Explore the three great teachings of the Buddha.

• The First Turning of the Wheel: Insight into the nature of suffering - and the way out of it - from the four noble truths and the eightfold path
• The Second Turning of the Wheel: Teachings on emptiness from the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra
• The Third Turning of the Wheel: Guidance for practitioners and teachings on awakened Buddha nature

In clear language, James William Coleman, professor of sociology at the California Polytechnic State University, guides us through the ancient sutras that preserve the Buddha's message, illuminating their meaning for today's world and tying the Buddha's wisdom together for us. The book concludes with chapters from two great teachers, Reb Anderson from the Zen tradition and Lama Palden from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on how to use meditation to bring the Buddha's wisdom into our daily lives.

Buddha's Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness, and Awakened Nature, James William Coleman, Reb Anderson, Lama Palden, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 176 pp., $16.95

Dr. James William Coleman was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Northridge (then called San Fernando Valley State College) and his master's and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His areas of specialization were criminology and the sociology of religion. Cal Poly was his first full-time teaching job. Coleman is retiring after over 40 years with Cal Poly, which included a three-year term as Social Sciences Department chair. His dissertation was an attempt to explain the process by which heroin addicts were able to give up drugs and change their lives, but his interest in criminology soon shifted to white collar crime. He first published The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime in 1985, and it eventually went to six editions. His textbook, Social Problems, which he originally co-authored with his dissertation advisor, Donald R. Cressey, and later with Harold R. Kerbo, Professor Emeritus, first came out in 1980 and had a total of 10 editions. Later in his career, Coleman's interest turned back to the sociology of religion, and more specifically, to the amazing growth of Buddhism in the west. He published The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition in 1991, and continues to be involved with Buddhist theory and practice. He edited the talks of Reb Anderson Roshi into a booked entitled The Third Turning of the Wheel: The Wisdom of the Samdhnirmocana Sutra, which was published in 2012. His latest book, The Buddha�s Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness and Awakened Nature came out in June 2017.

Reb Anderson is a lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition. Born in Mississipi, he grew up in Minnesota and left advanced study in mathematics and Western psychology to come to Zen Center in 1967. He practiced with Suzuki Roshi, who ordained him as a priest in 1970 and gave him the name Tenshin Zenki ("Naturally Real, The Whole Works"). He received dharma transmission in 1983 and served as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center's three training centers (City Center, Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center) from 1986 to 1995. He is particularly interested in Buddhist yoga, philosophy, and psychology, and in the relationship of wisdom and compassion to the social and ecological crises of our times. Tenshin Roshi continues to teach at Zen Center, living with his friends and family at Green Gulch Farm. He continues to lead meditation retreats and classes nationally and internationally. He is author of "Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains: Dharma Talks on Zen Meditation", "Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts" and "The Third Turning of the Wheel: Wisdom of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra". In addition his writings have been published in Wind Bell: Essays and Lectures from the San Francisco Zen Center, 1968-1998, and in numerous Buddhist periodicals including Inquiring Mind, Tricycle, Turning Wheel and Shambala Sun (now Lion's Roar).

Lama Palden has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism for over 35 years, and of Comparative Mysticism for over 40 years. She is the founding teacher of Sukhasiddhi Foundation www.sukhasiddhi.org in Marin County, California, a Tibetan Buddhist center in the Shangpa Kagyu lineage and co-founder of Zen Heart Vajra Heart, a Zen teacher and personal disciple of Suzuki Roshi�s. She also co-founded the Feminine Wisdom School, dedicated to helping actualize the deep feminine wisdom for individuals and for humanity as a whole. The school just completed a year-long pilot program entitled �Unfolding the Sacred Feminine.� Also a licensed therapist, Lama Palden is engaged in facilitating psycho-spiritual integration and development.