About
Allen Weiss is a senior teacher at InsightLA, where he has taught for 17 years. He began meditating in the mindfulness tradition in 2005 and was among InsightLA's first five teachers. He completed the Dedicated Practitioners Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 2008 and received formal teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman in 2014. Weiss founded and formerly directed Mindful USC and Mindful CGU. He has contributed articles to Lion's Roar and Tricycle magazines. His academic background includes degrees in electrical engineering, higher education administration, counseling psychology, business administration, and a PhD in business and marketing. He held faculty positions at Stanford and USC.
Teaching focus
Allen Weiss, PhD's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: steady attention to body and breath; the relationship between ethics and meditation; and short, direct teachings rather than long talks. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Allen Weiss, PhD works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include beginners. The bigger move Allen Weiss, PhD keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Allen Weiss, PhD's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Allen Weiss, PhD's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Allen Weiss, PhD teaches in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The teaching home is InsightLA. From the teacher's own profile: Allen Weiss is a senior teacher at InsightLA, where he has taught Buddhism and mindfulness classes for the past 17 years. He started meditating in the mindfulness tradition in 2005 and became one of the first five teachers at InsightLA. In 2011, LA Magazine noted that his Basics of Mindfulness class was the Best in Los Angeles. In 2008, he completed the Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP) at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In 2014, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman gave Allen formal teaching authorization. Allen is also the founding teacher and former Director of Mindful USC and Mindful CGU (Claremont Graduate University). He has written articles for Lion’s Roar and Tricycle magazines. Allen has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (UCSB), an M.S. in Higher Education Administration and Counseling Psychology (Ohio State University), an MBA (University of Kansas), and a PhD in Business and Marketing (University of Wisconsin). His first academic position was at Stanford, and then he moved to USC. In between his M.S. and MBA, he was a professional musician. His guided meditations can be found on the Let Us Be mobile app. In the Insight stream Allen Weiss, PhD works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Allen Weiss, PhD's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Allen Weiss, PhD's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Allen Weiss, PhD's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Allen Weiss, PhD's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Allen Weiss, PhD teaches as a lay teacher in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is InsightLA, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Allen Weiss, PhD, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. Online sittings and talks, mostly in real time with optional recordings, are part of the offering. The container is shaped by InsightLA, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
