The other day I stumbled across something called “Tibetan Heart Yoga” being taught somewhere near here – in fact I think it was on one of the Google adverts here. “Whatever is that?”, I thought in blunter words. I’d never heard of it.
It turned out that this is the hybrid system launched by Michael Roach:
(Picture Scott Vacek)
He started out as a good guy, but fell in love. Some monks fall in love and deal with it, of course. In his case he went into a 3-year retreat. Problem was, he took his “spiritual partner” Christine McNally in with him. He still wears monk’s robes, but this is OK, he says because the hours a day that they practised “special physical yogas” were a) hard work, and b) he perceived her as a divine being and “you don’t break your vows if you engage in high yoga with a divine being”. Do I need to say more? See the Diamond-cutter site if you really want more detail.
Or, on another tack try this from the so-called five Tibetan rites, who say that:
Two thousand years ago, Tibetan monks claimed that the aging process could be reversed. They developed the Rites, by condensing 21 yoga exercises into 5. What would easily take a couple of hours to perform, could then be completed in 10-20 minutes. It was not uncommon for Tibetan monks to live to be 120 years of age, while still enjoying exceptional health!
Err… the Tibetans are very proud of their religious history. There were no Buddhist monks there until just over 1200 years ago (in 779 or 781 CE). Try reading the story about how this system came to be “known”! If it were worth the candle, I could go on – it’s a juvenile mishmash of fantasy and popular hindu-based theosophy. I say nothing about whether it might work, at least up to a point, but it is a stupid and dishonest presentation.
Mind you, the guy I talked about in this message, Ronald Lloyd Spencer, is a whole league worse!
geshe M. roach isnt the 1st or the last “monk” to have a divine partner. Padmasambhava, one of the most influent master in tibetan buddhsim had a partner wich were his disciple as well (Yeshe Tsoyal). And Marpa another of te most inflent master in tibetan buddhist was married and had children…. Don’t do demagogy Alex. Dharma is way more vast than your intellect and your limited understandings.
Thank you for pointing out the limited nature of my understandings, and for reminding me of the vastness of the Dharma.
The point is, of course, that neither Padmasambhava (at least as he is usually portrayed) nor Marpa (on any version of his story) pretended to be a “monk”. I’m glad you yourself put that word in inverted commas, as its usage is not always as clear as one might think.
There is no objection as far as I know to Michael having sex with as many partners as are happily willing. What there is an objection to is someone who is having sex but who claims at the same time to be upholding the vows of a fully ordained monk.
I don’t actually follow Michael’s activity – does he still make that claim?