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Luminous Darkness
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.
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.
240 pages, Paperback
Published September 27, 2022
19 people are currently reading
1576 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Eden Tull
4 books22 followersDeborah Eden Tull, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged dharma teacher, spiritual activist, author, and sustainability educator, who teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery and has taught engaged meditation for over 20 years. Eden has lived in sustainable communities and as an organic gardener/farmer for decades and celebrates the essential wisdom of nature . She currently resides in the mountains of western North Carolina, originally Cherokee land, with her husband, She offers retreats, workshops, classes, and consultations nationally and internationally, integrating presence and partnership with nature.
Eden’s first book, The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide for the Sustainable Food Revolution (Process Media), was published in September 2010 and her second book, Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and the Planet, was published by Wisdom Publications in May 2018. Her newest book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown, was released on September 27, 2022.
Join Eden online at: https://www.deborahedentull.com | https://youtube.com/channel/UCWId8BKK... |
https://www.facebook.com/MindfulLivin... | https://www.instagram.com/mindfullivi...
Eden’s first book, The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide for the Sustainable Food Revolution (Process Media), was published in September 2010 and her second book, Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and the Planet, was published by Wisdom Publications in May 2018. Her newest book, Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown, was released on September 27, 2022.
Join Eden online at: https://www.deborahedentull.com | https://youtube.com/channel/UCWId8BKK... |
https://www.facebook.com/MindfulLivin... | https://www.instagram.com/mindfullivi...
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
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September 18, 2025I met Deborah Eden Tull. Quite an extraordinary person. I'm very intrigued and interested in reading her work!
August 4, 2022
This book is an elegant marriage of inquiry, reflection and story telling. I am loving Eden’s transparency as she gives her lived examples of how embracing the dark has informed her life. It is refreshing and comforting to experience the simplicity of resting in darkened stillness. This book is alive with personal inquiry, guiding the reader to experience a deepening and a darkening at their own pace. Reading this book my being feels a sense of home remembering the invitation and fertility of the dark. Thank you, Eden
August 1, 2022
Do you believe we need more light in this world because there’s too much darkness? Did you ever view things in terms of right or wrong, good or bad? If you thought yes and still think yes to such dualities, then you’re the ideal reader for this book by Deborah Eden Tull — because you can now challenge your ways of being, seeing, feeling, receiving, and acting.
In other words, any human being could do well to read Luminous Darkness, whether you’re already aware of these teachings or you’ve never considered challenging these divisive and hierarchical ways of living. In Luminous Darkness, Tull invites you to step into your authentic power and feel your way into your innate kindness by taking a good look at how we’ve fetishized light, electricity, illumination, logic, productivity to the point of losing an essential aspect of living for all creatures, ecosystems, and entire worlds: darkness.
Drawing from personal experience, with unflinching vulnerability, Tull traces her understanding of darkness and how it has led us collectively to the state of humanity we are in today: an unsustainable market economy with a bottomless appetite for more speed and productivity; hierarchical societies that reward “power over” rather than “power with,” a practice that supports systemic racism, violence against women and marginalized groups; and a short-sighted human-first obsession no matter the cost of people, plants, animals, soil, land, that has led to our current climate crisis.
But please don’t confuse this book for a retrospective on human history or cultural anthropology or as a thesis on darkness. At times as deeply personal and relatable as memoir, at times as relevant and startling as a news story you might click on today, Luminous Darkness is at once multidimensional and marvelously simple. It’s actually an invitation and a practice book (with mindful inquiries and experiential activities) for you to receive the wisdom of endarkenment alongside enlightenment — not trying to get one more than the other since they are parts of a complete nutritional regimen.
As this is a spirituality book, I learned about how essential darkness is — through universal truths and insights across Tull’s experience with Zen Buddhism, shamanism, indigenous practices, and many other faiths, mythologies, and wisdom traditions.
Through her admitted assumptions and then revelations, I also learned the ways in which her time as a Zen monk served her and the ways in which she didn’t listen to her own body and intuition when it was crucial to her health (tiny spoiler alert: she nearly died one time she let a perceived higher authority make a medical decision on her behalf).
When I reached Parts Two and Three of the book, Eden deepened the concepts introduced in Part One, diving into emotional intelligence and relational mindfulness and heartfulness with how we sense reality in a fully, energetically, and emotionally embodied way — not just how many of us have been trained to do with visuals or intellectual cause-and-effect based linear thinking. A somatic and embodied approach — as is becoming more well-known in modern psychotherapy — is how you and I can practice the art of receiving and being with this world and its intrinsic components of darkness and mystery, instead of rushing to figure out, understand, categorize, segment as data, and artificially conclude.
What was refreshing and meaningful to me was how much Eden was aware that she was speaking from her own experience — she acknowledges she has had access to more resources due to her white privilege, and she is practicing awareness that not everyone will have had the same access. And with this conversation of race, class, gender, and identity in general, she also skillfully addresses the fine line and need to recognize the currently disempowered state of non-whites of our dominant paradigm, but also not to stay paralyzed in victimization or the false story that we all must continue writing and starring in this self-designed charade.
That is one of the larger takeaways of Luminous Darkness: we all have agency and power. And we all have elected through action and choice this very reality we are currently experiencing. And if we all got ourselves into this world, we have the same power to not only imagine another world but to evolve this one.
Linear thinking and time are subverted early on in Tull’s book, when she lets us all know that the awakened state and embodiment of our truest selves aren’t things we have to work hard to get to someday. They’ve available and accessible now.
So it’s okay if you’re afraid of the dark. And it’s okay if you’re not afraid of the dark. It’s okay if you don’t feel either one (which is duality anyway, right?). Start with where you are. And wherever you go with Luminous Darkness, I hope you find it as rich as I did. Here’s the author’s wish for you near the end of the book:
“My hope is that this book has touched and inspired you to more clearly recognize your own gifts and contribution to our collective transformation in an age of global fragility.”
In other words, any human being could do well to read Luminous Darkness, whether you’re already aware of these teachings or you’ve never considered challenging these divisive and hierarchical ways of living. In Luminous Darkness, Tull invites you to step into your authentic power and feel your way into your innate kindness by taking a good look at how we’ve fetishized light, electricity, illumination, logic, productivity to the point of losing an essential aspect of living for all creatures, ecosystems, and entire worlds: darkness.
Drawing from personal experience, with unflinching vulnerability, Tull traces her understanding of darkness and how it has led us collectively to the state of humanity we are in today: an unsustainable market economy with a bottomless appetite for more speed and productivity; hierarchical societies that reward “power over” rather than “power with,” a practice that supports systemic racism, violence against women and marginalized groups; and a short-sighted human-first obsession no matter the cost of people, plants, animals, soil, land, that has led to our current climate crisis.
But please don’t confuse this book for a retrospective on human history or cultural anthropology or as a thesis on darkness. At times as deeply personal and relatable as memoir, at times as relevant and startling as a news story you might click on today, Luminous Darkness is at once multidimensional and marvelously simple. It’s actually an invitation and a practice book (with mindful inquiries and experiential activities) for you to receive the wisdom of endarkenment alongside enlightenment — not trying to get one more than the other since they are parts of a complete nutritional regimen.
As this is a spirituality book, I learned about how essential darkness is — through universal truths and insights across Tull’s experience with Zen Buddhism, shamanism, indigenous practices, and many other faiths, mythologies, and wisdom traditions.
Through her admitted assumptions and then revelations, I also learned the ways in which her time as a Zen monk served her and the ways in which she didn’t listen to her own body and intuition when it was crucial to her health (tiny spoiler alert: she nearly died one time she let a perceived higher authority make a medical decision on her behalf).
When I reached Parts Two and Three of the book, Eden deepened the concepts introduced in Part One, diving into emotional intelligence and relational mindfulness and heartfulness with how we sense reality in a fully, energetically, and emotionally embodied way — not just how many of us have been trained to do with visuals or intellectual cause-and-effect based linear thinking. A somatic and embodied approach — as is becoming more well-known in modern psychotherapy — is how you and I can practice the art of receiving and being with this world and its intrinsic components of darkness and mystery, instead of rushing to figure out, understand, categorize, segment as data, and artificially conclude.
What was refreshing and meaningful to me was how much Eden was aware that she was speaking from her own experience — she acknowledges she has had access to more resources due to her white privilege, and she is practicing awareness that not everyone will have had the same access. And with this conversation of race, class, gender, and identity in general, she also skillfully addresses the fine line and need to recognize the currently disempowered state of non-whites of our dominant paradigm, but also not to stay paralyzed in victimization or the false story that we all must continue writing and starring in this self-designed charade.
That is one of the larger takeaways of Luminous Darkness: we all have agency and power. And we all have elected through action and choice this very reality we are currently experiencing. And if we all got ourselves into this world, we have the same power to not only imagine another world but to evolve this one.
Linear thinking and time are subverted early on in Tull’s book, when she lets us all know that the awakened state and embodiment of our truest selves aren’t things we have to work hard to get to someday. They’ve available and accessible now.
So it’s okay if you’re afraid of the dark. And it’s okay if you’re not afraid of the dark. It’s okay if you don’t feel either one (which is duality anyway, right?). Start with where you are. And wherever you go with Luminous Darkness, I hope you find it as rich as I did. Here’s the author’s wish for you near the end of the book:
“My hope is that this book has touched and inspired you to more clearly recognize your own gifts and contribution to our collective transformation in an age of global fragility.”
August 10, 2022
The wisdom shared in this beautifully written book, through Deborah Eden Tull’s personal and professional experiences, her accessible language and comforting guidance, is exactly what is needed in this world today. Tull encourages us through an exploration of endarkenment to become aware of the limitations of duality, to welcome all parts of our human experience, to rest in our interconnection with nature and its healing power, and so much more. This book is truly a path to personal and collective awakening, one worthy of walking with one of the most compassionate and authentic teachers I have had the honor to learn from. At the end of each chapter, Tull provides experiential practices and mindful inquiry guidance. This further supports one’s inner exploration and the embodiment of the teachings. Each chapter builds upon the previous while illustrating that everything is integrated. As I read this book, I feel inspired, understood, held and challenged to uncover the limitations of the conditioned mind, to broaden my perspective, to meet myself and others with compassion, and to deeply understand that societal change is an inside out process. I am so excited for this book to get into many hands and hearts. During and after reading this book, one will have uncovered and discovered an inner trust, insight, strength, and courage to see life as the magnificent mystery that it is and take compassionate action to grow a world where all beings (human and non-human) are seen with the heart.
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December 7, 2022“Our human existence is the full spectrum of light and dark, and we have what it takes to meet all of it with love. Because love is who we are.”
Deborah Eden Tull is a Zen meditation and mindfulness teacher, who spent seven years training as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery. I have been interested in learning more about Buddhism and I thought this book would be a good place to start.
In Luminous Darkness, Tull explores how and why we see darkness as “bad” and lightness as “good,” when there are actually things to be learned from the darkness. As I’m experiencing some darkness in my own life right now - literally, with the shorter days and lack of sunshine; and figuratively, as I deal with a personal loss - this was an interesting time for me to read it.
I really liked this book. It took me a while to get through it, there are lots of concepts in it that were very new to me. I’m not sure if I can ever fully embrace what Tull calls “endarkenment” - to me, dark times still feel dark, and hard, and I crave the light - but it was a very good introduction to her way of thinking.
I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Kelsey at Book Publicity Services, the publisher Shambhala Ublications, and the author.
Deborah Eden Tull is a Zen meditation and mindfulness teacher, who spent seven years training as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery. I have been interested in learning more about Buddhism and I thought this book would be a good place to start.
In Luminous Darkness, Tull explores how and why we see darkness as “bad” and lightness as “good,” when there are actually things to be learned from the darkness. As I’m experiencing some darkness in my own life right now - literally, with the shorter days and lack of sunshine; and figuratively, as I deal with a personal loss - this was an interesting time for me to read it.
I really liked this book. It took me a while to get through it, there are lots of concepts in it that were very new to me. I’m not sure if I can ever fully embrace what Tull calls “endarkenment” - to me, dark times still feel dark, and hard, and I crave the light - but it was a very good introduction to her way of thinking.
I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Kelsey at Book Publicity Services, the publisher Shambhala Ublications, and the author.
September 26, 2023
I was deeply moved by the journey Eden took me on in Luminous Darkness. I devoured the book in a weekend after attending one of her women's retreats. Absorbing her insights extended my time in the deep chalice of feminine embodiment she carries and expresses. In her book, Eden writes, "We might become aware of a quiet yearning––the sense of a seed of possibility that feels, at the same time, like a distant memory. Until that part is brought into awareness––into complete inclusion within our psyche––we may not realize we had been starving for a wholeness we were missing." As a long-time Zen practitioner who has spent 2 1/2 years in residency at a temple, these words resonated deeply with me. As I received her words, I felt the missing piece of a mosaic I have long been creating fully emerge. In her pages, I rediscovered the deep nurture of permission, and the radiant affirmation of the deeply nourishing and profoundly needed feminine within Buddhism and our world. Eden is a spirit sister and an earth mother. Luminous Darkness quenches an ancient thirst and I am so grateful the universe placed this being and her slow, graceful, tender, restorative writing on my path. Deep bows.
August 3, 2022
I am heeding the author’s call at the beginning of the book to move through the chapters slowly. Therefore, I have only made it to chapter 3, but I didn’t want to wait to finish before writing this review. In these first few chapters alone, I have learned so much about darkness and endarkenment, and I can see that this is going to be the most important book that I will read this year (perhaps ever). The weaving of the author’s own life stories into the narrative is intriguing, and makes the information clearer and more grounded. I also am enjoying her use of poetry to give image to her words.
The Mindful Inquiry sections are thought-provoking and eye-opening, as are the suggested Experiential Practices. In fact, I need to stop reading for a while now while I ponder and digest what has been shared so far!
I will be promoting and sharing this book with our SoulCollage community as soon as it is released in September!
The Mindful Inquiry sections are thought-provoking and eye-opening, as are the suggested Experiential Practices. In fact, I need to stop reading for a while now while I ponder and digest what has been shared so far!
I will be promoting and sharing this book with our SoulCollage community as soon as it is released in September!
September 11, 2022
Deborah Eden Tull has written a rich, loving and engaging book that explores and expands on the subject of darkness - literal, figurative, mythical, and more. With moving examples from her own life's journey, teachings from Buddhism and other spiritual and philosophical traditions and the wisdom of the more-than-human world, Tull invites us to challenge traditional perceptions of "darkness" and consider it in new ways - ways that may be essential as we face tremendous changes the world over, especially due to the climate crisis. A variety of practices are woven throughout the book, offering readers many ways to dive into our own explorations of darkened stillness... inviting the power and potential of endarkenment to transform ourselves and our world.
August 19, 2022
Other than reflecting on the magnificence and mystery of the cosmos while enjoying the rare darkened sky while backpacking, I hadn't really thought much about our relationship to darkness. Luminous Darkness by Deborah Eden Tull shifted my perception of the importance of darkness in many dimensions: psychological, ecological, spiritual and interpersonal to name just a few. This is a book to be savored, reflected upon and discussed as a potent pathway to navigate the challenges we face as humans.
December 16, 2022
This is a powerful book that contains much needed healing on both individual & collective levels. It's a deep dive into engaged Buddhism & Earth-based spirituality - profound but also highly practical as there are inquiries and meditations to support you as you move through it. The author encourages us to turn towards darkness - both literal & metaphorical - and see the healing essence within. It's a joyful, awe inspiring & life affirming journey back to wholeness. Eden is a true medicine woman & I highly recommend this book.
June 12, 2025
3.5 stars
I went back and forth in my mind between a 3 and 4-star rating. There are a lot of concepts in this book I really like, and I do feel like I learned some new ways of thinking. However, some of it feels repetitive throughout. I also think some concepts and terminology need more explanation, while others are overly explained. I found myself needing to look up quite a few words to understand her meaning. I would have liked more discussion on the impact of technology, which she just touches on at the end of the book.
Overall I do feel it’s an interesting and thought-provoking book.
I went back and forth in my mind between a 3 and 4-star rating. There are a lot of concepts in this book I really like, and I do feel like I learned some new ways of thinking. However, some of it feels repetitive throughout. I also think some concepts and terminology need more explanation, while others are overly explained. I found myself needing to look up quite a few words to understand her meaning. I would have liked more discussion on the impact of technology, which she just touches on at the end of the book.
Overall I do feel it’s an interesting and thought-provoking book.
August 8, 2022
Luminous Darkness presents a radically fresh perspective on darkness - physical and symbolic. It offers wisdom for personal and collective healing, teaching us how to see with the heart as we face the unknown. The author shares her own life experience and path from growing up in a culture of "sunshining" in LA to opening to the wisdom of darkness as a Zen Buddhist monk, to living in this age of uncertainty. I loved this book and recommend it to all!
September 28, 2022
Deborah Eden Tull's exploration of endarkenment helped me begin to recognize embedded ideas and fears fed by the larger society. In doing so, I began reimagining darkness and the unknown through the lens of possibility and boundlessness. This book encourages integration of the light and the dark within each of us as well as by the world, offering healing and hope through the recovery of wholeness.
September 27, 2022
An impeccable guide through the daunting journey of embracing darkness, both within and without.
Facing darkness, both within ourselves and outside of ourselves, is a daunting journey that many of us put forth a great deal of energy to avoid. Deborah Eden Tull guides us gracefully on the path of not only facing, but embracing darkness in this book.
Facing darkness, both within ourselves and outside of ourselves, is a daunting journey that many of us put forth a great deal of energy to avoid. Deborah Eden Tull guides us gracefully on the path of not only facing, but embracing darkness in this book.
August 27, 2022
I thought that this book was very poignant, and I love how linguistically gifted the author is! Her experiences and how she talked about them in the book resonated with me a lot, and I thought that this was an incredibly captivating read.
November 28, 2022
How much you like this will depend a lot on your tolerance for New Age-y speak verging on mysticism, but I personally enjoyed this unique entry point into Zen Buddhism and it gave me a lot to reflect on.
January 21, 2023
Reading Deborah Eden Tull's book gave me the wonderful experience (again and again) of saying Yes!, I have always known and felt this in some dark place. And now that dark place is a more intriguing, beautiful and vital part of me. Deep appreciation.
Want to read
December 30, 2022Recommended by Anne Marie
September 26, 2022
In a world where we tend to associate light with desirability (enlightenment, finding the light, etc.), it can feel counterintuitive to turn toward and welcome darkness.
In this book, Deborah Eden Tull offers a perspective shift… an invitation to turn toward the darkness in ourselves and our world. Darkness can be a regenerative and creative space that can be both mystical and grounded. She urges us not to fear our dark soul- and world-spaces, but to welcome them… to allow the dark as an essential element of wholeness.
Eden weaves teachings and insights with compelling stories from her own life to show us how embracing the metaphorical and physical darkness can offer illumination and healing for ourselves and the world.
In this book, Deborah Eden Tull offers a perspective shift… an invitation to turn toward the darkness in ourselves and our world. Darkness can be a regenerative and creative space that can be both mystical and grounded. She urges us not to fear our dark soul- and world-spaces, but to welcome them… to allow the dark as an essential element of wholeness.
Eden weaves teachings and insights with compelling stories from her own life to show us how embracing the metaphorical and physical darkness can offer illumination and healing for ourselves and the world.
February 4, 2024
A wise and helpful book about not to be afraid (both literally and proverbially) of the dark and all its implications, about hierarchy, and how patriarchy and capitalism tells us we are not good enough. I've added soooo many sticky notes, Luminous Darkness is very inclusive too.
And yet... I'm ambivalent about a certain aspect of this book. I don't understand how Tull emphasizes to be open and vulnerable without doing so herself while mentioning her health.
Being ill with ME for over 18 years, most of that time housebound, I fail to understand how she - being ill with Lyme disease and having only slept three hours that particular day - can start a morning with some somatic movement that ends in her dancing for 45 minutes for instance.
She teaches us the need to appreciate the process not the outcome, but doesn't reveal more than her physical hurdles in life and subsequently her finding self compassion, as if this is a one-way street. It never gets personal, she doesn't describe any difficult moments, she is never once on her knees with despair.
The book I get, her journey... not so much. In the conclusion of the book she is confident for the future, regardless of what is to come. Me? I don't know.
And yet... I'm ambivalent about a certain aspect of this book. I don't understand how Tull emphasizes to be open and vulnerable without doing so herself while mentioning her health.
Being ill with ME for over 18 years, most of that time housebound, I fail to understand how she - being ill with Lyme disease and having only slept three hours that particular day - can start a morning with some somatic movement that ends in her dancing for 45 minutes for instance.
She teaches us the need to appreciate the process not the outcome, but doesn't reveal more than her physical hurdles in life and subsequently her finding self compassion, as if this is a one-way street. It never gets personal, she doesn't describe any difficult moments, she is never once on her knees with despair.
The book I get, her journey... not so much. In the conclusion of the book she is confident for the future, regardless of what is to come. Me? I don't know.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews