The Centerpath Book Series Heart of the Universe by Jin Nua | Page 9

Heart of The Universe
I began writing this book in 1997 on a beach in Thailand,
which, coincidentally, is also where I completed it some
fifteen years later.
The book’s roots lie in simple enough origins: a newfound fascination
with nature. This simplicity however, soon gave way to something
much broader, more complex, and profoundly deeper. Ultimately
generating thousands of journal pages and several intermediate
manuscript versions along the way until finally—in February 2013—I
was able to write out the book you’re holding in your hands in just
two days.
To me, this biographical narrative isn’t entirely satisfactory and leaves
many questions unresolved. After all, isn’t it a bit strange that such
a short work took so long to develop? The questions “why did it
take so long?” and “what would possess someone to stick with it?”
naturally emerge.
To the first question, all I can offer by way of an answer is to say that
it took an extraordinarily long time to develop because of the great
distance I had to travel; it’s a long way to the heart of the universe
and there are no shortcuts or signposts to guide you along the way.
It took fifteen years to zero in on it. Yes, the distance I had to travel
was the main factor.
The second question is just as difficult to address. What keeps
someone fixated on something so long and at the risk of such great
disappointment? The journey was in fact arduous and kept me from
other things that I wanted. The discomfort I felt from the many
disappointments of the project’s slow progress—realizing the hard
work and years spent writing and rewriting wasn’t good enough, and
gathering the energy to begin yet another rewrite; all proved very
painful at times.
So I asked myself: why did I stick with it?
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