Welcome to The Five Houses:

A Path to Mastery

Designed for Today’s World

In October 2024, Geshe Michael Roach introduced the idea of the Five Houses—a framework for exploring and preserving profound knowledge for future generations. 

The Five Houses bridge timeless wisdom and modern needs, providing practical action tools for personal development, professional success, and a deeper connection to what matters most. Modeled on traditional university systems, where students live and learn together in community, the Five Houses provides a modern-day opportunity to experience this learning modality, combining virtual, in-person, and interactive activities. Creating global communities, participants in the Five Houses will share learning, exploring, and life experiences at a pace that suits their varied lifestyles, forming true friendships and collegial relationships around the world. Whether you’re interested in mindfulness, effective communication, or innovative problem-solving, there’s a house for you.

1. Classics House
Become a Master Scholar 

This House studies, teaches, and translates the great classics. Classics House members will engage deeply in timeless wisdom works, investigating the pros and cons of topics that have engaged scholars of wisdom over the centuries. Classics House members will pay particular attention to how the timeless wisdom they study can be applied to the joys and challenges of daily life in the 21st century, making it relevant to everyone.  There is a rich collection of 18 foundational courses, each containing ten classes, that will form the core of Classics House participation.

  • In this House, in addition to deep immersion in the classics, you will have the option to learn the languages of timeless wisdom and become a translator into the modern language of your choice. Not only will you learn the material, but you will gain an appreciation and understanding of the intellectual history that has preserved and transmitted these teachings in an unbroken line from ancient sources. You will learn the critical thinking necessary to truly master deeply important source material, and the techniques you need to debate key topics in order to deepen and improve your own knowledge. Members of Classics House are encouraged to become teachers themselves, with the goal of helping others cope with modern life using the tools they learn and create in the course of their studies. 

    Five prerequisite courses are required.

    Join those who dedicate themselves to keeping teachings alive for future generations, and learn to disseminate them in today’s world in useful ways.

2. Samadhi House
Become a Meditation Master

Dive deep into the art and science of meditation. Samadhi House members will study authentic sources in great detail, learning what ancient masters had to impart about the deepest, most helpful, and most correct ways to study, learn, and—most importantly—practice meditation. Samadhi House students will learn the philosophical underpinnings of meditation, why it is important to learn to meditate, and what the true goal of a strong meditative practice is.

  • A main tenet of meditation is to get familiar with the nine classical stages of learning to meditate, and how that can be universally applicable to all meditation students. Members will investigate how to prepare for meditation; what conditions are needed for an ideal meditation environment; appropriate meditation postures; the actual mental process that occurs during meditation; and potential objects for meditation—that is, what we meditate on. Popular modern interpretations of the classical practices of shamatha and vipashyana—a high platform of meditative stability combined with insight—will be examined and practiced.

    Five prerequisite courses are required.

    This is the place for those who want to explore mindfulness, concentration, and transformative mental training—not just as a personal practice but as a skill to teach others.

3. Mountain House
Become a Retreat Master

Unlock the power of retreat to solve problems, spark innovation and creativity, and achieve breakthroughs in your personal life and business. Mountain House members will immerse themselves in the challenging dichotomy of how to fit actual retreat practice into busy daily lives. Too often life seems to preclude the possibility of immersing ourselves in deeper practices that involve solitude and focus. Most people today live their lives thoroughly distracted by multi-tasking and overlapping commitments that crash into each other.

  • The studies and teachings that Mountain House provides will help each member learn tips, techniques, and tricks to find the time and apply the wisdom necessary to do deep retreat in the midst of overly busy lives. Members will become competent not only in how to do classic, deep, long-term retreat, but to find the means and ability to squeeze shorter yet wildly productive retreats into everyday life. Developing the habit of retreat adds value and meaning to life's challenges.

    Retreat unlocks serenity and creativity, allowing us, among other things, to allow innovation to flower in our business and personal lives. Members will acquire the ability to retreat not only for themselves; they will learn to instruct and guide others in these valuable methods.

    Five prerequisite courses are required.

    Mountain House is where modern challenges meet timeless methods of retreat.

4. Staircase House
Become a Steps on the Path Master

Guide others on their personal journeys using the proven Steps on the Path. 

Members of Staircase House will have a dual focus: learning key concepts of timeless wisdom by deeply integrating them through study and contemplation, and creating strategies, techniques, and tools for applying them on a daily basis to everyday life. Relevance is a guiding principle in Staircase House, and members will joyfully engage in the challenge to grapple with ancient ideas and mold them into useful daily practices without losing the essence of the time-treasured concepts. 

  • There is a wide variety of Steps on the Path literature available, designed to lead you up the staircase of timeless wisdom. The genre is comprehensive, covering many details such as how to prepare your meditation space properly and ranging all the way to deep concepts that will help you and others navigate the challenges of daily life in new and unexpected ways. You will find out how to identify and connect with a teacher; understand how to celebrate the amazing leisure and fortune you have found in this life; appreciate the importance of filtering out all the negative thoughts, words, and deeds we all do so constantly and replace them with the positive; and develop true equanimity about everything life throws at you. In daily life, you will practice eliminating the distinctions among friends, enemies, and people you don’t know. You’ll experiment with the powerful tool of planning and living your life backed up with the vows of ethics and morality; learn and apply the crucial balancing factor of meditation; and nourish, support, and cherish all the many angels your life holds.

    Members of Staircase House will become experts in several classic works like Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation Thrust into the Palm of Your Hand and Je Tsongkapa's The Source of All My Good.

    Five prerequisite courses are required.

    Staircase House is for those who are passionate about making profound principles accessible and practical for daily life.

5. Diamond House
Become a Master of Leadership

Lead with quiet yet powerful influence.

Members of Diamond House will learn to use what they investigate and discover in Diamond House to change their world for the better.  Diamond House members discover how just being present in any environment can change and shape matters, whether on a domestic or a world scale, for the better, once they have mastered and integrated the principles this House imparts. Members gain exposure to a twofold approach that leads gradually through an introduction to diamond way teachings all the way to becoming a true master of these methods.

  • In this House, improving life for yourself and others reaches new heights. Members will transcend the norms by which most people live out their lives, and revitalize their minds and ways of thinking in truly profound ways. The core goal of Diamond House is to bring these changed ways of living and thinking to everyday activities and begin to transform these as well. Whether you are viewed as a leader, or merely contribute your presence in ways which may or may not be directly appreciated by those around you, your membership in Diamond House will have a significant effect on improving your world in big and small ways.

    Five prerequisite courses are required.

    Diamond House focuses on integrating transformative principles into your personal and professional life, empowering you to create lasting change in subtle but impactful ways.

What House Speaks to You?

Let us know your interest and stay updated on our progress. This is not a commitment to joining a house but a way to express your interest, stay informed, and help us understand how to shape the houses for the future.

Exciting Updates Coming in 2025!

Stay tuned as we finalize the details and reveal more ways for you to get involved in this transformative journey.