Learning from Silence

From the bestselling author of The Art of Stillness, a revelatory exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat.


Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He's not a Christian-or a member of any religious group-but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It's not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it's a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.


In Learning From Silence, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery, even as his life is going through constant change: a house burns down, a parent dies, a daughter is diagnosed with cancer. He shares the revelations he experiences, alongside wisdom from other nonmonastics who have learned from adversity and inwardness. And most profoundly, he shows how solitude can be a training in community and companionship. In so doing, he offers a unique outsider's view of monastic life-and of a group of selfless souls who have dedicated their days to ensuring there's a space for quiet and recollection that's open to us all.


Radiant, intimate, and gripping, Learning From Silence offers ageless counsel about the power of silence and what it can teach us about how to live, how to love, and, ultimately, how to die.


Reviews:


'Iyer's beautiful book is for anyone who feels drawn to the pull of monasticism, without adhering to any religion. Iyer masterfully and lyrically shows us how we may need to find a new home - one far more solemn, communal and silent than our present one - in order to return properly to ourselves.' - Alain de Botton


'Pico Iyer has been studying sincere practitioners from many religious traditions for a long time and has gathered some of what he's learned in this book. I trust that reading this book may help many to lead lives of greater compassion and deeper peace of mind.' - His Holiness the Dalai Lama


'Luminous and exquisitely simple, it is astonishing how Iyer transports you into the joy of the mystery. And then, lit with love, he shows you how to find it everywhere.' - Jack Kornfield


'Learning From Silence is an exquisite book, a jewel, a treasure, and appearing at a time when silence can teach us to see more deeply, to love more surely.' - Joan Halifax