Love is created in projected out by your own mind, your speech and your actions, True and lasting happiness comes from this recognition. Happiness does not come from money and material things. The greatest happiness is love, and love is immaterial.

Michael Gregory is the Founding Director of Mindfulness Meditation Centers, Quiet Mind Retreats and Mindfulness Beyond Therapy. He has led thousands of meditation classes and retreats on almost every subject matter related to Mindfulness, Buddhism in modern life and Meditation across the United States and Internationally for the last 25 years.

His wisdom is widely sought out in Mindfulness based counseling work,  where he brings his specialized background to offer his clients a new and transformative way of living, being in relationships and awakening to deeper path and purpose.  

He has led meditative pilgrimages and long term retreats throughout Thailand, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and India. His teachings and writing now touch hundreds of thousands of lives across the world through his worldwide following on social media.

Michael’s life story has been an inspiration to many students who are caught in the paradox of a spiritual life and worldly life and the suffering that often comes with it.  His message of being in this world and not of it and awakening in everyday life through compassion has transformed countless lives. 

By age 26 Michael was  successful investment banker at Bear Stearns. He had all the success that you could dream of, the cars, homes and relationships came easily to him, yet he was deeply unhappy. The American dream he was promised had come true but it was void of any joy or meaning.

Since he was a young child he had a strong calling to Buddhism and a deeply spiritual way of life, yet after tragedy struck and his father was murdered at age 8, he found himself living a life contrary to his higher aspirations. 

Through his childhood and teenage years he had several fortuitous meetings with Tibetan teachers who would later become his teachers and inspire his journey.

When he was 27 and at the peak of his career, he felt suicidal and knew that if he didn’t make a change in his life, then this simply wouldn’t be life worth living.

He made the decision to go with his heart and the true path that he had always known was meant for him and that had been encouraged by his teachers. 

He left banking and that all that life represented behind. Everything he had, he gave away to those in need as he traveled through Thailand, Tibet and India. He trained in Buddhist meditation in both Thailand and Burma and was ordained as a monk in the Burmese Tradition. 

He then traveled to India and after receiving teachings from His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Penor Rinpoche and His Holiness The Karmapa he was ordained in the Tibetan tradition by H.E. Gylatsab Rinpoche at Rumtek monastery in Sikkim. He then taught in Rumtek monastery for many years. 

He went on to complete and teach a 3 year silent meditation retreat with 12 of his students. After completing a 3 year retreat he was requested by his Tibetan teachers to return to the US and teach Buddhism in the West. He has been teaching the classical teachings of Buddhism in a modern context for the last 20 years in communities across the US and internationally.

Michael is appreciated for his direct, humorous and powerful teaching style.Clear, focused and modern heart essence teachings on non dual awareness, mindfulness, loving kindness and compassion as a path to complete awakening. 

Empowerment through taking 100% responsibility for emotions and projections has been a cornerstone of his teachings. Michael’s groundbreaking work on Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in greatly reducing anger, anxiety, guilt and depression without medication was featured in The Journal is Cognitive Psychology. This work forms the basis for the counseling work offered to his clients and has proven to have excellent short and long term results. 

Michael has taught at universities, hospitals and Fortune 500 companies across the world on how to be free of suffering and experience a truly meaningful and conscious life. 

Michael currently lives in San Diego and teaches classes and retreats online and in person in California, Colorado and Florida to thousands of students across the world, whose lives have been profoundly transformed by these teachings.