Chris Crotty

Chris Crotty, M.A., BCCC, BCPC, is a Buddhist teacher, board certified clinical chaplain and pastoral counselor, and furniture maker. His Dharma activities are divided between public teaching in the Insight (Vipassana) tradition and a contemplative livelihood informed by solitude and silence; he resides intermittently throughout the year at Pinewood Hermitage, a secluded cottage conducive to meditation and study. Chris is the co-spiritual director at The Center for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation, is on the faculty at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and collaborates regularly with other centers and teachers upon invitation. He combines his training in the Dharma and chaplaincy to provide pastoral care and counsel to individuals and groups, and is an active member of The Center for Spiritual Care & Pastoral Formation (CSCPF) and the Spiritual Care Association (SCA).

Practicing meditation since 1998, Chris has taken retreat with Burmese monastics Sayadaw U Indaka and Sayadaw U Tejaniya, scholar-practitioner Bhikkhu Analayo, western monastics of the Zen and Thai Forest tradition, and senior western Vipassana teachers. Chris was authorized to teach Buddhadharma in 2015 by senior teachers in the western Insight (Vipassana) tradition, and in 2016 was encouraged to teach Vipassana and Metta by Sayadaw U Indaka (Chanmyay Myaing, Myanmar).

Chris’s teaching combines Theravada Buddhism’s emphasis on insight and ethics with the Mahayana ideal of compassionate action, along with the synthesis of practice and study. He is particularly interested in exploring the roles of transparency and vulnerability in teaching the dharma effectively, and in how principles of integrity and kindness form the basis of caring communities. He is also influenced by the fields of ecopsychology, attachment theory, and contemplative, pastoral, and palliative approaches to sickness, aging, and end-of-life care.

Prior to focusing on Buddhist practices Chris taught Hatha yoga, directing a community yoga center in Gloucester, MA, and trained yoga teachers internationally at the 200-hour and 500-hour levels. His yoga teacher training, Hatha-Dharma, developed to help students practice and teach a more awareness-based yoga, has been offered at yoga centers internationally.

Chris has taught at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health’s Institute for Integrated Leadership, the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA, and was active in yoga research with Kripalu Center’s Institute for Extraordinary Living and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2022–2023 he participated in a study exploring the stages of insight and the jhanas at the Meditation Research Program at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. For Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) he taught retreats and managed the development of iBme’s Mindfulness Teacher Training program. His course Living the Good Life: Practicing Health & Wellbeing was for many years a core course in Wellness & Alternative Medicine at Johnson State College, where he was an adjunct professor in alternative medicine. Chris has served as a volunteer caregiver through Hospice of the North Shore & Greater Boston and Care Dimensions, and as a visiting lecturer Chris has taught at Endicott College’s nursing program, Tufts University, and Union Theological Seminary’s Master of Divinity program. He holds a Masters degree in Ecopsychology, Sustainable Leadership, and Buddhist Practice.