The Fruitful Darkness

A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom

In this masterwork of an authentic spirit person (Thomas Berry), Buddhist teacher and anthropologist Joan Halifax Roshi delves into the fruitful darkness - the shadow side of being, found in the root truths of Native religions, the fecundity of nature, and the stillness of meditation. In this highly personal and insightful odyssey of the heart and mind, she encounters Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, and Native American elders, among others. In rapt prose, she recounts her explorations from Japanese Zen meditation to hallucinogenic plants, from the Dogon people of Mali to the Mayan rain forest, all the while creating "an adventure of the spirit and a feast of wisdom old and new" (Peter Matthiessen). Halifax believes that deep ecology (which attempts to fuse environmental awareness with spiritual values) works in tandem with Buddhism and shamanism to discover the interconnectedness of all life", and to regain life's sacredness.

Grove Press is proud to reissue this important work by one of Buddhism's leading contemporary teachers.

©1993 Joan Halifax. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Excellent Book, Okay Reader

The content in this book is transformative, but the reader has a tendency to over-pronounce (especially in the cases of names in other languages than English), and this proves distracting. Over all, an excellent read, but I’d recommend picking up the print version instead.

narration

Ugh. AI!!!!! awful don't do it. save your money and just go ahead and buy the book.

great book. horrible narration

The narrator sounds like she's constantly asking a run-on question that never ends... Her inflections don't at all match the tone or voice of the book. It's entirely distracting, and I couldn't get through the first chapter. Read the book. The book itself is excellent.

AWFUL READER!!! Just read it!

The voice is awful and ruins the text. Just read it. It is so disappointing. I couldn’t make it through due to the reader.

I expected it to be more like the other books of the autor. Instead it’s an ego like self biography

I expected it to be more like the other books of the autor. Instead it’s an ego like self biography