Geri Larkin - Close to the Ground: Reflections on the Seven Factors of Enlightenment

Praise for Close to the Ground

Part memoir, part philosophy, Geri Larkins new book invites us all to explore the seven factors of enlightenment from the ground of our own splendid lives. Larkins storytelling sparkles with the down-to-earth honesty, wisdom, and good humor that can only come from a lifetime of committed practice.

Charlotte Bell, author of Yoga for Meditators and Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life

With humor and warmth grounded in decades of Zen Buddhist practice, Geri Larkin offers a fresh perspective on this timeless, core teaching of Buddhism. Close to the Ground invites readers to discover the awakened heart thats available in each and every moment of our often wonderfully chaotic lives. Highly recommended.

Vince Cousino Anila, Guiding Teacher Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple

This wonderful book can serve as a great encouragement to ones practice. Geri Larkin, a longtime Zen practitioner and teacher, seamlessly weaves together various strands of Buddhist teaching. Using as chapter headings the seven factors of enlightenment, a practice schema usually associated with the Theravadin Vipassana tradition, she skillfully integrates Zen stories, anecdotes from the Buddhas life, and examples from her own training and practice to clearly reveal what spiritual practice is about. Highly recommended!

Richard Shrobe, author of Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans

When I studied Zen under Geri Larkin at Still Point in Detroit, I often thought that books couldnt do what a real teacher does. A book doesnt correct your posture when youre slouching; a book doesnt notice when you get lazy and remind you to get up in the morning; a book doesnt correct you when you speak carelessly. But now she has written a book that accepts no excuses, that tells you tirelessly why the world needs the dharma, and why the practice will change the world if we are committed to it. This book can be the angel on your shoulder, giving you the reminders you need.

Bija Andrew Wright, Buddhist teacher and blogger at www.zenbija.com

Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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Close to the Ground: Reflections on the Seven Factors of Enlightenment; copyright 2013 by Geri Larkin.

Cover collage created by Gopa & Ted2, Inc., based on photographs from Getty Images. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

eISBN: 978-1-930-48581-5

Editors: Holly Hammond, Linda Cogozzo

This book is dedicated to Kassapa, in gratitude

for his unfailing encouragement to continue writing

years after I thought I was done.

Contents

F IRST TO Linda and Donald: Thank you to you and your colleagues for even existing in this time of publishing turmoil. And for your effort to keep Buddhist teachings alive. A huge bow. Thank you to my dharma family, to my bloodline family, and to my family of friends. Without you there are no stories, no lessons. Thank you to Jeffrey Ericson Allen, composer extraordinaire, Monkey the Cat, and Bodhi the Dog for sharing Laughing Moon Hermitage, such as it is. Thank you to Samu Sunim and Haju Sunim for getting me started even as I kicked and screamed. Finally, unending bows to Zen Master Ji Bong Sunim. Every day I bow in gratitude for your friendship and unerring guidance.

What is the purpose of our practice?

It is to cultivate meditation and wisdom together,...

If anyone... wishes to join us,

We will welcome them,

Whether they be a monk or a lay person,

Whether one is male or female,

Whether one is old or young,

Whether one is wise or foolish,

Whether one is noble or mean,

Whether one is friendly or aloof,

Whether one is in accord with us or against us.

ZEN MASTER GYEONGHEO SEONGU

A FEW YEARS BACK, in one of Oregons coldest and wettest winters, I moved from a fancy-pants studio apartment in Portlands Pearl District to half of an unfinished garage in Eugene. The broken-heart saga that was mine is too trite to repeat here. The garage space was slightly bigger than a truck, front to back and side to side. I had a table, two chairs, a mattress, and a set of teacups that my friend Tina gave me. There was a dorm room fridge and a hot plate. Two space heaters didnt keep me warm on the days when wind blew through three sides of each of the garage doors. I had no job and no savings I could tap. On the other hand, the car worked and Bodhi the Dog loved me. Its the closest Ive ever come to being a living hologram of a country western song.

After the initial shock of finding myself in the situation I had made for myself, I was happy. Even with a broken heart I was happy. This happiness wasnt the Oh my God, he called me! happiness or even the I just got the raise I was hoping for version. Instead the feeling was more like a deep and abiding okayness with everything just the way it was. It was an okayness so deep that all of the melodrama that I had gone through to land in the garage felt more like bubbles on the surface of deep ocean waves than anything else. I wish I was poetic so I could describe the feeling more fully. Hopefully youll get the idea anyway.

The thing is I wasnt happy because I was young and healthy with my whole life ahead of me. I havent been young for thirty years. And while Im mostly healthy, these knees are done running. Happiness wasnt coming from any thing. It just was.

Considering this, years later, Ive realized that a quarter century of regular meditation practice is a big part of the why. Also knowing how to live like a monk from years of temple life, mostly as a guiding teacher at Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple in Detroit, probably counts for something. But its more than that. How Ive practiced seems to be a key reason for this stream of happy that doesnt show signs of letting up any time soon. For some reason, nagging parents maybe, Ive always given everything Ive done my best effort, including meditation practice. Sometimes this has led to kudos in the world of business. And sometimes it has led to just-this-side-of a homeless life as a monk. Along the way, Ive had great fun, which has in turn led to not taking this life too seriously or personally. Ive learned, sometimes the hard way, that paying attention is a gate to satisfying relationships, creativity, and gratitude with a big G. Throw in innate curiosity, and happiness has been mine, whatever the circumstance.

To tell you the truth, Ive never thought about any of these things all that much. But then, a few months ago, I read an old teaching in Buddhisms early Pali Canon that listed the seven factors of enlightenment. Included were: mindfulness, the investigation of phenomena, energetic effort, ease, joy, concentration, and equanimity. Staring at them, I couldnt believe how clear and simple a formula they were for falling into a sweet juicy life no matter the situation we find ourselves swimming through. And my own little dust mote of a life, including the garage kalpa, was living proof they work.

MINDFULNESS

If you spend any time in the world of Zen, you will hear a joke about a student climbing a mountain three separate times to ask his teacher for advice only to hear the same response each time: Pay attention! We dont, you know. Instead, these days, the majority of us skim the surfaces of our lives, missing most of what is going on. The Buddha taught that if a person is truly mindful, enlightenment will be hers in fifteen days. I have yet to hear of a person who has been mindful enough for that to happen. I try hard and still trip over my own shoes in the middle of the hallway on a regular basis.