Born in New York City in 1947, Paul Weiss has spent most of his adult life writing, teaching, raising six kids, and wandering the woods and hills of coastal Maine.

Weiss began his lifelong zen practice with Hakuun Yasutani Roshi in NY in 1966, and thereafter studied with many teachers in a number of traditions.  He began his tai chi practice with Cheng Man-Ching  in New York in1967.  His practices have taken him from the Thar Desert of India to the mountains of China, where, during the 1990s, he was certified to teach by three schools of qigong.

Weiss was gifted with a series of insights beginning in childhood, which eventually culminated in what he calls "direct experiences," that is, direct awakenings to the nature of being that bypass the discursive functions of the mind.  These experiences, in addition to his extensive study and practice, became the foundation of his teaching work.

Paul was drawn to Maine in 1969 to, as he says, "study and milk cows" with Walter Nowick, one of the very first American zen masters, who had completed his training in Japan right after the war, and was now farming and teaching on the coast of Maine.  After subsequent years of study in counseling  psychology, as well as naturopathic health care and bodywork therapies, he and his family eventually returned to settle in Bar Harbor, where he founded The Whole Health Center in 1981 as a vehicle for his healing, counseling, and teaching work.

His counseling work incorporates a Buddhist-based cognitive behavioral therapy, couple's communication processes, and expressive emotional recovery and integration work.  In his practice, he also applies meditative awareness to what he called CNR – conscious neural re-circuiting, and has developed the Tibetan compassion practice of tonglen as a comprehensive therapeutic program he calls Compassion, Integration, and Healing.  He has offered regular zen meditation retreats as well as retreats and workshops in qigong and Taoist healing, tonglen practice, and "communication as spiritual practice."   His True Heart/True Mind retreat in an intensive and transformative residential program that integrates contemplation and communication practice in a way that augments the awakening power of both.

A poet throughout his life (and a 2021 candidate for Maine Poet Laureate), he had gathered a number of specific poems together as the basis for dharma talks, which eventually grew into his 2015 book of poems and commentaries, Moonlight Leaning Against an Old Rail Fence.  In 2022, with publication of The Dharma of Direct Experience, he finally addressed the nature and contexts of his own non-dual awakenings, as well as their indications for a life of integrity, reciprocity, compassion, and openness to reality.  He continues to work with individuals, couples, and groups, and teaches a spirituality of human development and conscious loving presence.  His various presentations, both live and on zoom, and well as many recorded talks, are available through his website, The Whole Health Center.org.  He currently offers a condensed training program, Mastering the Reciprocal Field, to schools, businesses and community groups – and, in his fantasies, to the Congress of the United States.

The woods and mountains are still his ultimate refuge, as are his eleven grandchildren.