The Teachers of PIMC
PIMC is a first generation Dharma center with origins in Burma, Thailand and India. Our practice is based upon the Noble Eightfold Path of the Buddha and the teachings that have been passed down through the Theravada lineage for 2500 years.
PIMC Resident Teachers:
Upcoming Guest Teachers:
Nana Gyesie ・ Carole Melkonian・
Alexa Redner ・ Kirsten Rudestam ・Alexis Santos ・ David Sudar ・Betsy Toll
Past Guest Teachers:
Ayya Suvijjānā ・ Ayya Niyyānika ・ Doyle Banks ・ Enrique Collazo ・ Kate Davies ・
Teacher Trainees:
Meditation and Mindful Movement Teacher
Jim Dalton
(he/him)
Jim has studied the Dharma since 1990. Ever since his teenage years he has been grappling with questions like: Who am I? Where did I come from? What am I here for? It is only since practicing in the Portland Insight Meditation Community that he has found the tools to effectively address those fundamental questions. He doesn’t have the answers to his own questions, but his greatest joy is trying to teach so he can learn.
What he teaches reflects the constantly changing nature of his practice while also returning to his foundations in the Four Noble truths: how to understand suffering; how to abandon clinging; how to learn to let go of clinging; how to find the path to freedom and stay on it. If he can inspire others to practice with him, he feels successful.
Most recently he has established mindful movement as the foundation of his practice, deepening his investigation of the body through QiGong and Tai Chi, deepening his exploration of the body as the First of Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
His aging body has become his new teacher, lending a sense of urgency to his own search for liberation, focusing more and more on aging as a spiritual journey. As the sands of his personal time on this planet continues to run out, he draws more and more inspiration from the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.
Meditation Teacher
Douglas Pullin
(he/him)
Douglas Pullin (he/him) has been teaching at PIMC since 2004. He is a lineage holder and authorized to teach in the Insight Meditation tradition of U Ba Kin and Ruth Denison. Douglas graduated from the Spirit Rock sponsored Community Dharma Leader Training with Tara Brach and James Baraz in 2008. Douglas is currently a student of Mathew Flickstein in the Bhante Gunaratana lineage from Sri Lanka. Douglas has a master’s degree in counseling psychology, and master’s in clinical social work. He has over 25 years of non-profit management experience in community mental healthcare. In addition to teaching at PIMC, Douglas offers mindfulness-based psychotherapy and consultation in independent practice. Douglas also works as a consultant in the nonprofit social service field. He enjoys meditation retreats, going for runs in the woods, hiking, and gardening.
Upcoming Guest Teachers
Nana Gyesie
Nana Gyesie, PhD is an ICF certified leadership, life and spiritual coach, and a RYT 200 certified Kemetic Yoga teacher under Master Yirser Ra Hotep and part of the Community Dharma Leader program at Spirit Rock. He was precepted by Bhante Buddharakkita.
The dharma is a tool for his ongoing liberation, particularly focusing on metta, anapanasati.
Nana practices at the Seattle Insights Meditation Center, under the tutelage of Tuere Sala and Tim Geil. He is originally a native of Ghana, and is a proud father of three indigo children, and practices street photography in his spare time, inspired by Gordon Parks; and loves listening to loud reggae music on beautiful Seattle summer days.
Meditation Teacher
https://www.innermileage.com
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Carole Melkonian
Carole Melkonian has been practicing meditation since 1980, when she spent 4 years in residence at Zen Mountain Monastery under the guidance of John Daido Loori. Afterwards, she studied closely with Thich Nhat Hanh for 12 years, helping start his publishing company, Parallax Press. She has attended 6 three-month Winter Retreats at Chithurst and Amaravati monasteries and dedicated all of 2015 to practicing meditation at monasteries in England, the US and Canada.
She draws inspiration from the Thai Forest Tradition of Luang Por Chah, and nondual teachings, and continues to study with Ajahn Sucitto and former nun Willa Thaniya Reid. In 1997 she attended the MBSR training course with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli and is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program.
Her current work and practice include teaching meditation programs at hospitals, a senior center, a weekly sangha, and serving as a mentor for students in the international online Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She also leads residential retreats at Cloud Mountain Retreat
Center in Southern WA.
Meditation Teacher
Meditation Teacher
https://alexaredner.com/
Alexa Redner
Alexa has been practicing in the Insight meditation tradition for twenty years, including over a year spent in intensive retreat practice. She was authorized to teach the Buddha’s Dharma by one of Spirit Rock’s founding teachers, James Baraz. She holds a BA in Visual Arts and MA in Creation Spirituality, both from Naropa University.
Alexa has been an educator in many realms over the last twenty years, dancing between the worlds of being a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, program teacher for Mindful Schools, and Eating Disorders/Body Positive Educator at Beyond Hunger.
Alexa is currently a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Certification Program and is a senior teacher for the online practice community, Banyan. She is a guest teacher for the Insight Meditation community of Berkeley, and has led retreats in person and online through Spirit Rock Meditation Community and Insight Meditation Society.
Alexa brings a playful and soft approach to the sacred work of awakening, influenced by U Tejaniya’s style of Vipassana meditation and Rob Burbea’s creative approach to Samadhi practice. She has a special fire for cultivating brave and loving spaces where women can use the blessings of the Dharma to cultivate nurturing relationships to food and their bodies.
Alexa loves spending time with the rivers and trees of the Pacific Northwest with her fiddling husband and 11 year old son.
Meditation Teacher
https://www.kirstenrudestam.com/
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten is an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She believes that practices of (re)connection are vital for cultivating the resilience needed to face ecological loss and embrace our inherent interdependence.
Kirsten holds a PhD in environmental sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she focused on water policy and environmental justice. She is a trained vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders, a facilitator of Joanna Macy’s “Work That Reconnects.” She has been teaching in colleges and universities, environmental field courses, and nature-based meditation programs since 2002.
A dedicated meditation practitioner since 1997, Kirsten has been authorized and trained to teach in the Theravadan tradition by her mentors, Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. She co-founded and co-teaches the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Training Program, supporting others in responding to the challenges of our time with compassion and wisdom.
Meditation Teacher
https://www.alexissantos.io/
Alexis Santos
Alexis has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. After graduating from Harvard University in 1995, he spent several years in medical school before leaving his chosen career as a doctor to seek out a different path. It was while traveling in India that he was introduced to insight meditation.
Since that time, Alexis has practiced in many meditative styles and traditions, including with Sayadaw U Tejaniya, the Thai Forest tradition with Ajahn Sumedho, the Tibetan tradition with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and within the lay Western insight community where he continues to learn from the growing diversity of voices.
Alexis's primary teacher has been Sayadaw U Tejaniya, from the Burmese Theravada tradition, and with whom he ordained as a Buddhist monk from 2003 - 2005. Sayadaw encouraged Alexis to teach in 2012. Alexis also completed the Spirit Rock/IMS four-year teacher training program with Jack Kornfield and others, including mentors Joseph Goldstein and Carol Wilson.
Alexis teaches meditation at retreat centers around the world. He is featured on the Ten Percent Happier meditation app and is co-founder of Open Door Meditation Community in Portland, Maine where he is a guest teacher.
Alexis's teaching style is natural and uncrafted. He brings a practical, intuitive and compassionate approach to the development of wisdom.
Meditation Teacher
https://pathofsincerity.com/
David Sudar
A former Theravādin Buddhist monk, David Sudar has spent over three years on silent Vipassana meditation retreats. His primary teacher is Sayadaw U Tejaniya and he has also been mentored by Carol Wilson since 2018. He actively teaches both in Portland and virtually.
Meditation Teacher
https://livingearthoregon.org/
Betsy Toll
Betsy is the founder of Living Earth here in Portland, Oregon. Seeds for Living Earth were planted in the mid-1980s when Betsy Toll worked with Ram Dass on a conference in Los Angeles for Seva Foundation. Her early background in art, theater, and performance provided strong vehicles for activism on behalf of the natural world and her commitment to social justice.
Also a student of Joanna Macy, in 1998, Betsy founded Living Earth in Portland, offering opportunities to explore what we love, what it means to be fully human, and how our awareness shapes our participation in our communities, our society, and our interactions with the living planet.
Other influences include Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski. A writer and editor, Betsy also serves in hospital and home chaplaincy with individuals facing crisis, grief, trauma, and death. She leads dharma circles, and workshops, and offers residential retreats twice a year for Living Earth.
Past Guest Teachers
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Tim Geil
Co-Guiding Teacher of Seattle Insight Meditation Society
https://seattleinsight.org/teacher/tim-geil-guiding-teacher/
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Teacher Trainees
Teacher Trainee
Vik Anantha
Vik has been studying and practicing Insight Meditation (Vipassana) since 2013. Before the COVID-19 pandemic and forest fires interrupted the program, he led a monthly Mindful Wilderness Hike, where participants connected with nature and explored their true nature. His current practice and teachings center on self-discovery through a deep, embodied understanding of the three characteristics: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and not-self (anatta).
Teacher Trainee
Paul LaVigne
Paul is a lifelong seeker and insight meditation student of over 12 years. You may recognize him from his participation in many events at the center over the years. As a teacher, he offers caring guidance, encouragement, and perspective to his fellow travelers and seekers as we all come face-to-face with the truth of suffering.