Building on his ground-breaking The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal, with the present monograph Bhikkhu Analayo approaches a closely related topic from the perspective of the bodily dimension as evident in the thirty-two marks with which, according to tradition, the Buddha was endowed. The study begins by proposing that a cross-fertilization between text and art has influenced the conception of one of these marks, namely the wheel-marks on the soles of the Buddha's feet. By way of a comparative study of the early discourses, Analayo proceeds to show how the thirty-two marks - initially nearly imperceptible features - came to be more clearly visible and acquired salvific power. Eventually, he argues, these turned into a psychosomatic chart for the bodhisattva path and thereby set a precedent for the prediction (commonplace in later Buddhist doctrine) that assures an aspiring bodhisattva of becoming a Buddha in the future.

Bhikkhu Analayo is a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk), scholar and meditation teacher. He was born in Germany in 1962, and went forth in 1995 in Sri Lanka. He is best known for his comparative studies of early Buddhist texts as preserved by the various early Buddhist traditions. He completed a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Peradeniya in 2000. In 2007 he completed his habilitation research at the University of Marburg, in which he compared the Majjhima Nikaya discourses with their Chinese, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist canon counterparts.