Bhikkhu Analayo offers an inspiring biography of the Buddha from the viewpoint of his meditative development and practice, based on combining extracts from the early discourses with his own commentary. The focus is on the Buddha as a meditator, so this is a life story offering inspiration and guidance for readers who are also meditators. Bhikkhu Analayo covers the period up to the Buddha's awakening and from the awakening to the Buddha's final Nirvana. Following this, he explores recollections of the Buddha, a topic that in one way or another underlies all the chapters. Each of the twenty-four chapters concludes with suggestions for meditative practice or conduct.
Analayo is a professor of Buddhist Studies at the Sri Lanka International Academy in Pallekele. He teaches at the Center for Buddhist Studies of the University of Hamburg and researches at the Dharma Drum Buddhist College in Taiwan. Analayo's published works include Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization (2003), Perspectives on Satipatthana (2014), Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation (2015), and Mindfully Facing Disease and Death (2016).