The Third Turning of the Wheel
In his previous book, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts, Reb Anderson Roshi described how we must become thoroughly grounded in conventional truth through the practice of compassion before we can receive the teachings of the ultimate truth. In The Third Turning of the Wheel, he introduces us to the next stage of our journey by invoking the wisdom of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra.
According to Anderson, the main purpose behind this enigmatic sutra is to reconcile the apparent contradictions between the original teachings of the historical Buddha and the later teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. Anderson reflects on the great metaphysical questions proposed in the Samdhinirmocana Sutra—the nature of ultimate reality, the structure of human consciousness, the characteristics of phenomena, the stages of meditation, and the essential qualities of a buddha—with the clarity of a scholar and the insight of a practitioner.
"Tenshin Reb Anderson has long been one of the foremost Western Buddhist teachers in elucidating for a modern audience the subtlties and practical relevance of Indian Buddhist psychological teachings and insights. Through a clear description of the valuable but so far underappreciated Samdhinirmocana Sutra, as well as reflections of its teachings in Zen lore, this book delivers a wonderfully detailed but playful expression of the profound depths of spiritual reality and how these teachings relate to our own lives. This luminous, comprehensive guidebook to the workings of consciousness and compassionate awakening mind will provide great benefits for meditators and students of Buddhist thought." —Taigen Dan Leighton, author of Zen Questions: Zazen, Dogen, and the Spirit of Creative Inquiry