Close to the Ground: Reflections on the Seven Factors of Enlightenment

After all the bliss and generalized euphoria we might experience along our spiritual path, what’s left are the karmic knots of conditioning that still need unraveling. Untying them is the work of spiritual warriors — that is, all of us. The seven factors of enlightenment are a grease to loosen them, all the while keeping us upright in our efforts: mindfulness, the investigation of phenomena, energetic effort, ease, joy, concentration, and equanimity.

In Close to the Ground, longtime Buddhist teacher Geri Larkin uses stories from her own life to share some of the gifts that these factors bring. Because she refuses to be anything special, her stories are all of our stories, her humor, all of our humor, her heartbreaks, all of our heartbreaks. In this book, readers discover (or rediscover) that they have many more tools available to help with this work of “life and death” than they realized.