Luminous Darkness: Book Review

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Book review by Valia Papoutsaki

Recorded by Valia Papoutsaki


Luminious Darkness: An engaged Buddhist approach to embracing the unknown
by Deborah Eden Tull. 2022. 

According to the Maori tradition, there are three baskets of knowledge: te kete tuauri (sacred knowledge/light), te kete tuatea (ancestral knowledge/darkness) and te kete aronui (knowledge in front of you/pursuit). These baskets are thought never to be full and should not be separated. All forms of knowledge are equally essential.  

Debora Eden Tull’s book aims to reinstate the “darkness” as part of the whole by bringing to our attention this basket of ancestral as well as emergent knowledge. She does this by addressing the spiritual, ecological, psychological, and interpersonal implications of our personal and collective bias toward the light that dominates our spiritual practices. This separation, or divorce as she calls it, of dark from light has perpetuated a pattern of reactivity and divisiveness in which we perceive everything different as “other.” This contributes to systemic racism, discrimination against people with darker skin, as well as misogyny and transphobia, demonization of mental illness and disability, and human domination over the natural world (consider, for example, the excessive artificial lighting of our planet).

Deborah Eden Tull, the founder of Mindful Living Revolution, is an engaged dharma teacher, deep ecologist and activist who also teaches the Work That Reconnects. All these elements are present in this book, particularly the Work That Reconnects tools that inform an essential part of this publication. 

Luminous Darkness is divided into four parts, with part one (The Journey into Endarkenment) devoted to redefining darkness and be-friending the night. Part two (Fruitful Darkness and the Realm of Emotional Intelligence) speaks to fierce compassion as the mother of endarkenment and honoring our pain for our world, which references the Work That Reconnects.  Part three (The Spiritual Teaching of Divine Darkness) takes us deeper into the author’s invitation to see into the dark and the power of receptivity, embracing change by creating new maps through inner vision. The fourth and last part (Restoring Wholeness in Ourselves and our World: Collective Endarkenment) engages with relational intelligence, moral imagination and embracing emergence. 

…the author engages with her readers in two significant ways. The first is the language she employs and the second is the way she shares practical tools for our exploration of and reconnecting with darkness.

What stands out in this book, apart from the subject matter that has its own merit, is the way the author engages with her readers in two significant ways. The first is the language she employs and the second is the way she shares practical tools for our exploration of and reconnecting with darkness. I was struck right from the start by the relatedness of her language that drew me in and had me exclaiming every so often, “yes!!”. This was deliberate, as she was very aware of the need to replace the marketplace language that has permeated our way of engaging with each other, especially through the “industry of happiness” that dominates the western spirituality and self-improvement publishing world. She has succeeded in writing a book that is accessible and meaningful at the same time. And I could not help noticing how some of the subheadings often read like modern-day mantras: focus not on what has been lost but on emergence; emergence is the organizing principle of the universe; beyond anthropocentricity is engaged hope; taking responsibility for our collective imagination; meeting one another as mystery; beyond every label is nonseparation; the democracy of darkness leaves no part out; and meeting the messy parts with fierce compassion.

The other way of engaging with her readers is through the practical tools she shares at the end of each chapter, an invitational space to engage in mindful inquiry and experiential practices. The latter are often guided or inspired by Work That Reconnects practices, like for instance, the “Brahmaviharas and learning to see each other” practice in Chapter 8 on relational intelligence. 

Endarkenment is a process of emptying oneself and letting go of a personal agenda to be a vessel for more. 

Endarkenment is a process of emptying oneself and letting go of a personal agenda to be a vessel for more. The reward is developing traits that can become guiding principles for a more engaging way of life: receptivity, deep listening, commitment to process over product, inquiry into the moment, emergence and reference for the unknown.  At the same time, endarkenment, in the author’s words, is also a path of joy – the joy of knowing our shared power through the full spectrum of light and dark. All fear is fear of loss. She invites us to focus not on what has been lost but on the emergence. It can be so much easier to bury our fear in a “business as usual” approach. By focusing on the other hand, on the emergent, we align ourselves with the organizing principle of the universe, the guiding story of Gaia.

In conclusion, I would like to quote Joanna Macey as she articulates so well what this book is about, “Deborah offers a strong medicine of darkness, which helps us navigate the uncertainty of our times.” I found it so refreshing in its “darkness”, an antidote to the tyranny of our sunshining culture and its focus on the external world, constantly seeking externally driven pleasure and satisfaction.


Deborah Eden Tull (2022) Luminious Darkness. An engaged Buddhist approach to embracing the unknown. Shamballa Press: Boulder Colorado. ISBN 987654321

Deborah Eden Tull is a facilitator member of the Work That Reconnects Network.

Valia Papoutsaki is a member of  the editorial team for Deep Times journal and a facilitator member of the Work That Reconnects Network.

 

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