This week, Trevor Hall joins Raghu for a conversation about the growth that can come from turning towards our suffering in periods of fruitful darkness.
Listen to Trevor’s newest album, The Fruitful Darkness, find tour dates and more at trevorhallmusic.com.
Show Notes
The Fruitful Darkness (Opening) – Trevor shares the inspiration behind the evocative title of his newest album, The Fruitful Darkness. He describes his own intense period of fruitful darkness and how changing his relationship to suffering transformed his life.
“I feel, as a culture, we are always scared of the dark. Roshi Joan Halifax talks about this in her book, The Fruitful Darkness. The things that are undefined and unexplained, we turn away from because they scare us. She talks in her book about how these different indigenous and shamanic cultures that she was with, their shamans’ journey was to turn into the dark. It’s to face the dark and befriend it. It’s to befriend your demons and say, ‘Hey, come in sit down, what can I do for you?’ rather than try and get them out.” – Trevor Hall
Fierce Grace (10:50) – Raghu and Trevor look at the life of Ram Dass as an example of how embracing our biggest fears and challenges can act as a catalyst for personal transformation.
“When Buddhists talk about the preciousness of a human birth, it is the awareness associated with human birth that is the opportunity. We become aware to bring ourselves to higher consciousness. Suffering is part of it. It is all grist for the mill of developing awareness. What is here in front is what you can be aware of; it is food for enlightenment, your part in the passing show of life.” – Ram Dass
Sitting with Ma (19:40) – A part of the personal journey for Trevor in making The Fruitful Darkness was pursuing the opportunity to receive darshan from Siddhi Ma. He shares what that darshan was like and the many lessons her took away from the whole experience.
Nina Rao celebrates the life of Siddhi Ma with Melanie Moser on Ep.14 of the Shakti Hour Podcast
Making Friends Our Suffering (56:00) Trevor and Raghu close with a conversation about the tendency most of us have to avoid our suffering and they look at ways we can to change this in ourselves.
“The first step for me is to not react. That creates the space, as Ram Dass says, to see it with loving-awareness and not push it away. That is what the whole journey is about with fruitful darkness.” – Trevor Hall
