Scholars Medallion from U.S. President Richard Nixon, then attended Princeton University in 1972. Roach traveled to India in 1973 to seek Buddhist instruction, while still in college. He returned to the US, 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, he lost both of his parents to cancer and then his brother to 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.[10]
Beginning in 1981, Roach helped found and run Andin International, a jewelry manufacturer based in New York. Roach used proceeds from his work to set up financial endowments to fund various projects, in particular the Sera Mey Food Fund.[11]
He used these experiences as the basis for a book, "The Diamond Cutter", in which he explains how to apply the lessons of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the context of business.[12]
In 1987, Roach founded the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP). He founded ACIP with the goal of producing a complete, electronically searchable version of the Kangyur and Tengyur, together with related philosophical commentaries and dictionaries.[13] 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.[14]
From 1993-1999, Roach developed and taught eighteen courses on Tibetan Buddhism in New York City. These courses are based on the training monks receive in Tibetan monasteries, but organized to be taught in a conventional western setting.[15][16][17]
From 2000-2003, Roach organized and led a three-year silent retreat in the Arizona desert with five other participants, modified from Tibetan traditions.[11][18]
In the Fall of 2004, Roach established Diamond Mountain Center, a Buddhist retreat center and seminary in Arizona.[19]
Marriage and controversy
In 1996, Christie McNally, then a recent college graduate, became Roach's student. They began a "spiritual partnership" in which they took vows that included never being more than 15 feet apart, eating from the same plate, reading the same books together, etc. They were secretly married in a Christian ceremony in Rhode Island in 1998, and kept their relationship secret until 2003. When news of the marriage emerged, 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. [20]
The controversy centers around a Buddhist practice in which two practitioners use sexual intercourse as a means of strongly focusing the consciousness in order to strengthen the realization of emptiness. According to the Dalai Lama, a person at a high level of practice in motivation and wisdom, even when joining the two sex organs, maintains pure behavior. This is true even of monks and nuns.[21] Robert Thurman, a former monk and fellow Buddhist scholar, expressed skepticism that Roach was at such a level of practice, referring to it as "superhuman." Some Buddhist leaders, including Thurman, urged him to renounce his monastic vows and stop wearing his robes; Roach did not comply.[19]
In addition, Roach's practice of appearing in public with McNally raised concerns. When Roach proposed to teach in Dharamsala 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"; the teaching took place in nearby Palampur instead. The New York Times reported that McNally's marriage to Roach was a "stark violation of the Buddhist tradition to which he belongs."[20]
McNally left Roach in the summer of 2009.[22] Roach filed for divorce in September, 2010; McNally married one of Roach's senior students, Ian Thorson, on October 3 the same year.[19][23][2][3][4][5][24][25]
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
References
- ^ Seager, Richard Hughes (2000). Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press. pp. 122, 160. ISBN 0-231-10868-0.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Guy Adams, "The death of yoga student Ian Thorson – and the 'wall of meditative silence' that met police", The Independent, 7 June 2012
- ^ a b http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/mysterious-yoga-retreat-ends-in-a-grisly-death.html?pagewanted=all
- ^ a b http://abcnews.go.com/US/buddhist-yoga-retreat-death-raises-questions-ariz-monks/story?id=16526754&page=2#.T9vDcb_22bQ
- ^ a b http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2008/06/on_a_short_leash.html
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-death-of-yoga-student-ian-thorson---and-the-wall-of-meditative-silence-that-met-police-7821159.html
- ^ http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/06/essays-to-answer-questions-from-my-friends-geshe-michael-roach/
- ^ Paine, Jeffrey (2005). Adventures With The Buddha. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 369–373. ISBN 0-393-05906-5.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Geshe Michael Roach". Diamond Mountain. Retrieved 2012-06-09.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Seager, Richard (1999). Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press. pp. 259–260. ISBN 0-231-10869-9.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|middle=ignored (help) - ^ a b Furber, Matt (2004-04-09). "Yoga and meditation mix to improve business acumen". Idaho Mountain Express. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Kindle Book Review: The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life". Business Insider. 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Seager, Richard (1999). Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 0-231-10869-9.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|middle=ignored (help) - ^ "Overview—Asian Classics Input Project". Retrieved 2011-06-02.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help) - ^ "The Principal Teachings of Buddhism". 1993. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help) - ^ "The Great Ideas of Buddhism, Part 3". 1999. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help) - ^ "Asian Classics Institute". Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ Wilson, Jeff (2000). The Buddhist Guide to New York. St. Martin's Press. p. 85. ISBN 0-312-26715-0.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b c Leslie Kaufman (May 15, 2008). "Making Their Own Limits in a Spiritual Partnership". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
- ^ a b Fernanda Santos, "Mysterious Yoga Retreat in the Desert Ends in a Grisly Death", New York Times, 6 June 2012
- ^ His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2002). How To Practice. Simon & Schuster. p. 193. ISBN 0-7434-2708-4.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthor=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Beth Landman (Feb 11, 2010). "Monk-y Business: Controversial NYC guru Michael Roach". Page Six Magazine. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ Roach, Michael (April 26, 2012). "An Open Letter from Geshe Michael". Diamond Mountain Center. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155340/Diamond-Mountain-retreat-death-Ian-Thorson-dies-fleeing-mysterious-yoga-retreat-wife.html
- ^ http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/news/article_9a724b6c-b4da-11e1-8c99-001a4bcf887a.html