About

About Robert Beatty

Robert Beatty is a member of the first wave of Theravada Buddhist teachers who brought Insight Meditation and Mindfulness from Asia in the 1970s. In his teaching, Robert meets people where they are. He has worked with thousands of students and created a unique synthesis of Buddhist methods of awakening and healing and those of western psychotherapy. His unique teaching style, and his life affirming, human approach, enhance the traditional teachings. His honest vulnerability in sharing his journey is a super power that leads by example, inspiring deep contemplation. Robert shares the Dharma with warmth and grit – blending meditation, humor, music, poetry, movement, and human experience to guide others in meeting life’s beauty and difficulty with an openhearted presence. 

Robert has had the blessings of several fine teachers. He was a student of Ruth Denison for 43 years until her death in 2015. In 1982, Ruth authorised Robert to teach in the Burmese Buddhist Lineage of U Ba Khin. Robert also studied non-dual spirituality with Matthew Flickstein for ten years in Burma, where he took novice ordination with Tangpulu Sayadaw. In India, he practiced under the guidance of USN Goenka, Bhikku Rastropol, and Anagarika Munindra.  

Robert is a seasoned teacher, student of the mind, and traveller. At 21 years old, after receiving his BSc in Psychology and Chemistry from McGill University in Canada, Robert signed onto an ocean freighter, and for the next five years travelled broadly. He lived and worked in Australia and Switzerland. In 1972, on a Goenka retreat, he had a profound encounter with Buddhist meditation that changed his life. He went on to become a monk in India but had to disrobe because of an acute health issue and return to Canada.

While traveling, he was shaken by the degree of environmental collapse that was already happening in the world. On his return to Canada, he attended York University in Toronto, where he received a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies (MES). He encountered western psychotherapy in that program and began his life’s work of synthesizing this with meditation. His studies all focused on two questions: “How can humans become sensitive to how they affect the natural world, and how can we learn to live in greater harmony with nature and each other?”

In 1979 Robert moved to Portland, Oregon. He obtained his Master of Social Work degree from Portland State University. He worked for several years in addictions treatment as a Relapse Specialist and Meditation Teacher at Springbrook NW. Following experiences with the realities of sickness, old age, death and dying, Robert worked for several years as a Social worker at Providence Willamette Falls Hospice.

In 1980, he started the Portland Vipassana Sangha, which evolved into the Portland Insight Meditation Community twenty years later. With Ruth Denison’s encouragement, Robert founded the Portland Insight Meditation Community (PIMC), a highly active community following the Insight Meditation Path as taught by the Buddha. During the next twenty years that Robert led the community, they purchased a church, which became a hub for classes, retreats, and community events. He taught several next generation teachers. Robert left PIMC in 2024 and is now doing individual teaching and consultation.

Robert’s book,  Mindfulness for a Happy Life: New Teachings of an Old Tradition for Today’s World, can be found on https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Happy-Life-Teachings-Tradition/dp/1532673671.

In his vast experience over more than forty years, Robert has worked with hundreds of individuals to help them overcome psychological and emotional issues and to blossom fully into their lives. He has taught thousands of classes and over 200 residential retreats and conferences throughout the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.

His current and previous teachings can be found on https://robertbeatty.podbean.com as podcasts and on his YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@robertbeatty8440.

Robert is fully engaged with life. He is a husband, father, grandfather, poet, and musician. He knows firsthand the challenges of marriage, divorce, children, career, sickness, success and loss. In his work he helps people maximize their capacities and also deal with the successes and disappointments of the world. In this way, Robert’s approach maintains a strong practical aspect, helping people manage their daily lives and realise their business and life goals.

He has supported individuals as they were successful in their careers and has accompanied others as they let go of everything and prepared for their death. He has helped activists become more effective in their work and others whose calling took them deeply into their inner lives, seeking meaning and the end of suffering. 

Robert offers classes in meditation and Buddhist psychology. He also provides individual consultation in the psychological, emotional and spiritual domains.

website www.robertbeatty.com