A resonant call to explore the darkness in life, in nature, and in consciousness--including difficult emotions like uncertainty, grief, fear, and xenophobia--through teachings, embodied meditations, and mindful inquiry that provide us with a powerful path to healing.
Darkness is deeply misunderstood in today's world; yet it offers powerful medicine, serenity, strength, healing, and regeneration. All insight, vision, creativity, and revelation arise from darkness. It is through learning to stay present and meet the dark with curiosity rather than judgment that we connect to an unwavering light within. Welcoming darkness with curiosity, rather than fear or judgment, enables us to access our innate capacity for compassion and collective healing.
Dharma teacher, shamanic practitioner, and deep ecologist Deborah Eden Tull addresses the spiritual, ecological, psychological, and interpersonal ramifications of our bias towards light.
Tull explores the medicine of darkness for personal and collective healing, through topics such as :
- Befriending the Night: The Radiant Teachings of Darkness
- Honoring Our Pain for Our World
- Seeing in the Dark: The Quiet Power of Receptivity
- Dreams, Possibility, and Moral Imagination
- Releasing Fear--Embracing Emergence
Tull shows us how the labeling of darkness as "negative" becomes a collective excuse to justify avoiding everything that makes us uncomfortable: racism, spiritual bypass, environmental destruction. We can only find the radical path to wholeness by learning to embrace the interplay of both darkness and light.
Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown, Deborah Eden Tull, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 240 pp, $18.95
Deborah Eden, Tull founder of Mindful Living Revolution, is a Zen meditation and engaged dharma teacher, author, spiritual activist, deep ecologist, and sustainability educator. Eden spent seven years training as a Buddhist monk and her teachings bridge personal and collective awakening. Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, The Shift Network, and The Ecologist. Eden also teaches The Work That Reconnects created by Joanna Macy, and for UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center. Eden offers retreats, trainings, and online courses internationally. She is the author of Relational Mindfulness and The Natural Kitchen.
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CONTENTS: Luminous Darkness
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Acknowledgements
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ix
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Introduction: How I Fell in Love with the Dark
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1
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PART ONE: The Journey Into Endarkenment
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13
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1.
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Redefining Darkness: The Physical and Symbolic Invitation of Darkness
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15
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2.
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Befriending the Night: The Radiant Teachings of Darkness
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27
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PART TWO: Fruitful Darkness and the Ream of Emotional Intelligence
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45
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3.
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Fierce Compassion: The Mother of Endarkenment
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47
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4.
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Entering the Twilight Tempe: Honoring Our Pain for Our World
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63
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PART THREE: The Spiritual Teachings of Divine Darkness
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83
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5.
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Seeing in the Dark: The Quiet Power of Receptivity
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85
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6.
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The Slow, Dark Processes: Healing and the Body
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102
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7.
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Embracing Change: Creating New Maps through Inner Vision
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121
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PART FOUR: Restoring Wholeness in Ourselves and Our World: Collective Endarkenment
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147
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8.
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Relational Intelligence: Seeing Each other Clearly in the Dark
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149
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9.
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Dreams, Possibility, and Moral Imagination: The Role of the Invisible Realm in Awakening
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174
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10.
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Cultivating Courage on Behalf of Life: Releasing Fear and Embracing Emergence
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196
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Notes
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217
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Bibliography
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223
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About the Author
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229
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