Via the Worst Horse, we learn that Michael Roach -- someone I have crabbed about in the past -- has a new book out called Karmic Management -- What Goes Around Comes Around in Your Business and Your Life. According to Publisher's Weekly, "the guide lays out a mishmash of Eastern religions and such New Age strategies as visualizing future endeavors with a 100% success rate."
The PW review describes the book as an unfocused mess. Roach is also the author of The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life. From the Amazon review:
"Roach, who while being a monk helped build a $100 million business, demonstrates how ancient notions in The Diamond Cutter sutra can help you succeed, and if you're in business that means to make money, a lot of it. ... A cross between the Dalai Lama's ethics and Stephen Covey's Seven Habits, The Diamond Cutter will have you gardening a path to the bank."
I admit, the word ghastly does come to mind.
Roach is a former Tibetan monk -- he may consider himself still to be a monk, but the Dalai Lama thinks otherwise -- who is said to be the first westerner to qualify for the geshe degree (roughly the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies, I believe) at Sera monastery. Now he's traveling about giving pricey seminars on "karmic management and prosperity training," which applies Buddhist principles to obtain wealth, stay young, and attract sexual partners, according to CNN.
Last week I wrote that superstition is about trying to manipulate fortune to get what one wants or avoid what one fears. Religion, on the other hand, is about transforming or transcending the self beyond what Karen Armstrong calls the "prism of selfishness." I guess Roach is giving us an example, huh?
Barbara Ehrenreich just came out with her new book, ‘Bright-Sided’, about how the positive thinking meme of our present American culture promotes the delusion that if you are poor, if you have cancer, if you are unemployed, if you have any other of the myriad problems that people have in this life, it is your fault. You didn’t think positively enough. Roach sounds like he is taking this magical thinking approach to life and gilding it with pseudo-Buddhist rhetoric, but it all amounts to the basic capitalist myth that ‘envisioning success’ can allow anyone to actually succeed, that the system allows everyone to be rich, or at least employed. Evangelicals, of course, have been using this delusional approach to reality for a long time now. How depressing to hear that a former Buddhist monk is doing it too.
I always find it a bit amusing that successful people look back on their lives, examining the fortunate combination of luck, skill, drive, and more luck, and then tell us that if we do what they do, we’ll be successful. They seem to always forget about the luck portion. I’ve known talented, driven people who can’t break into the industry of their choice, and we’ve all seen talentless actors and heard awful singers land great contracts because of their last names.
I once heard a stat that about 60% of the US population believes that they will be wealthy enough to fall into the top 10% of wage earners in the nation. Meaning that more than half of the population is probably delusional (about this topic…we all have our delusions to deal with).
On the other hand, I would point out that there really are people out there (I know very few) who are famous actors and wealthy businessmen. So neither is it impossible.
I think the balance lies in not insisting on doing what you love (I’d be in Maui co-authoring Larry Niven’s next Known Space novel), but finding a way to love what you do. Aim high, then enjoy the path. It’s going to lead you in unexpected places. And if you look back, it may appear that you’ve been awfully clever and blessed. Don’t be a fool…unless perhaps you get a book deal out of it.
I had a good friend who treated cancer with 100%positive thinking and supplements. Not surprisingly he passed away. We have a font of wisdom and experience availiable in the Buddhist traditions, but only if we study and practice assiduously can we distinguish good quality spiritual teachings from new age nonsense. Incidentally, the new agers never seem to mention renunciation. It’s always how to be rich, have romance and status. Many people say that if you can do all this without attachment you can practice Dharma just fine. Kind of like a drunk who can quit any time if he wanted to; he just doesn’t want to just now.
It has been reported that Micheal Roach did not earn his ‘geshe’ title through completing any sort of ‘geshe’ program but because he financed building projects for the monks back in the bad old days when they were being ignored by the west. In those days you could damn near walk to HHDLs house and drop by for tea. Not much more difficult than that.
People who received these titles from their generosity are known (derisively) as “building geshes”.
Is it just me or does MR, much like KG seems to look more & more lizard like? I know that’s bad but hey, I have my own troubles.
TFitz, it sounds like a “building geshe” is similar to an “honorary doctorate” in the West. It’s hard to take them seriously.
This story appears to be another version of selling one’s self out. There has always been a market (in at least the western world) for buying into get rich quick schemes and becoming powerful – note the recent gate crashers at the White House. It is one of the baser human natures to want to get something of value for little personal effort.
As long as people believe that paying $10,000 to a self-styled mystic then being slowly roasted in a Sedona, AZ yurt while a carbon monoxide poisoned transcendental state constitutes “growth”, these kind of people will continue to sell their illusions to a gullible public. The more psychobabble and pseudoreligious pap in it, the better it sells.
When people learn I consider myself Buddhist, many want to know “the secret” to eternal happiness, as if I know it! I generally say I’m not sure (beyond the 8 fold path), but that hard work, dedication, and selflessness, perhaps over many life times are surely a big component to achieving Nibbana. That statement generally stops their enquiries then and there.
That is as much of an an affirmation of the culture of Now! in western society as anything else I can think of. Unless it is promised to be easy, quick, and includes CDs to listen to during the commute, few want to buy into it.
Very interesting article. Only in America can someone take something that is so elegant, simple and meaningful, and turn it into a “formula for wealth”, etc. In my thinking, the study of Buddhism, for lack of a better term, is the exact opposite from the pursuit of the ‘magical formula’ for wealth and all else one’s heart desires. The perception in American society is that the accumulation of these things will bring contentment and peace. Ironically, usually these things end up bringing stress and emotional turmoil instead of peace and calm.
Barbara, and readers of this blog…
Please be careful with your own karma.
It appears you are engaging in one of the ten non-virtuous deeds – ‘divisive speech’, speaking that tends to divide people from each other, instead of drawing them together.
“Crabbing about” (your words) Geshe Michael Roach, or crabbing about anyone else, causes only further suffering.
Mike — So if you see someone setting fire to a school, would you hold your tongue for fear of being “devisive”? It’s one thing to speak out of spitefulness, and quite another to speak when someone is doing genuine harm. It’s important to understand the difference.
i like what you said…Barbara does not understand this – sadly -
revive ramesh — here’s more on Michael Roach. The man is pissing on the Buddha. When people are pissing on the Buddha, speaking up is Right Speech.
Barbara, please be fair. No one is burning down any schools here, and I am not accusing you of spitefulness. I’m just speaking out because I see genuine harm being done, the suffering one causes for oneself and others through crabbing and gossiping about people. As you rightly point out (http://buddhism.about.com/od/theeightfoldpath/a/rightspeech.htm), part of the practice of Right Speech involves a) Do not slander others or speak in a way that causes disharmony or enmity, and b) Do not indulge in idle talk or gossip.
Mike, Roach is making a mockery of the dharma. When people are doing genuine harm, something needs to be said. I think “right speech” demands it.
Barbara, I believe practicing dharma has to do with purifying our own negativities, not criticizing the faults we see in others. You wrote (http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/tp/awarenesses.htm),
“Two of the Ten Grave Precepts of Mahayana Buddhism deal with speech — not discussing faults of others and not elevating self and blaming others.” We can point out the mistakes of others, and make suggestions, but with compassion and loving kindness, not self-righteous indignation. There’s a lot of good information about Buddhism on this website; you could help people to see the truth in it and teach them now to practice it, if you put your energy there, instead of on what you think others are doing that’s wrong.
Mike, thank you for criticizing my faults.
Again, sometimes you speak, and sometimes you keep silent. You chose to speak, as did I. What is the difference?
Let’s both of us work harder on being more kind and compassionate, and less judgmental. And let’s all of us recognize anger when it arises in us, see how harmful it is to ourselves and others, and work to get free of it.
In Tibetan Buddhism the teachings have been handed down in an unbroken lineage. Geshe Michael Roachs lineage is unquestionable. His Lama being the very highly respected Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, himself a student of Trijang Rinpoche – tutor to His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Khen Rinpoche until his recent passing remained a supporter of Geshe Michael Roachs teachings and other endeavours.
Also in drawing a personal conclusion on another person one should consider the actions of that person on a daily basis. I have had the pleasure of seeing Geshe Michael Roach on many occasions and have kept company with many of his students. I have not only witnessed the generosity and kindness of the man himself but also the generosity and kindness of those he inspires.
I have also attended many of his teachings and to date have never heard him speak ill of anyone, not even once.
We are all allowed to have our opinion on any matter. But I do feel it should be balanced. There are many teachers I feel teach Dharma poorly or dangerously it is my job to make sure I do not commit the same wrong. I may comment on the act but not on the person or their motivation.
Barbara: I suggest you attend a lecture given by Geshe’ Michael Roach and then write about it. Then you will truly have the ability to comment based upon your personal experience.
brian — sorry, but this is a Buddhism site. You want the About.com Guide to Flim-Flam, I suspect.
How can you write a book about karma without ever mentioning the afterlife? Roach expects people to believe karma works within one lifetime. As if!