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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.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Joan Halifax
46 books310 followersJoan Halifax is a Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality. She currently serves as abbot of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Halifax has received dharma transmission from both Bernard Glassman and Thich Nhat Hanh, and studied under Korean master Seung Sahn. In the 1970s she collaborated on LSD research projects with her ex-husband Stanislav Grof, in addition to other collaborative efforts with Joseph Campbell and Alan Lomax. As a socially engaged Buddhist, Halifax has done extensive work through her Project on Being with Dying. She is on the board of directors of the Mind and Life Institute, a non-profit organization exploring the relationship between science and Buddhism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
June 29, 2013
I read The Fruitful Darkness when it was first published in 1993. Since then I have opened its pages hundreds of times thinking I will read just one chapter and find myself reading into the early hours of morning. Prose like poetry capturing the mind, spirit and heart, easy to read and yet Joan Halifax's words invite you to think deeply and harvest new awarenesses. Just reading the capture titles take you on a journey: The World Wound, The Way of Silence, The Way of Tradition, The Way of the Mountain, The Way of Language, The Way of Story, The Way of Nonduality, The Way of the Ancestors, The Way of Compassion. As for the title, THE FRUITFUL DARKNESS, the author's words in the preface illuminate its meaning, "What follows are observations, notes, stories, and realizations that point to pathways that link self and other--ways that often take one through the Valley of Darkness. I also suggest that the fruits of understanding and compassion grow in this valley." This book has been a friend, a companion on my life's journey.
October 7, 2018
I discovered this book as a result of reading an interview given by Trevor Hall, a singera-songwriter, who named his most recent album “The Fruitful Darkness” after finding inspiration in this book by Joan Halifax. I, too, have found inspiration in this book and its words.
We need to change our thinking and our approach to existence because our collective, continued existence depend on reaching deep within ourselves to embrace the fruitful darkness and not shun it. We owe it to the past and the future. We in the present have a duty to listen and to learn from our ancestors in the past to prepare a better way for the future of all that exists.
Read this book. Think about this book. Act from this book.
We need to change our thinking and our approach to existence because our collective, continued existence depend on reaching deep within ourselves to embrace the fruitful darkness and not shun it. We owe it to the past and the future. We in the present have a duty to listen and to learn from our ancestors in the past to prepare a better way for the future of all that exists.
Read this book. Think about this book. Act from this book.
March 2, 2021
My first experience with this author and it was a fantastic one. The six months it took to read this book was more about my need to sit with the ideas and read and reread them and let them sink in. I cannot describe this book or even remember enough to offer a good summary but I know I will revisit it often.
September 16, 2026
Stopped reading the book at page 50.
This book is more of a descripition of various scenieres than a Buddhist philosophy text. The descriptions are masterfully done. You can really immerse yourself in the landscapes she brings to life. However, this was not what I was looking for.
But still, I liked some passages:
"The poet Kathleen Raine once suggested, “It is not that birds speak, but men learn silence.” I think that it is when we learn silence that the birds speak to us. Fertile silence is like a placenta nourishing us from both emptiness and its connectedness with the greater organism of creation. Indeed, one aspect of silence is emptiness, and yes, it is often lonely. In the presence of silence, the conditioned self rattles and scratches. It begins to crumble like old leaves or worn rock. If we have courage, we take silence as medicine to cure us from our social ills, the suffering of self-centred alienation. In silence, sacred silence, we stand naked like trees in winter, all our secrets visible under our skin. And like winter’s tree, we appear dead but are yet alive." (p.24)
"We are the sum of our ancestors. Our roots stretch back to blue-green algae; they stretch to the stars. They ultimately reach the void. Between the great original emptiness, the ancestral void, and the body that reads these words, there stand numberless generations of inorganic and organic forms. As geological history is written on a canyon wall, this history is inscribed in our psyches. Silence and solitude enjoin us to remember our whole and great body." (p.28)
"Perhaps we fear that with silence we might hear the cries of our own suffering and the suffering in the world. The sound of suffering is covered over by the ceaseless song of longing for more; the mindless tunes of elevator music; the crackling of “news”; the grind of transiting vehicles; endless chatter in hallways, in coffee shops, in our minds; the remorseless electrical hum and whir tuning us to the shared frequency of the developed world." (p.30)
This book is more of a descripition of various scenieres than a Buddhist philosophy text. The descriptions are masterfully done. You can really immerse yourself in the landscapes she brings to life. However, this was not what I was looking for.
But still, I liked some passages:
"The poet Kathleen Raine once suggested, “It is not that birds speak, but men learn silence.” I think that it is when we learn silence that the birds speak to us. Fertile silence is like a placenta nourishing us from both emptiness and its connectedness with the greater organism of creation. Indeed, one aspect of silence is emptiness, and yes, it is often lonely. In the presence of silence, the conditioned self rattles and scratches. It begins to crumble like old leaves or worn rock. If we have courage, we take silence as medicine to cure us from our social ills, the suffering of self-centred alienation. In silence, sacred silence, we stand naked like trees in winter, all our secrets visible under our skin. And like winter’s tree, we appear dead but are yet alive." (p.24)
"We are the sum of our ancestors. Our roots stretch back to blue-green algae; they stretch to the stars. They ultimately reach the void. Between the great original emptiness, the ancestral void, and the body that reads these words, there stand numberless generations of inorganic and organic forms. As geological history is written on a canyon wall, this history is inscribed in our psyches. Silence and solitude enjoin us to remember our whole and great body." (p.28)
"Perhaps we fear that with silence we might hear the cries of our own suffering and the suffering in the world. The sound of suffering is covered over by the ceaseless song of longing for more; the mindless tunes of elevator music; the crackling of “news”; the grind of transiting vehicles; endless chatter in hallways, in coffee shops, in our minds; the remorseless electrical hum and whir tuning us to the shared frequency of the developed world." (p.30)
January 26, 2022
Compelling book, its author has lead an interesting life. Largely focused on ecology, practice as means to awaken awareness of ‘interbeing’ — Thich Nhat Hanh’s term (who was also one of her teachers). At times the writing, especially about tribal peoples, leaders and shamans she knows, is hagiographic and a bit sentimental, but mostly it is a clear-sighted invitation to reflection and contemplation.
October 4, 2020
This will be an important spiritual book I will keep coming back to.
February 2, 2026
This answered a lot of my burning questions. So much to process...
February 21, 2015
A feminine, earthy read. Eminently quotable, this book is a virtual prose poem of a travelog, detailing the author’s experiences with dying cultures and modern buddhism. One of my first readings in deep ecology, I have a hard time sitting with the guilt and pain of the earth as it suffers. The author manages to embrace this suffering as her own and fill her life with meaning, doing her part to keep the old traditions alive. If I had to guess, I would say the author is a seven on the enneagram. Not everyone could live like this, but it makes for a damn good story.
March 27, 2026
This was fine, it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I was expecting a more informative or comparative look at tribal/buddhist teachings but this read a bit more like a travelogue. Almost covered too much to be able to really connect. Leaned much more heavily into indigenous spirituality than Buddhism. Not bad, just not for me. The chapter on nonduality was my favorite.
July 22, 2013
Excellent book, one of my favorites for journeying into the heart and psyche of a deeply spiritual woman.
June 6, 2025
You should read chapter 9 of this book for insane revelations. Definitely gonna come back to this someday because there’s a lot of good stuff in here, it’s just a lot to process and hard to retain ya dig. Spectacular book though sheesh.
August 10, 2025
intuitive and simple truths that nonetheless caused an ontological shift in me. I read this book spread out over a full year, and little by little, it transformed me. even when I wondered if Halifax is portraying the noble savage, I do not think so, for she quotes and quotes, and does not refer to an abstract people, but to persons and their knowledge and messages. Halifax is everything I wanted to be and has opened my horizons to new desires to be connected and do good.
August 5, 2018
A fascinating mix of Joan's personal experience among tribal peoples, with elements of Buddhism that became Ms Halifax's better known existence as a highly regarded Zen Buddhist teacher who has worked extensively with the dying.
Throughout the book, there is great respect for all those she encounters and goes to great lengths to seek out and learn from, enduring various hardships.
This book has certainly driven my interest to pursue more of Joan's work in all fields - they intersect very well with my own interests - Buddhism, tribal wisdom and death and dying.
I was interested and surprised by the variety of influential and interesting people JH was hanging out with and having great adventures with...
This book is also a lovely, unusual shape, which kind of makes it special to read!
Throughout the book, there is great respect for all those she encounters and goes to great lengths to seek out and learn from, enduring various hardships.
This book has certainly driven my interest to pursue more of Joan's work in all fields - they intersect very well with my own interests - Buddhism, tribal wisdom and death and dying.
I was interested and surprised by the variety of influential and interesting people JH was hanging out with and having great adventures with...
This book is also a lovely, unusual shape, which kind of makes it special to read!
January 3, 2019
This is not a book for the faint of heart or the casual reader. This is a complex and sometimes bewildering adventure into tribal wisdom and deep ecology. Like any book that manages to say something profound that I've never heard before, I have great respect for that which I took away and that which I will need to come back to in order to comprehend more fully. I am grateful to Joan Halifax for her extraordinarily adventurous life and her willingness to share it.
June 8, 2025
Coming of age as an atheist, I've easily dismissed books like this. But when I stumbled across the fruitful darkness on goodreads, I felt inside of me that I couldn't dismiss it too. I'm glad. No book, no religion, no sense of spirituality has ever comforted me until now. I will be returning to buddhist literature!
April 29, 2018
Joan Halifax is a good companion with Alan Watts. I want to read more of her books. The best of spirituality.
September 10, 2023
A profound, richly insightful work, written with the kind of poetry and charm that allows for flashes and glimpses of enlightenment – a reality infinitely greater that the particular. I finished the book thinking how difficult it must be to communicate this to readers.
At first, I didn't share the author's romance for the rituals of tribal peoples, lost songs and stories and so on, and I thought the discomforts she endured in pursuit of knowledge verged on the dotty. It's sad when old cultures pass, but that's sometimes inevitable. (Perhaps I'm inured to this. My own culture, which has at its heart the spoken Welsh language, has had a close shave with extinction). I also wondered how she reconciled the passing of these old ways with Buddhist notions of impermanence and acceptance.
It was only when I read the chapter on Nonduality that everything the author been describing started to click. Tribal peoples had ways of living in balance with nature. It provided for them and they looked after it with respect. Nature was an extension of themselves. Today, this should not be not arcane knowledge, but policy. But can anything change?
Almost everyone possesses a sense of self that is discrete from the world around them. It would take a radical epistemological transformation to understand that no one and nothing can exist in isolation. Every atom in a human body is hitched to everything else in the universe. Nature is not some separate entity to occasionally feel guilty about. We are nature. When we harm it we harm ourselves.
This book was written in 1992. A few times the author cites television and the atom bomb as high on the list of ills of modern civilization. Those seem almost quaint now, compared with AI hyper-intelligence and a visibly manifesting climate breakdown.
One thing the author didn't mention: It seems to me that a life lived in balance with nature was easier when the populations of the world were scattered and small. In the year I was born (1966), there were 2 billion people on the planet. By the time I'm atoms again, there will be 9 billion plus, all requiring resources from the Earth. The places of beauty and solitude will become fewer. People will increasingly lose their connection with nature. A new model for living is needed and it probably won't come from any of our current systems. It seems funny how 20th century Marxists thought that class struggle would bring an end to consumer capitalism. None of them imagined that it might be brought to a fiery end by the climate. Tribal peoples could have told them that.
At first, I didn't share the author's romance for the rituals of tribal peoples, lost songs and stories and so on, and I thought the discomforts she endured in pursuit of knowledge verged on the dotty. It's sad when old cultures pass, but that's sometimes inevitable. (Perhaps I'm inured to this. My own culture, which has at its heart the spoken Welsh language, has had a close shave with extinction). I also wondered how she reconciled the passing of these old ways with Buddhist notions of impermanence and acceptance.
It was only when I read the chapter on Nonduality that everything the author been describing started to click. Tribal peoples had ways of living in balance with nature. It provided for them and they looked after it with respect. Nature was an extension of themselves. Today, this should not be not arcane knowledge, but policy. But can anything change?
Almost everyone possesses a sense of self that is discrete from the world around them. It would take a radical epistemological transformation to understand that no one and nothing can exist in isolation. Every atom in a human body is hitched to everything else in the universe. Nature is not some separate entity to occasionally feel guilty about. We are nature. When we harm it we harm ourselves.
This book was written in 1992. A few times the author cites television and the atom bomb as high on the list of ills of modern civilization. Those seem almost quaint now, compared with AI hyper-intelligence and a visibly manifesting climate breakdown.
One thing the author didn't mention: It seems to me that a life lived in balance with nature was easier when the populations of the world were scattered and small. In the year I was born (1966), there were 2 billion people on the planet. By the time I'm atoms again, there will be 9 billion plus, all requiring resources from the Earth. The places of beauty and solitude will become fewer. People will increasingly lose their connection with nature. A new model for living is needed and it probably won't come from any of our current systems. It seems funny how 20th century Marxists thought that class struggle would bring an end to consumer capitalism. None of them imagined that it might be brought to a fiery end by the climate. Tribal peoples could have told them that.
February 8, 2024
I owned this book for 4 years before actually reading it. I had picked it up at least twice a year since acquiring it and read a few chapters. Every time the words slipped through me like wind through the grass. I could feel their power but I couldn’t grasp their true meaning. One day as I sat at the tea table I felt a pull. There was a book in my collection left unread that wanted to work itself into me. My bookshelf laid horizontal behind me, in a room with no chairs, as mine is, it’s easier to grab books when they are stretched across the ground. I pulled out a few books left unread or partially read. “On Earth we’re Breifly Gorgeous” by ocean Voung, “Lord of the Rings” book 2 by JRR Tolkien, “His Hideous Strength” by C.S. Lewis and “The Fruitful Darkness” by Roshi Joan Halifax. This time I chose the book that I had tried so many times before to finish. Turning it in my hands I could feel how alive the pages were and like ripping Velcro I pulled the pages apart and entered the fruitful darkness. Never have I had words speak so directly to my heart. I’m clouded by the tears I shed over these stories I can not tell you if the book will be a good read for anyone but me. What I can say is that this book changed my life. It set me on a trajectory of really
Listening to the world. Seeing everything in creation as my elder siblings. It helped show me that everything in this world is imbued with spirit and contains as much personhood as you or I and they have a story to tell too. The stone people, the deer people, the people of peyote. There are many people in this world that take on shapes that are not made in our image. Their no less people they just have a different experience. We are all so deeply interconnected in this world. If we listen carefully we can learn the stories of all the people we share this earth with. If we listen carefully enough we will know how to share our story. We will know how to utilize our suffering and pain as a means of ripening. We can water the seeds of compassion and love and grow fruit from even the darkest places within us. All can be used for the healing of this world. The world wound. I dare not explain this concept, you must read it yourself. It is too important to be overlooked, on some level we all bare a scar from this world. How will we all address it together in community? How do we carry the weight of suffering and allow it to grow compassion in us? How do we collect fruit from the darkness? These pages like a cairn will mark a path for you where you yourself may find these answers in communion with the world.
Listening to the world. Seeing everything in creation as my elder siblings. It helped show me that everything in this world is imbued with spirit and contains as much personhood as you or I and they have a story to tell too. The stone people, the deer people, the people of peyote. There are many people in this world that take on shapes that are not made in our image. Their no less people they just have a different experience. We are all so deeply interconnected in this world. If we listen carefully we can learn the stories of all the people we share this earth with. If we listen carefully enough we will know how to share our story. We will know how to utilize our suffering and pain as a means of ripening. We can water the seeds of compassion and love and grow fruit from even the darkest places within us. All can be used for the healing of this world. The world wound. I dare not explain this concept, you must read it yourself. It is too important to be overlooked, on some level we all bare a scar from this world. How will we all address it together in community? How do we carry the weight of suffering and allow it to grow compassion in us? How do we collect fruit from the darkness? These pages like a cairn will mark a path for you where you yourself may find these answers in communion with the world.
June 26, 2026
Joan Halifax is a fascinating Buddhist teacher I enjoy learning from, so I was excited to purchase The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom on Audible. In this book, the author — a Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, and activist — draws on her experiences with indigenous peoples and spiritual traditions across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. She weaves together encounters with Tibetan Buddhist meditators, Mexican shamans, Native American elders, and other wisdom keepers. The book explores "the fruitful darkness" — the shadow side of existence, suffering, and the unknown — as a fertile ground for compassion, insight, and reconnection with the Earth. It is part autobiography, part philosophical reflection, and part cultural critique, urging us to realign with nature, ancient wisdom traditions, and inner stillness amidst modern disconnection.
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a lovely foreword to the book, and I thought it was an excellent introduction to the content. Overall, I found this book very special and meaningful. Learning Joan's lessons through her personal experiences felt intimate and immediate. I appreciated her desire to explore various traditions and weave them into Buddhist practice. The constant thread of nature as a theme was soothing.
Unfortunately, the narration by Judith West is terrible. I was immediately disappointed by the tone of voice, and it made it very difficult to focus on the content. I feel sad that I likely missed some of Joan's experiences and messages because the narration was so distracting. Honestly, I would have abandoned the audiobook, but I've learned it's hard for me to quit a book I've paid for. I usually enjoy Audible productions, but that wasn't the case here.
While I will absolutely continue to seek out Joan's work, I'll be keeping a sharp eye out for anything narrated by Judith West and swiftly avoiding those.
I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a lovely foreword to the book, and I thought it was an excellent introduction to the content. Overall, I found this book very special and meaningful. Learning Joan's lessons through her personal experiences felt intimate and immediate. I appreciated her desire to explore various traditions and weave them into Buddhist practice. The constant thread of nature as a theme was soothing.
Unfortunately, the narration by Judith West is terrible. I was immediately disappointed by the tone of voice, and it made it very difficult to focus on the content. I feel sad that I likely missed some of Joan's experiences and messages because the narration was so distracting. Honestly, I would have abandoned the audiobook, but I've learned it's hard for me to quit a book I've paid for. I usually enjoy Audible productions, but that wasn't the case here.
While I will absolutely continue to seek out Joan's work, I'll be keeping a sharp eye out for anything narrated by Judith West and swiftly avoiding those.
I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog
June 7, 2022
This audio book was almost ruined by the narrator. The content was so relevant to my past experience, and interesting, that I soldiered on.
I'm sure the reader is a nice person, and has a spot in the world of narration, but this content didn't need drama -- just straightforward presentation. Their attempt at an emotional... mellifluous style was distracting and bordered on eye rolling for me.
The book, however, was a very interesting memior and I appreciated it. I feel like I spent my 20's and 30's in her footsteps, so many names of teachers and luminaries were familiar to me. So, I'm biased, but I still think it's a well written and relevant memoir.
I'm sure the reader is a nice person, and has a spot in the world of narration, but this content didn't need drama -- just straightforward presentation. Their attempt at an emotional... mellifluous style was distracting and bordered on eye rolling for me.
The book, however, was a very interesting memior and I appreciated it. I feel like I spent my 20's and 30's in her footsteps, so many names of teachers and luminaries were familiar to me. So, I'm biased, but I still think it's a well written and relevant memoir.
February 12, 2022
I enjoyed Roshi Joan Halifax life stories she shared throughout this book to help the reader understand and integrate nature’s “voice.” “The voices of ancestors, elements and elementals, plants and creatures, the roar of water and ice, the whisper of pine, the swoosh of the hawk, the song of the eagle. The voice of nature can be heard.”
February 13, 2020
This is an incredibly "chewy" book, rich and worth going back to. I listened to the audiobook, which was good, but I didn't really have time to stop and savor it. I'd like to get the print edition so I can dip into it.
April 14, 2023
Joan Halifax shares her broad cultural and spiritual life experience in this part memoir, part anthropological, fully integrated spiritual journey of man and woman and our relationship with the earth.
July 17, 2017
More journal than spiritual discussion
July 12, 2022
Stunning, inimitable knowledge on sacred quests, nature, pilgrimages, and ancenstral ways of being. A few pages in, I cried at the recognition and knowing.
April 11, 2023
May we listen and learn.
May we remember the old ways.
I am all my relations.
May we remember the old ways.
I am all my relations.
January 24, 2024
I really enjoyed parts of this, but I was a bit thrown off by the structure. It might be one that I need to return to.
December 13, 2025
Dense and best read in short stints, but beautiful
July 30, 2026
one of the best books i’ve ever read and i will be rereading in the future.
August 20, 2026
"What if the problem with kids these days is that we don't let them get bit by venomous snakes" -Joan Halifax, basically
This one might stand out to me more on reread, but on first go, the author's interpretations of the stories and events in this book mostly struck me as simultaneously painfully mundane and as completely out of left field, such that I was not able to access the attempted profoundness of her thought process. I literally have no idea what she was getting at for large percentages of this book -- or maybe her statements are so simplistic and obvious that I simply can't quite see the purpose of writing them down in such a format. Maybe it speaks to the depth of Joan Halifax's wisdom that I can't tell which, but I quite flatly just didn't get it.
This one might stand out to me more on reread, but on first go, the author's interpretations of the stories and events in this book mostly struck me as simultaneously painfully mundane and as completely out of left field, such that I was not able to access the attempted profoundness of her thought process. I literally have no idea what she was getting at for large percentages of this book -- or maybe her statements are so simplistic and obvious that I simply can't quite see the purpose of writing them down in such a format. Maybe it speaks to the depth of Joan Halifax's wisdom that I can't tell which, but I quite flatly just didn't get it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews