Paul Breiter was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948 and traveled to Thailand in 1970, where he took ordination as a monk. He soon met Ajahn Chah and became his student. Paul learned Thai and the local Lao dialect (Isan) and served as Ajahn Chah's translator for the many Westerners who came to study with him. He kept a journal of his translations of Ajahn Chah's teachings, some of which he published with Jack Kornfield in the original release of A Still Forest Pool (Quest Books, 1985). He traveled with and translated for Ajahn Chah when he visited the United States in 1979. He later published an account of his time studying with Ajahn Chah, Venerable Father: A Life with Ajahn Chah. He also published two books of Ajahn Chah's teachings through Shambhala Publications, Being Dharma (2001) and Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away (2005).