“Read this book slowly. Savour it and let it sink in. Make it a manual of practice. Use the reflections to deepen your journey. May the teachings, stories and practices here bring you the blessings of the Buddha.”

Anālayo offers an inspiring biography of the Buddha based on the early discourses and focusing on his meditative development and practice. By focusing on the Buddha as a meditator, Anālayo seeks to provide inspiration and guidance to all meditators, of any tradition and of any level of experience. Each of the twenty-four chapters concludes with suggestions to support meditative practice.

Endorsements

You hold in your hand a wonderful gift, offered to Western readers from my accomplished and respected friend, Bhikkhu Anālayo. In A Meditator’s Life of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Anālayo, a visionary scholar and acclaimed translator, shows us with text and story, exercises and practice, how the life of the Buddha can directly inspire our own spiritual journey. - from the Foreword by Jack Kornfield, author and founder of the Spirit Rock Center.

While offering a scholarly portrait of the Buddha, this book is also a testament to the overarching unity of the various early Buddhist schools in their conception of the Buddha’s life, a unity that coexists along with a rich diversity in their detailed narrations about particular events in that life. - Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, scholar and translator.

The extremely useful exercises with which each chapter concludes ground the scholarship in a fervent awareness of the goal, represented by the Buddha, which we should always have in mind in our own practice. - Jinananda, author of Warrior of Peace: The Life of the Buddha

An inspiring guide that will accelerate the reader's own journey of awakening. Highly recommended, and sure to inspire dedicated meditators! - Shaila Catherine, author of Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity

Anālayo’s mastery of both the Pali and the Chinese sources, as well as the scholarship that surrounds them, makes him an unrivalled authority, and an attentive guide to the Buddha's explorations of the mind and meditative states. – Vishvapani, author of Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One