STUMBLING TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT
by Geri Larkin

Any of us who have gone on the spiritual path know that we can feel like both a kid in a candy store and one who get presented with a great two-wheeler racing bike when they haven’t even mastered the training wheelie one… it’s a comfort to know that you don’t have to get it right the first time (or even the second or third); that you can come to spirituality from anyplace at any time; and that even the mistakes are good learning.

Geri Larkin was a high stress, fast-moving executive with a tic around her eye, who felt that maybe learning to meditate would calm her down a bit and get her refocused on her work. What happened was anything but that, as Larkin gave up her successful career as a management consultant to start a Zen meditation center in the heart of inner-city Detroit.

Stumbling Toward Enlightenment evolved out of the constant requests for written copies of the dharma talks Larkin gave at the Ann Arbor Buddhist Temple and the Chicago Zen Buddhist Temple. It covers subjects and musings that go from the usual in spirituality books (“On Becoming Wise,” “Dealing With Rage”) to ones that will give you a double take (“When All You Still Think About Is Sex”). Her writing is concise, honest, to the point and most of all, useful. While I have other fine Buddhist writers on my shelf (Pema Chödrön, Lama Surya Das, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Han), none reach me with such immediacy and the feeling that “this woman understands my life” as Geri Larkin.

Larkin’s goal is simple; as she says, “My goal is to encourage each of you to enter your own spiritual forest, head held high, or to travel further into the one you have chosen, leaving fear behind.” And her encouragement comes in a straightforward, unpretentious, and often hilarious style, that takes any pompousness or distance out of the experience.

If you've never understood Buddhism; if you've never been able to see how it works in everyday American life; if you want to read a spirituality book that takes into account how weird and imperfect we all are -- this book will be a summer reading gem.