Breaking Open the Heart

Breaking Open the Heart contains four works of poetry written by Gregory David Done from 2009-2017. In these collections, Gregory attempts to describe spiritual and personal growth in the only form of language adequate to do so—poetry. In the author’s own words, “you cannot know, you cannot explain, you cannot answer the great riddle of life, the mystery of the universe… the highest wisdom, it turns out, is the discovery that you know nothing. When you discover this ‘nothing’ you step out of the symbolic world and into the real one… the fruition of this discovery is wonder. Resting in wonder, you begin truly to see this mystery, to live in it, to dwell in it, to experience the nature of Reality directly for yourself. Only then does language find its true purpose—to describe the indescribable, to say what cannot be said.” Breaking Open the Heart invites us on a deeply personal and honest journey into the depths of struggle, insight, and resolution.

Interested in religion and spirituality from childhood, Gregory has dedicated his life to embodying the Non-Dual Dharma traditions of Central Asia, India, China, and Tibet. Gregory has been writing poetry from an early age, considering it the ultimate means to communicate spiritual experience. Born and raised in the California, Bay Area, Gregory now resides in Portland, Oregon.