GREGERS HEERING

Personal Letter #4

February 2026

Hi ,

Happy 2026! What crazy times! I hope you and yours are nevertheless well.

Thanks for sticking with My Personal Letter. The aim always to try to provide you with short breather from your busy life while also provide brief updates on my work and that of others.

Before we begin, I have a favor to ask: I’m switching away from online platforms run by the “big guys” and using this new, awesome newsletter service (Buttondown) for the first time. Will you therefore 1) please move this email to your INBOX (in case it has landed in your spam) and 2) reply to this email (a “hi” is sufficient). Even if you decide to delete this email, please complete the above first. It will help teach systems out there not to flag my letters as spam and will be a one-time effort only :-) Tak 🙏

All right, moving on…

In this letter you’ll find images, sounds and words on:

1. New Series Work: ‘HAVET’ (The Sea), first four photographs…

2. … and the related Peculiar case of emptiness, Radiohead and ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’

3. Holly Dorger, the lovely Royal Danish Ballet principal ballerina and my conversation with her for the Danish Originals podcast.

As always, you’ll find all links at the bottom of this Personal Letter.

1. FIRST LOOK: ‘HAVET’

(‘The Sea’)

2025-

2. EMPTINESS

Cross fading into this section as an extension - and an attempt to put some words behind the new work above - I’ve been thinking a lot about emptiness lately-

“When you listen to our teaching with a pure, clear mind, you can accept it as if you were hearing something which you already knew. This is called emptiness, or omnipotent self, or knowing everything. When you know everything, you are like a dark sky. Sometimes a flashing will come through the dark sky. After it passes, you forget all about it, and there is nothing left but the dark sky. The sky is never surprised when all of a sudden a thunderbolt breaks through. And when the lightning does flash, a wonderful sight may be seen. When we have emptiness we are always prepared for watching the flashing.” Suzuki, Shunryu. “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice” (Shambahla, 2020)

Isn’t it fascinating that we in the Western world have grown up conditioned to think of emptiness as something negative, especially when it comes to our idea of emptiness as a state of mind?

In our culture, emptiness is usually felt as a deficiency in something essential like meaning, identity and connection. Like a widening hole inside, the ‘condition’ often leads to feelings of loneliness, numbness or existential anxiety. It can be painful because it leaves us with an illusion not unlike a solid container that ought to be full which triggers a powerful urge to fill the void with purpose, achievement and certainty- only to realize this never really settles because everything is in flux and changes all the time anyway.

In Zen(*), however, emptiness (śūnyatā) does not mean lack or nothingness, but refers to the absence of fixed, separate existence. Things are “empty” because they arise through relationships and conditions, like waves that cannot be separated from water. Experienced directly, Zen emptiness feels spacious, alive, and intimate with life; it is what allows compassion, creativity, and freedom to arise. Nothing is missing because nothing was ever meant to stand alone.

The key difference can more or less be summed up to this: Western emptiness says “I am a self, and I lack something,” while Zen emptiness reveals “there is no fixed self and therefore nothing lacking.” What feels like loss from one perspective can become freedom from the other. When the need to fill the space falls away, emptiness is no longer a problem but the open ground of experience itself.

I first read about this Zen view of emptiness in the book ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’ by Shunryu Suzuki. The book got on my radar during the pandemic while listening to BBCs ‘Desert Island Discs.’ The guest was singer/musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead). Being asked which one book he would bring to a deserted island, Yorke said he would bring “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”. Having always been a fan of Radiohead and its interesting and unique group members, I got the book. It did indeed change my life, including how I see and practice meditation which sets the base for my day every morning. Whether you’re into Zen and/or meditation is or not, I highly recommend this (non-religious) book.

3. HOLLY DORGER & DANISH ORIGINALS

Recently, I was asked to co-host DANISH ORIGINALS, a podcast made in partnership with The American Friends of Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) (The Danish National Gallery of Art.) I’m grateful to the team behind this podcast which now is in its 9th season and will soon also be available on Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) long-haul flights.

My first guest is the lovely Holly Dorger. Holly is an American/Danish principal dancer with The Royal Danish Ballet whom I’ve also had the joy of working with on one of the two projects I’ve done with The Royal Danish Ballet.

Holly has now spent more than half her life in Denmark and has had a fascinating life journey which she shares here with boldness and openness. You can find the links to the podcast at the end of this email.

TILL’ NEXT TIME

… If you’re in Copenhagen, there’s still time to go see X-MAS ‘26 at Gallery Egelund in Bredgade. Last day of the exhibition will be February 13, 2026.

You can find link to Gallery Christoffer Egelund below.

Thank you for reading ❤️ Gregers

Ps. Ohh, please don’t forget to do me the favor asked up front. Tak!

LINKS

New work: First 4 photographs from HAVET series here

More about ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’ book here

Danish Originals episode with Holly Dorger (Apple) here or read the transcript here

My work with The Royal Danish Ballet here

Thom Yorke on BBCs Desert Island Discs here

Still one of the best Radiohead concerts ever here

My personal website here

Gallery Christoffer Egelund here

Last but not least: If you dig these Letters, please share this sign-up link - thank you, I’ll be forever grateful 🙏

_________________

Gregers Heering is a Danish photographer and writer living in Los Angeles.