The Chocolate Cake Sutra: Ingredients for a Sweet Life

Because everyone yearns for a recipe for a fruitful life, many may gravitate to this friendly, accessible "cookbook." A Buddhist priest and confessed chocolate cake devotee, Larkin (Stumbling Toward Enlightenment) started Still Point Zen center in inner city Detroit. In the best Zen tradition, she recounts many personal anecdotes that find their flavor percolating in that everyday existence. These stories rise to make vivid points in focused, economical chapters. Larkin points us toward joy, extreme ethics, tolerance, a capacity to keep going, clear headedness, a penchant for surprise adventure, and wisdom. Her previous career as a management consultant may contribute to her breezy, hip conversational style that may or may not stand the test of time. But such lingo as "Even after years of attending or leading long retreats, there is always a moment when most of me says, 'This so sucks. I'm gone,' " may perfectly ring the unstruck bell to some modern ears. Her heart offerings, however, have an eternal chime of truth: "Everything and everyone is holy. And the point of our being on this sweet planet is to be of service to all of it. And when we understand this truth in our bones, joy fills our hearts." (Jan.)