Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera was born in Germany in 1878 and was trained as a classical violinist in conservatories in Frankfort and Paris. After reading his first books on Buddhism, he immediately set his heart on becoming a Buddhist monk, and in 1903 he traveled to the East, where he took ordination in Burma. He thus became the first Continental European to join the Theravada Buddhist order. Ven. Nyanatiloka spent most of his monk's life in Sri Lanka, where in 1911 he established a monastery for Western Buddhist monks called Island Hermitage. He was a prolific translator of Pali Buddhist texts into German and English. His other works published by the BPS include Buddhist Dictionary, The World of the Buddha, Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitaka, and Fundamentals of Buddhism. He passed away in Colombo in 1957, after living for over fifty years as a distinguished member of the Theravada Buddhist order.

This classic anthology from the Pali Canon charts the entire course of spiritual development as prescribed in the most ancient Buddhist texts. Drawing upon the Buddha's own words from the Sutta Pitaka, the compiler has arranged them in accordance with two overlapping schemes of practice: the threefold training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom, and the seven stages of purification. The long chapter on concentration provides sutta sources for all the forty classical subjects of meditation, while the chapter on wisdom cites texts relating to the development of insight. The result is a comprehensive meditation manual composed almost entirely from the Buddha's discourses, illuminated by the author's own brief explanations.