Halifax’s The Fruitful Darkness landed in Hall’s hands almost by accident. On the title track of the album, Hall sings: Hall went ahead with the title for his album, which echoed many of the book’s themes in its lyrics. “It was something like ‘Dear Trevor, If you want to use the title, you can use it, but I don’t think you should use it… but I’ll leave it up to you.’ It was like a puzzle.” “She wrote me back such a Zen koan response,” says Hall. He wrote to Halifax, who serves as the Abbot of Upaya Zen Center, requesting her permission to title his project The Fruitful Darkness. When it came time to title his record, Hall knew he wanted the album to share the same name as Halifax’s book. Our weaknesses become our strengths, the source of our compassion for others and the basis of our awakened nature.
They then become manifestations of wisdom. The only way to work with them is to encounter them directly, enter their world, and transform them. In The Fruitful Darkness, Halifax writes:īoth Buddhism and shamanism are based in the psychological grammar that says we cannot eliminate the so-called negative forces of afflictive emotions. “The book really helped me finish the album,” Hall said in an interview. While writing an album reflecting on the wisdom he’d gained navigating a period of hardship, Halifax’s message was the very guidance Hall needed. The Fruitful Darkness, published over 20 years ago, is a deep study of shamanism, Buddhism, tribal wisdom, and the connections between. Halifax’s reflections on the Buddhist path and the shamanic journey immediately spoke to Hall’s own difficult walk through darkness - the fruits of which he knows well.
In the middle of recording his latest album, singer-songwriter Trevor Hall picked up Zen Buddhist teacher Roshi Joan Halifax’s book, The Fruitful Darkness.
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