Our Teachers

Michael Gregory Director

Lama Michael Gregory is a Buddhist teacher whose training spans more than three decades across the Indo-Tibetan and Theravāda traditions. Beginning his studies in the early 1990s, he apprenticed under many of the greatest meditation masters of Tibet, including HH The Dalai Lama, his root teacher from his teenage years- HH Penor Rinpoche, HH Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, His Eminence Thrangu Rinpoche, and numerous yogic practitioners throughout the Indian Himalaya.

He received the three-year retreat empowerments directly from H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche and went on to complete many years of solitary and group retreat in the Indian and Tibetan Himalaya, and the jungle of Northern Thailand, and Burma. His practice includes extended training in Mahamudra, Dzogchen, the Six Yogas, dark-retreat methods, and classical training in Theravadin Vipassanā and Jhana.

In early 2020, under the guidance of H.E. Thrangu Rinpoche, Lama Michael served as Retreat Master for the lineage’s final three-year retreat held in the mountains of Southern California, guiding and supporting practitioners through one of the most intensive cycles of traditional practice.

Today, Lama Michael oversees the Quiet Mind Wellness Centers and the Pemako Retreat Center just outside San Diego. He teaches weekly online and leads seasonal retreats, emphasizing direct experience, psychological clarity, and the unified contemplative heritage of India and Tibet.

He lives in the forested hills of Tuscany, near Florence, with his wife of ten years, two cats, and two dogs, dedicating his life to meditation practice, writing, retreat guidance, and the wellbeing of all students who seek a path of awakening grounded in wisdom, compassion, and the luminous nature of mind.