How successful are Geshe Michael Roach and his top students? What is the #1 lesson to learn at his new Sedona College of International Management?

Since 2009 when he founded the Diamond Cutter Institute, Geshe Michael Roach and his top students have traveled the world to teach “the ancient secrets for having everything in business and life.” Focusing on wealth, health, and relationships, Geshe Michael starts out in each country with a seminar on how to use principles of karma to plant “oxygen money”, and introduces the idea of having money in abundance, readily available like the air we breathe:

This system really works. For us money can become like oxygen… I don’t have to worry about the air, there’s enough air… If I want to breathe, I just {inhale} and the air will come in… When I want money, I just use the Diamond Cutter seed system, and then money comes to me.” 6/2015

In one country after another, he tells the audiences that his seed system can help them achieve financial freedom and much more:

Tonight we’re going to talk about oxygen money… In 15 minutes I will teach you how you can make $250 million business, have a beautiful partner, have energy and save the world…just listen! …Oxygen money, beautiful partner, youth, and inner peace — you don’t need to choose, you can have them all.” 7/2015

He frequently mentions the ease of using four steps in his system to plant karmic seeds for amazing success:

We will teach you four steps for creating any result you would like in your life. You can achieve great corporate success and personal success… It is the technique I used to help build a $250 million company, and you can use it, easily.” 10/2015

Did his four-step method actually “help build a $250 million company”, and will his audiences succeed easily? In 10 cases, we examine how well the method has worked out for him and his top students.

Case 1 : Could Geshe Michael use his method to solve his own marital and financial problems? When his secret marriage to Christie McNally broke down in 2009 and they had “$30,000 in credit card debt and little else”, he wrote a letter to students and supporters asking for money to buy him a new home: “… I would like to unashamedly ask if any of you would consider helping me to purchase the Rainbow House, with either a gift or a loan.” Having failed to make oxygen money to pay for his own house, he now owes people a debt of gratitude:

‘Home’ for me means Rainbow House… This place was bought and paid for by a huge group of my friends and students about 5 years ago, and I would like once more to express my grateful thanks to each of you who contributed. This is the first time in my life that I have had my own home, and it means a lot to me.” 12/2014

Since he could not even improve his personal finance on his own, did his “karmic management” really help his Jewish bosses build a multi-million dollar company?

Despite his secret marriage ending in divorce and the ex-wife calling him a bitter and “formidable enemy”, Geshe Michael had the chutzpah to write The Karma of Love and give talks titled “Perfect Relationships” and “Relationships Never End”. If his method really works, why did it not save his marriage or prevent “a huge number of break ups” among his most advanced students?

Just like in other countries, he told an audience in Vietnam last year:

People ask me: “Can I use this system in my relationships, in my family or can I use it in my business relationships?” Yeah, you can use the same seeds, same principles. Some people ask me: “I have a bad back or I have some stomach problem. Can I use these seeds to solve my health problems?” Yeah, you can use these seeds for everything.” 6/2015

Besides his failed marriage, it’s obvious that the seed system did not work as claimed: A) On their 2006 trip to India, despite having tried his method and everything that they could think of, Geshe Michael and McNally once again suffered from “Delhi belly”, the gastrointestinal problem that had plagued them in all previous trips: You can’t get a glass of water in India, you can’t get a glass of water which you can drink [without experiencing diarrhea]. So here is this thing, you are looking at it, will this kill me, you see. And I am talking literal, you know. We were very sick there, and there’s nothing you can do, because the penicillin is bad too, you see, I am not kidding, I am not kidding. Maybe somebody in the factory wanted an extra 50 cents, they threw in some rat poison or something.” —Geshe Michael Roach, 2006 B) During their marriage, he tried to apply his method to get the breakfast cereal that he wanted, but failed and gave up after years of working on that simple goal. C) In 2010, he entered a competition to be a talk show host but failed the audition round. D) He next auditioned to give a TED talk (not TEDx) but again failed to get selected.

Despite such undeniable failures, Geshe Michael and the Diamond Cutter Institute (DCI) market his failed system to unsuspecting audiences around the world. Avoiding Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, he and his “DCI global team” go to many non-English speaking countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America to hold DCI seminars and workshops. Each of 12 DCI levels of training begins with his introductory talk (usually about 30 euros a ticket) and is followed by a pricey 2-day workshop. In Germany, tickets start at almost 700 euros for DCI Level 1 and 1300 euros for DCI Level 9, premium tickets that provide personal attention from Geshe Michael cost 3000 euros.

Cases 2 & 3 : Ignoring Geshe Michael’s divorce and “the huge number of break-ups that happened constantly” at Diamond Mountain, Nick Lashaw lavished praise on Geshe Michael’s Karma of Love: “A wonderful reference for all of your relationship needs! This book is a brilliant elucidation on the workings of karma and how to apply it to your life!” Lashaw and his wife Erin teach at DCI workshops and seminars in many countries and according to their GoFundMe page, “work so hard to help others realize their dreams”. Without a hint of irony, the well-educated couple stated that they had found “the house of their dreams”, but would “need a little help to come up with the down payment on the house, and thought to humbly ask” for donations. As DCI teachers and coaches, don’t they know what seeds to plant to make themselves well-off? Or has the seed system failed because it is rooted in Geshe Michael’s misinterpretation of Buddhist teachings?

Regrettably, it’s been over a year and the couple still hasn’t reached half of their fundraising goal. Like Geshe Michael, his top students failed to get results from the four steps, but with irrational exuberance they promote his method and insist that it works.

Case 4 : Li Yang (name modified) lives in Norway but frequently traveled back to Asia to translate for Geshe Michael’s audiences. With her as translator, he told a Shanghai audience how reading his book helped “two secretaries” started the Kaplan Thaler Group, a multi-million dollar advertising agency. In reality, it’s just a bogus story and an absurd attempt to take credit for another enormously successful Jewish-run business. Couldn’t he find a real success story from his own students? Teaching donation-based yoga classes in Norway, Li Yang invited her beloved teacher to give a talk to Norwegians about his success method. On his visit to Oslo, Geshe Michael told a roomful of yoga enthusiasts: “$200 million will come, I’m not kidding… Is it difficult? It’s easier than yoga.” With a PhD degree from a Norwegian university, the bright Chinese native certainly knows how to follow “DCI four steps”, but Li Yang’s business has been struggling for years. Appealing for donations on the Facebook page of her yoga studio, she wrote last year: “As many of you know we have always had unstable locations because we cannot ever afford to enter into a long term lease.” Will she have the intellectual courage to face the fact that his method does not have doctrinal support, and has failed him and his brightest students?

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Ignoring reality, Geshe Michael told Chinese audiences last year:

Let’s stop doing things that don’t work. Let’s focus our time and energy on the one thing that works 100% of the time. In this system, our chance of success is: 100%.” 5/2015

We are recommending that you use the only approach that offers 100% guarantee of working to solve problems and achieve goals — to understand the seeds that will bring the result, and then systematically plant them.” 4/2015

In addition to misleading his audiences about the effectiveness of his method, since at least 2011 Geshe Michael has regularly given them a dishonest self-introduction. Ignoring facts, the Diamond Cutter Institute, headed by his long time students Orit and Scott Vacek, even posted his false narrative to its Facebook page:

So after 25 years in the monastery, my teacher gave me a special second “final examination.” To prove that I understand what I learned, I had to go back to New York and start a diamond business [Andin International]…” –GMR, 8/2015

Perhaps his DCI cheerleaders and enablers are just too blinded by devotion to separate fact from fantasy. A more credible account is that he became a novice monk at the small Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in Howell, New Jersey right after graduating from Princeton University in 1975, and about 6 years later asked Ofer Azrielant, an immigrant fresh from Israel for a job:

I remember I couldn’t get a job … I went to thirty different companies, they all threw me out. And then finally I met this guy and I begged him, “I’ll do anything, I’ll wash the windows, I’ll, I’ll clean the floor, I’ll do anything, just teach me the diamonds.”

And so the Princeton graduate started out as an “errand boy … carrying nondescript canvas bags” for the 30-year-old Jew and his wife Aya Azrielant:

And I had to carry things from 33rd street to 47th street and that was my job. And then one day he gave me eight dollars, and then later on he gave me nine dollars, and then he gave me ten dollars, and then he gave me a salary and then I got a position and then it was fifty thousand, and sixty thousand and it kept going, escalating, you know and then finally it reached this point where I’m the vice president and I have to have all these things. You know, at the beginning I didn’t know what to do with the money. I, I just put it in the bank account and I didn’t know what to do with it, you know, I just collected it. And now it seems like I can’t bear, I’m, I’m overspent usually [laughter] and I can’t bear to live without it, you know, and… And, and my mind still wants more, you know your mind wants more.” ACI Course 8, 1996

Having owned a successful jewelry business in Israel, the Azrielants founded a jewelry-making company named Andin International Inc. in 1981, not “Andin International Diamond Corporation” as Geshe Michael calls it. According to Jewish Business News, the enterprising couple quickly built Andin into “one of the three largest jewelry manufacturing companies in the United States.” The same news source reported last month that 17 Israeli businessmen had made the 2016 Forbes Billionaires list which is already crowded with Jews from America, Europe and elsewhere. If Geshe Michael could help his Jewish bosses make money by applying karmic management principles learned in Tibetan monasteries, it’s not clear why Tibetans have not managed to make the Forbes list.

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Cases 5 & 6 : Eric Brinkman, a co-founder of the Diamond Cutter Institute, insisted: “… if you plant the seeds for wealth, you won’t ask, ‘Do we have enough money?’ The money will be there.” But like Geshe Michael and other students, Brinkman simply asked for donations: $6000 to fund his translation of a Tibetan Buddhist text, and the translated work will be downloadable for free. His previous book “Easy Logic: Tibetan Wisdom for Happiness and Success” — mirroring Geshe Michael’s promises — did not sell. Why couldn’t he plant seeds to make the book a success, with at least $6000 in sales? Regrettably, like Geshe Michael, Brinkman became a married monk — a violation of their Gelug monastic tradition. In an unorthodox ceremony, Geshe Michael and Christie McNally ordained him as Venerable Lobsang Nyingpo and later arranged his marriage to Mercedes Bahleda. As Geshe Michael’s personal assistant for many years, Mercedes has received many teachings on karmic management and heard too many times how his method would help people “make their dreams come true,” but like her husband, she could not apply the 4 steps to bring in sales for her music. Has Geshe Michael been teaching a distorted view of how karma works?

Case 7 : John Brady is the director of the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) which Geshe Michael founded in 1988. When the project started to run low on funds, Geshe Michael simply asked students for donations to ACIP and its dedicated director:

If you have money, okay, help him. He’s mortgaged his house, his bank account is gone, we don’t have big corporate sponsors like that. He is surviving, the project is surviving on small individuals who want to help.” –GMR, Spiritual Partners V, 5/2006

Did Brady not know how to plant seeds for oxygen money to fund the project? Didn’t Geshe Michael know? Or did the 4 steps not work?

Case 8 : Like ACIP, Geshe Michael’s Three Jewels — an outreach center that offers donation-based Buddhist and yoga classes in Manhattan — struggles financially. Thanks to rising revenues in recent years from selling fantasies to large audiences in cities across China, Geshe Michael could now offer to pay half of Three Jewels’ monthly rent, but still asked for donations:

I’ll start whining and begging you for money to keep the Three Jewels open. The landlord doesn’t take smiles as rent, therefore you should help, OK? Help us out… We need money to keep the place open. This is a chronic, unpleasant truth of life that the owner of the building refuses to take yoga classes as payment for the rent.” 11/2014

Does Hector Marcel, who runs the Three Jewels and has taught for DCI, not know how to use the 4-step method to make the center financially self-sufficient? Does his “incomparable Geshe Michael Roach” not know either? Or has the oxygen money making method been a breathtaking delusion born of Geshe Michael’s misinterpretation of karmic principles?

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According to Geshe Michael, he can advise people on “what karma they need to do to get what they want” and his method will help them “get whatever they want, whatever they dream of.” He says that DCI teachers are “dream fulfillment experts” who can recommend specific karmic solutions for life problems and challenges. But according to Buddhist teachings, the precise working out of karma is imponderable and unconjecturable: unless Geshe Michael and his team have the fully-enlightened mind of Buddhas, they couldn’t possibly know the specific causes of life circumstances. If they know something practical, perhaps they themselves could have become millionaires and billionaires to fund their projects and centers, or help the world like Bill Gates does through his charitable foundation.

Last year was Geshe Michael’s second trip to Vietnam where people struggle on a $160 average monthly income and are desperate to believe in the promise of abundant wealth from a Princeton-educated monk. With tickets at $36 (US dollars), Geshe Michael and Co. made a killing in ’Nam. Back in 2009, one year before their marriage officially ended in divorce, he visited the country with Christie McNally — who was one of his earliest students and is 21 years younger than him — and advised the Vietnamese on how to have beautiful and lasting relationships. Hiding the fact that McNally had been his wife since 1998, he introduced her as his “spiritual partner” when they came out of their meditation retreat (2000-2003); as his consort, she became known as “Lama Christie McNally” and started to teach by his side.

Then and now, Geshe Michael and his DCI cheerleaders/enablers have kept hidden from the audience the fact that he was a married monk. He is returning for a third tour in ’Nam this August 2016; in between the tours, more money are drained from the local populace through seminars taught by two DCI senior teachers: 1) Kelly Tan from Singapore-based Diamond Wisdom which plays a leading role in helping Geshe Michael expand into China and other Asian countries, and 2) Jamie Plante, the director of TheKnowledgeBase.com which now only hosts teachings by Geshe Michael; lectures co-taught by McNally — whom Geshe Michael had claimed to be a Buddha — were unceremoniously disappeared.

Invited to give a talk at his alma mater in 2010, the newly divorced Geshe Michael told fellow Princetonians that he hadn’t known about the internet until after coming out of his meditation retreat (2000-2003), and claimed that his having access to the internet was a karmic result of doing the three-year retreat. But that’s yet another bogus story because he already knew about the internet since at least 1994. Although Geshe Michael claimed to have become an Arya Bodhisattva at age 22, he seems to have no qualms about lying to people. Such deceptive conduct is contrary to that of Buddhist masters throughout the ages:

Avoiding all deceit and cunning… this is a Bodhisattva.” —Gampopa

My realization is higher than the sky but my observance of karma is finer than grains of flour.” —Padmasambhava

Just as Geshe Michael’s internet-as-karmic-reward story is deceptive/delusional, the same can be said of his karmic management method, which may have stemmed from a mistaken understanding or perhaps a deliberate misrepresentation of the authentic teachings on karmic principles. If karmic management works the way he teaches, perhaps the Tibetan people could have already managed to become one of the wealthiest, healthiest, and happiest in the world.

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Cases 9 & 10 : When Christie McNally’s secret marriage to Geshe Michael ended in 2010, she wasted no time marrying Ian Thorson who had been a student/attendant of Geshe Michael and her. Happy to be with someone her own age, McNally co-wrote Two as One: Journey to Yoga with Thorson, and the newlyweds joined Diamond Mountain’s second three-year retreat with her as the Retreat Director.

Leading almost 40 people, McNally went into the retreat with her new husband but came out a widow. The beautiful dream that Geshe Michael sells to people around the world was in reality nightmarish for his top students: 38-year old Stanford graduate Ian Thorson died of thirst, hunger and illness in a mountain cave high above the unforgiving desert; Christie McNally — an NYU graduate and Diamond Mountain University’s preeminent professor — found herself divorced and widowed before the age of 40. Did McNally and Thorson not know how to plant seeds for a lifetime of happiness? The unexpected ending — a Shakespearean tragedy of swordplay, exile, and death — is in stark contrast to Geshe Michael’s dreams-come-true promise and 100% success guarantee. Would Thorson still be here today had he never been a follower of Geshe Michael? According to Buddhist teachings, life events are not predestined: if Thorson took a different path in life, he would mostly likely still be alive today; likewise, the odds are McNally would have had a somewhat normal, if not happy life.

This April four years ago, as the high desert was graced with a brilliant Spring day, Thorson succumbed to illness and died in the arms of McNally while trying to complete their “Three Year Retreat for Peace.” Was his death caused in part by the couple’s misplaced faith in the healing power of karmic management which Geshe Michael claims “can remove diseases” from gout to cancer? Despite their buying wholesale into his teachings, Geshe Michael now dismisses the couple as “the two people that screwed up” and refuses to endorse teaching activities by McNally, whom he previously declared as the tantric Buddha Vajrayogini.

As McNally is left to pick up the pieces, Geshe Michael travels the world receiving the rock star treatment from students and fans. Misleading people with deceptive claims and false promises, he sells fantasies to “almost 25,000 people” a year. A 2014 newsletter stated: “During the year we offered programs in 25 different cities in Latin America, Europe, the US [only ACI classes, no DCI levels], and Asia. The total attendance exceeded 18,000 people, with audiences of over a thousand each in such disparate locations as Mexico City and Malaysia.” Out of these thousands of people, how many will lose faith in karmic principles and Buddhism because his method does not work?

Not buying into Geshe Michael’s deception and delusions is a precocious 12-year-old named Thea, the daughter of Thorson from a previous marriage to a German woman. With Mom by her side, she traveled from Germany to America, Nepal, and India to seek solace and meaning for Daddy’s death. Thea's journey, filmed in black and white, has yielded few answers. If her father’s death on the mountainside has a meaning, let it warn Geshe Michael’s students against walking down the same slippery slope where intelligent discernment ends and blind devotion begins.

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Unable to save his Diamond Mountain University from negative publicity, Geshe Michael and his supporters/enablers are starting a for-profit college called the “Sedona College of International Management” (SCIM). Each “academic session” is ten days long and the first session is $2750 in tuition cost per student. To receive a “degree” from the “college”, students are expected to attend 5 academic sessions per year to finish DCI or ACI training in about 3 years. The total tuition to enroll at this unaccredited college may reach at least $41000 for the 3 years — assuming the school can recruit and retain enough naive students to stay open that long. As an indication of its management ability, the college failed to meet its planned opening in 2015 and had to postpone until Spring 2016, a goal it also managed to miss. Handpicked for their unquestioning devotion, DCI vice-presidents Orit Ben Basat and Scott Vacek, and some other DCI teachers including Nicholas Lashaw become professors of the college. Having failed to recognize inauthentic teachings, these professors continue to promote the method that didn’t even work for its most vocal proponents. With such professors in charge, will Sedona College students have a bright future or will they end up like the graduates of Trump University and the failed Diamond Mountain University? Other than the likelihood of getting employed as baristas at Starbucks, students of the Sedona College will have opportunities “to be considered” for teaching roles at the Diamond Cutter Institute, where they may get to travel the world and sell the four-step method to other gullible people, or they may be considered for less glamorous roles at the non-profit Asian Classics Institute and the commendable Asian Classics Input Project. Perhaps a bright future awaits those who can discern that, like his other questionable teachings, all the talk about oxygen money is just hot air.

Update 2 of 2 : In January 2017, the Sedona College of International Management began its first academic session. Starting the students on his questionable teachings, Geshe Michael taught that to give or do good without expecting anything in return is a “lower school” understanding, while having expectations is a higher view. In truth, all “higher schools” of Buddhism teach that the transcendental or highest aspect of dana paramita (“perfection of giving”) is giving without expectations, and this view has been taught by all lineage lamas including Pabongka Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyentse Ripoche, etc. Meanwhile, Peter Moertl (also spelled Peter Mörtl) — a German who heads DCI teacher training in Europe and is now a professor of the college — wrote a glowing review on the school’s Facebook page: “A unique, world class organization, teaching proven, logical and fun ways how to create anything you want in your world.” Will Sedona College produce a new crop of fantasists?

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Also you must practice giving without expecting anything in return, or any [karmic] ripening effects.” —Pabongka Rinpoche (1878–1941)

The practice of all the Bodhisattvas is to give out of generosity, with no hopes of karmic recompense or expectation of reward.” —Gyalse Tokme Zangpo (1297-1371)

When you persevere in Dharma practice, it is essential to always train in turning any virtuous root of action, through body, speech, or mind, to be for the benefit of others. First, train gradually in this with the smallest deeds. From time to time, check to see whether or not you are tainted by the defilement of self-interest. You will not be successful if you retain even the tiniest taint of selfishness. Make sure not to be tainted by the defilement of self-interest.” —Padmasambhava

There are three or four factors that are necessary to make complete positive karma: 1) Proper motivation, 2) right thought, 3) right effort [in taking action], and 4) satisfaction [rejoicing]. If you carefully examine the way we are engaging in the positive actions or karma, most of our positive karma becomes incomplete because of lack of bringing these factors together. Proper motivation refers to motivation which is not inﬂuenced by a self-cherishing attitude, or material reward out of self interest. Right effort refers to effort that should be joyous. Once positive karma is created we immediately dedicate this positive action, or deed, for the welfare of every sentient being, without expectations of self interest. If we think in this way, most of our positive karma, becomes complete.” —Geshe Dakpa Topgyal

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The results of our actions are often delayed, even into future lifetimes; we cannot pin down one cause, because any event can be an extremely complicated mixture of many karmas ripening together.” —Sogyal Rinpoche

No one other than a Buddha can actually see the workings of karma fully and clearly; therefore no one can actually indicate the precise karmic reasons [for life circumstances].” —Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche

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If the spiritual master is following a wrong path, which is contrary to mainline teachings, the student should be able to take a stand and not blindly follow that path.” —The Dalai Lama

However, faith in one’s guru does not mean blind faith. It does not mean believing “My guru is perfect,” even though your guru is not perfect. It is not pretending that your guru’s defects are qualities. It is not rationalizing every foible of the guru into a superhuman virtue. After all, most gurus will have defects. You need to recognize them for what they are.” —Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, a personal tutor to the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje and the four Kagyu regents

Should the guru manifest un-dharmic qualities or give teachings contradicting dharma, the instruction on seeing the spiritual master as perfect must give way to reason and dharma wisdom.” —The Dalai Lama

Therefore, as students, you should first watch and investigate thoroughly. Do not consider someone as a teacher or guru until you have certain confidence in the person’s integrity. This is very important. Then, second, even after that, if some unhealthy things happen, you have the liberty to reject them.” —The Dalai Lama

If students sincerely point out the faults of the guru and explain any contradictory behavior, this will, in fact, help the guru to correct that behavior and adjust any wrong actions.” —The Dalai Lama

What is in the best interest of the Buddhadharma is much more important than anything concerning an individual guru. Therefore, if it is necessary to criticize a guru to save the Buddhadharma or to benefit several hundred of their disciples, do not hesitate.

… It is essential to distinguish between two things: the person and their action. We criticize the action, not the person… Speaking out against the action does not mean that we hate the person… Thus, we may criticize a teacher’s abusive actions or negative qualities while we respect them as a person at the same time… Motivation is the key: speaking out of hatred or desire for revenge is wrong. However, if we know that by not speaking out, their bad behavior will continue and will harm the Buddhadharma, and we still remain silent, that is wrong.” —The Dalai Lama

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Update 1 of 2 : In July 2016 the Diamond Cutter Institute posted a “success” story of an Argentine architect named Laura Valiente. Regrettably, her testimonial once more illustrates the distorted understanding and mistaken views of karmic principles as presented by Geshe Michael and DCI.

Editor’s note : Although there are still things left unsaid and topics unexplored, this is is likely the last article. Thank you all for your readership. Since 2012, we’ve published numerous articles that show Geshe Michael’s method does not work in real life. Even in theory, his method couldn’t possibly work the way he says it does, and we’ve presented doctrinal arguments against his distorted understanding of karmic principles and mistaken view on generosity. We encourage readers to explore the Resources page where you can find authentic teachings. As usual, we challenge the Diamond Cutter Institute and related organizations to not delete videos, Facebook posts, and other content that have been questioned on this blog.

Geshe Michael is teaching in many non-English speaking countries, if you understand what we have been saying, alert your countrymen on social media and/or post to the DCI Facebook page the above quotes on karma and generosity (these quotes are also featured on the sidebar for easy copy and paste).

Related posts:

Mission Implausible: “Coffee Meditation” and the Four-Step Method Does Geshe Michael Roach simply misunderstand or deliberately misrepresent a key Buddhist doctrine?

California Dreaming: “The Karma Show” Why did he fail to get a TV show?

Ideas and Invention: Failed Pitch 2.0 Why did he fail to get a TED talk?

Self-delusion: a proof of concept Why did he fail to get the breakfast that he wanted?

Time after time Why did his method fail him time and again?