Bhikkhu Analayo completed a PhD on the Satipatthanasutta at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2000, published in 2003 by Windhorse Publications under the title Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization. He has also written a habilitation research through a comparative study of the Majjhimanikaya in the light of its Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan parallels at the University of Marburg in 2007, published 2011. He published Perspectives on Satipatthana in 2014, by Windhorse Publications.

At present Analayo is a professor of Buddhist Studies at the Sri Lanka International Academy in Pallekele. He teaches at the Center for Buddhist Studies of the University of Hamburg and researches at the Dharma Drum Buddhist College in Taiwan. His main research area is early Buddhism and in particular the topics "Chinese Agamas," "Meditation," and "Women in Buddhism." Besides his academic pursuits, he spends about half of his time in meditation under retreat conditions and regularly teaches meditation courses in Asia and the West.