P'arang Geri Larkin, born Geraldine Kapp Willis, is founder and former head teacher of Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple, a

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n Chogye center in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The name Geri Larkin is a

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

. She graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

in 1973. Larkin, daughter of a wealthy

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

executive, left her successful business life as a

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

to enter a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

for three years, where she was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

. When she left she sold her material possessions and bought a brick duplex in downtown Detroit which, with the help of local residents she cleaned up and turned into Still Point. Larkin's articulation of the concept of "

right livelihood The Noble Eightfold Path () or Eight Right Paths () is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana. The Eightfold Path consists of eight practi ...

" was highly influential on Ann Perrault and Jackie Victor, two of her students who founded

Avalon International Breads Avalon International Breads is a bakery located in Detroit, Michigan, that produces a wide variety of baked goods, including breads, rolls, pizzas, cookies, and pastries, as well as sandwiches and coffee. It was established in June 1997 by Ann P ...

in Detroit in 1997. She has been a longtime columnist for ''Spirituality & Health'' magazine. She currently resides in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

Bibliography

Books

* * *''Building a Business the Buddhist Way'' *''Tap Dancing in Zen'' *''First You Shave Your Head'' *''The Still Point Dhammapada: Living the Buddha's Essential Teachings'' *''The Chocolate Cake Sutra'' *''Plant Seed, Pull Weed'' *''Love Dharma''

Articles

* *''Spirituality & Health'' often changes the title of a print article when it is published online. This article is titled "What We Can Learn From Leaning Into Difficulty" online.

References

1950 births Living people Chogye Buddhists Seon Buddhist monks Zen Buddhism writers American Zen Buddhists Female Buddhist spiritual teachers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers Barnard College alumni {{US-reli-bio-stub

Bibliography

Books

Articles

See also

References