Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation

This book is the result of rigorous textual scholarship that can be valued not

only by the academic community, but also by Buddhist practitioners. As a

monk engaging in Buddhist meditation as well as a professor applying a

historical-critical methodology, Bhikkhu Anālayo is well positioned to bridge

these two communities.'

17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Venerable Anālayo brings a meticulous textual analysis of Pali texts, the

Chinese Āgamas and related material from Sanskrit and Tibetan to the

foundational topics of compassion and emptiness.'

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, author of Reflections on a Mountain Lake

Anālayo holds a lamp to illuminate how the earliest teachings wed the great

heart of compassion and the liberating heart of emptiness and invites us to

join in this profound training.'

Jack Kornfield, author of Bringing Home the Dharma

This scholarly book is more than timely with its demonstrations that

teachings on emptiness and compassion that are helpful to practitioners of

any form of Buddhism are abundant in early Buddhist texts.'

Rita M. Gross, Professor Emerita of Comparative Studies in Religion,

University of Wisconsin

Serious meditation students will benefit tremendously from the clarity of

understanding that Venerable Anālayo's efforts have achieved.'

Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness

Anālayo investigates the meditative practices of compassion and

emptiness by examining and interpreting material from the early

Buddhist discourses. Similar to his previous study of satipatthāna, he

brings a new dimension to our understanding by comparing the Pali texts

with versions that have survived in Chinese, Sanskrit and Tibetan.

The result is a wide-ranging exploration of what these practices

meant in early Buddhism. While his presentation is based on academic

methodology, this book is meant for practitioners, and he focuses on

passages in light of their relevance to meditation.