Buddhist meditator and scholar Bhikkhu Analayo introduces the Buddhist backgrounds to mindfulness, ranging from mindful eating to its formal cultivation as satipatthana (the foundations of mindfulness). He also offers a historical survey of the development of mindfulness in different Buddhist traditions. Providing an accessible guide, he offers practical exercises on how to develop mindfulness. The orally transmitted early teachings examined here provide a range of perspectives on mindfulness, with a clear overarching focus on the role of mindfulness in the path to `awakening', to an understanding of reality as it is. Analayo shows how mindfulness is a central tool for recognizing the influence of greed, anger and delusion, and how to emerge from these to progress on the path of practice to liberation. He shows how mindfulness brings about a clear vision of reality, fostering a gradual freeing of the mind from these influences, and enabling us to be more fully in touch with what is taking place and remain in the present; we learn to slow down and come to our senses. As well as being directed within, Analayo demonstrates how mindfulness helps us discern how what we do impacts others, and thus naturally strengthens our compassion, helping us avoid harming others and ourselves. Mindfulness is something to be practised, and at the end of each chapter Analayo provides instructions for developing mindfulness step by step, bringing it into our personal experience.

An invaluable resource for Buddhist scholars, meditation teachers, and practitioners wishing to deepen their own practice of mindfulness. In this in-depth guide, the author examines all aspects of mindfulness practice, explores the history of mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition, and provides instructions for meditation practice.

Buddhist scholar and teacher Bhikkhu Analayo explores the practice of mindfulness of breathing in the sixteen steps of the Anapanasati Sutta. This is an authoritative, practice-orientated elucidation of a foundational Buddhist text, useful to meditators whatever their tradition or background. In the first six chapters Analayo presents practical instructions comparable to his Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide. The remaining chapters contain his translations of extracts from the early Chinese canon. With his accompanying commentary, these help the practitioner appreciate the early Buddhist perspective on the breath and the practice of mindfulness of breathing. Analayo presents his understanding of these early teachings, arising from his own meditation practice and teaching experience. His aim is to inspire all practitioners to use what he has found helpful to build their own practice and become self-reliant. The book is accompanied with freely downloadable audio files offering guided and progressive meditation instructions from the author.

Analayo outlines how to meditate on emptiness, according to early Buddhism. His presentation is geared to practical concerns, something that the reader can put into practice when sitting on the cushion, with an appendix giving a translation of the key discourses from the Pali and Chinese. This brings out an aspect of early Buddhism so far fairly neglected, providing an important perspective on emptiness as a form of meditation in relation to later developments, and is a practical companion to his bestselling book: Satipatthana.

In this book, Analayo builds on his earlier ground-breaking work, 'Satipatthana: the Direct Path to Realization'. Here, he enlarges our perspective on this seminal teaching by exploring the practices of mindfulness as presented in both the Pali and Chinese versions of this important discourse.

Disease and death are undeniably integral parts of human life. Yet when they manifest we are easily caught unprepared. To prepare for these, we need to learn how to skilfully face illness and passing away. A source of practical wisdom can be found in the early discourses that record the teachings given by the Buddha and his disciples.The chief aim of this book is to provide a collection of passages taken from the Buddha's early discourses that provide guidance for facing disease and death. The present anthology focuses on the theme of compassion, and is concerned with anukampa: compassion as the underlying motivation in altruistic action. The book combines translations of Buddhist Sanskrit discourse from the Chinese original, with introductions that explain the basic message, clarify terminology and ideas contained in the discourse, and draw out some of their practical implications.

Analayo 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, Analayo 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.

"Surely destined to become the classic commentary on the Satipatthana" --Christopher Titmuss "Now in its second printing "