Geshe Michael Roach the Teacher

Geshe Michael Roach is a teacher of Buddhism and Yoga

Geshe Michael Roach has always been an unconventional but charismatic teacher. He cries, debates and pushes his audience to the limits during his teachings. This, in itself, can be seen as a good quality, as it enables him to get his point accross in an entertaining and memorable way.

We urge anyone considering studying with Geshe Michael Roach to read the information on this site carefully, ask around as much as possible, and check his behaviour and teachings against those of highly respected and renowned teaches before entering into any relationship whatsoever. There is great potential for harm to come to anyone who takes teachings from Geshe Michael Roach or becomes his student.

We urge anyone considering studying with him to read more about the Geshe Michael Roach controversy,

The Geshe Michael Roach Potential for Harm

The potential for harm by Geshe Michael Roach to his students is great, however without robes he would just be another American new age/cult teacher, and not have the perceived credibility to draw as many new students into his sphere of harm (This is the exact reason we believe he will not disrobe).

Now that he has committed a total downfall of his vows as a Buddhist monk, unless he purifies this then the chances of a rebirth in a favourable realm are very very slight. His students, especially the tantric students, are yoked to him and as such the potential for their rebirth in a lower realm is also greatly increased.

In addition to this, if his current behavior relating to his "consort" practise continues, we may well find an increeasing number of young female students who have sufferred emotional harm due to Geshe Michael Roach. This has already happenned in one case that we know of.

Thus there is a huge potential for harm to come to any current or future student of Geshe Michael Roach. Thus, disrobing now might ease public opinion but not ease the potential sufffering of his students.

Is Geshe Michael Roach a Monk?

The short answer is, probably not! A Monks vows are included in the Pratimoksha or Individual Liberation vows. These vows stand independent of any other vows or higher ordinations, and also stand independent of motivation. A fully ordained Buddhist Monk has a vow to never engage in any manner of physical union with another.

Geshe Michael Roach has taken the vows of a fully ordained monk (253 vows), of which one root vow is to never engage in any manner of physical union with another, nor to spill semen.

At the same time, Geshe Michael Roach openly admits to performing a legitimate physical spiritual practice which would break this root vow. Such practices are almost exclusively reserved for laypersons. In fact, it is the accepted tradition that monks disrobe before doing this practice.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama explains (from the Life as a Western Buddhist Nun conference):

"According to our tradition, we are monastics and are celibate, and we practice the Tantrayana simultaneously. But the way of practice is through visualization. For example, we visualize the consort, but we never touch."

Geshe Michael Roach claims to have achieved a very high level of spiritual attainment. If this is actually the case, and he has reached what is known as the 8th Bodhisattva Bhumi, then it would be true that he would have the spiritual capability to enter into physical union with another and not break his root vow. It must be stressed however, that the 8th Bodhisattva Bhumi is an incredibly highly attained state, very close to full Buddhahood, and thus extremely rare amongst living beings.

Thus, it may be seen that no matter what clothing Geshe Michael wears, not what he says or believes he is, there is the strong possibility that he is no longer a Buddhist Monk.

Geshe Michael Roach's Degenerating Behaviour

During the Tantra course at Diamond Mountain in the fall term of 2005, however, Geshe Micheal began to display disturbing behaviour during his teachings.

It was 1 1/2 hours into the filth class of the Tantra series, and Christie McNally was giving a discourse of the qualities of a student ready for Tantra. She mentioned that if your Tantric lama asked for your pinkie finger that you should be prepared to give it, "If you see someone you are teaching who starts to feel like they are willing to do that, then you know they are ready to do Tantra", she said.

At this point Geshe Michael Roach started to look around in his bag, and removed a sharp pointed ritual implement. He then went on to begin to stab himself in the hand in the area of the pinkie finger.

Christie MacNally looked genuinely shocked and screamed at him "No, Stop it, Stop it, Stop it, Don't do it". After this there was several minutes of stunned silence and Christie continued, almost tearfully "you have to be careful what you say to your Tantric students or you might get a lot of pinkies".

At the risk of being cynical, one may be forgiven for suspecting a level of planning to this scene.

Firstly, Geshe Michael is a strong man and if he really wanted to cut off his pinkie finger, he could have done so in one stroke, even if the implement was not very sharp, however it was a half hearted action and there was minimal damage to his hand.

Secondly, he brought the implement with him to a teaching, which would appear to be planned, as it isn't the type of article that people, even lamas, usually carry around in their bags.
Thirdly, Christie never asked him for his pinkie. All she said was that if a teacher "were" to ask, and the student did it, then it might be a sign that this student was ready for Tantra. As Christie never asked, so it cannot really be taken as a sign of devotion to the Lama.