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. 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, then attended Princeton University in 1972. 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. In the year before his graduation in 1975, both of his parents died due to cancer and then his brother committed suicide. In 1983 he was ordained as a Gelugpa Buddhist monk at Sera Monastery in South India, where he would periodically travel and study. 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. 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.