ABOUT ROBERT G. SCHNEIDER
Robert G. Schneider, founder of Ahimsa Dharma, was born in Bayside, Queens, in 1964 and raised in Ithaca, New York. His father died in a car accident when Robert was five years old, a loss that deeply marked his childhood.
After his mother’s death, he left college and spent four years in ashrams in India and the United States, searching for a deeper spiritual truth. Drawn to the promise of awakening, he longed for a teacher who could offer both wisdom and guidance. Instead, he found himself in an environment where devotion was measured by obedience, and those who surrendered the most were granted proximity to the guru. As contradictions in the guru’s behavior became harder to overlook, his faith unraveled, and he eventually walked away, disillusioned but clearer about what he was no longer willing to follow.
In his early thirties, he had long since stepped away from spiritual life. He was living in Belgium, where he had started a family and built a business. Yet, despite outward stability, depression, anxiety, and a sense of meaninglessness persisted. Searching for something deeper, he turned to Buddhism—this time, looking for a way to turn his life around and stop being his own worst enemy.
While in Belgium, he met his teacher, Lama Karta, who introduced him to the ethical and contemplative traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, emphasizing compassion, positive thinking, and a life rooted in kindness. Meditation itself taught him how to sit with the rawness of experience without trying to change it. Rather than seeking escape, he learned to face life as it was, without resistance.
For over 25 years, Robert has maintained a daily meditation practice—not as a retreat from the world, but as a way to find clarity and steadiness within it. His reflections on his own journey inspired his 2017 novel, The Guru’s Touch, a coming-of-age story about blind faith, the abuse of power, and spiritual betrayal.
In 2023, Robert earned a Master of Science degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Southern Maine. Now a psychotherapist in private practice in Rockland, Maine, he works with people facing many of the same struggles that once shaped his own path. In 2024, he founded Ahimsa Dharma—not as a doctrine, but as a practice of nonviolence, mindfulness, and self-inquiry, helping people move beyond painful self-preoccupation and recognize their place within a larger, interconnected reality.
Outside of his work, Robert enjoys gatherings with family and friends, vegan cooking, listening to popular music from the 60s and 70s, listening to audio books, streaming movies and TV shows, and long walks with his dog, Mesmer. He spends time at his wife’s family camp on Thompson Lake in Maine, where the pristine waters, the call of loons, and the stillness of the woods bring a rare sense of connection to the natural world.
Robert is the proud father of two adult children.