Michael G. Burbank

Michael G. Burbank has been a student of Robert Thurman and HH the XIV Dalai Lama for over 25 years, since his undergraduate years studying Eastern religions and cultures at Columbia University in the 90s. In February of 2002, he was invited to help the Thurmans and Tibet House start the newly acquired Menla retreat. Over the years, he worked variously as Menla’s dishwasher, housekeeper, maintenance assistant, Front of House Manager, and Assistant Director, and since 2013 he has served as Menla’s Director.

Michael received the Kalachakra Tantra initiation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama twice–in 2003 and 2017–in Bodh Gaya, India. An avid life-long student and practitioner of Buddhism, Michael teaches classes at Menla and occasionally co-leads retreats. He is working in conjunction with a team of entrepreneurs and mindfulness teachers to launch Mindwell Labs, a for-profit mindfulness tech company intended to further the efforts of Tibet House US/Menla nationwide through a cutting edge health app that monitors anxiety. In his spare time, he works on spiritually-based screenplays and graphic novels, including most recently as letterer and co-author of Man of Peace: the Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama with William Meyers and Robert Thurman.