Mirka Knaster, Ph. D., is an independent scholar, freelance writer, and editor, and is the author of Discovering the Body's Wisdom and Living this Life Fully (Shambhala, 2010), about the meditation master Anagarika Munindra.

Mirka Knaster has been practicing in the Theravada tradition since her first retreat in India in 1981. An independent scholar and freelance writer/editor, she holds a Ph.D. in Asian and Comparative Studies. She is the author of Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra (Shambhala), about the Bengali meditation master who was a grandfather of the vipassana/mindfulness movement in the West. Munindra taught both Asian teachers, such as Dipa Ma, and many of today's most prominent Western teachers. 

Mirka's writings on loving-kindness meditation, the body and spirituality, interreligious dialogue, and wise speech as spiritual practice appear in various magazines, anthologies, and encyclopedias, and at Beliefnet.com. She has organized and moderated local and international interfaith panels on respectful communication as a pathway to peace as well as on the interface between Judaism and Buddhism. She is also the author of Discovering the Body's Wisdom (Bantam).