Paul Breiter

One Monk, Many Masters Paul Breiter

In 1969, Paul Breiter was among the throngs of disaffected youth who traveled to the exotic East, seeking to escape the cultural and spiritual upheavals at home. He traveled first to India, thinking that indulging the senses would be his means of finding God. Instead, he found himself at a monastery in Thailand, taking the precepts of a Buddhist monk. He would spend the next seven years in robes, not indulging the senses, but depriving them.


One Monk, Many Masters: The Wanderings of a Simple Buddhist Traveler is an account of Breiter's life as a monk and his ongoing search for enlightenment after leaving the monastic robes. Breiter's spiritual wanderings weave through the Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhist traditions under such great teachers as Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Sumedho, Kobun Chino, Lama Gonpo, and the 16th Karmapa.

"Breiter relates his journey with self-effacing modesty. His knack for unadorned observation takes the reader on a worthwhile trek through modern Buddhism as journeyed by a Western layman turned monk and back again." --Sakula Mary Reinard, Spiritual Director, Portland Friends of the Dhamma


"Breiter's experience with [Buddhist] teachers, expressed in this book with honesty and insight, is a pleasure to read. The Dharma emerges throughout his memories as a sincere gift, and a teaching for all who are fortunate to read it." -Angie (Zuiko Enji) Boissevain

PAUL BREITER was born in Brooklyn in 1948. In 1970, he became ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, where he met Ajahn Chah and became his student. After disrobing in 1977, Breiter returned to the US and continued Buddhist study with masters in the states. Breiter's other books include Venerable Father: A Life with Ajahn Chah (from Paraview Special Editions), A Still Forest Pool, Being Dharma, and Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away.