Pico Iyer Speaks of the Benefits of Silence

I think I have mentioned (many times?) that my time for spiritual reading is mid-afternoon, when I can have some “unstructured time” (as my youngest son puts it) in my room. And several years ago I discovered the writing of Pico Iyer when I picked up his book, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (Simon & Schuster, 2014). It was a particularly busy time in my life and I was intrigued by his message.

Iyer is an internationally known writer, traveling the world — a best-selling author of more than a dozen books translated into 23 languages.

From India and presumably raised in a Hindu culture, he nevertheless embraces all spiritual practices as a way open to transcendent experience. On the back cover of the book above he writes, “in an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.” And I fell in love with his writing.

On the cover of the book I’m currently reading, Aflame: Learning from Silence (Riverhead Books, 2025), it turns out that Iyer has made more than 100 retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California, where his life has been transformed by periods spent in silence. That silence reminds him (and his readers) of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just the freedom from distraction and noise and rush, it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.

On his most recent retreat to this monastery a monk in residence says to him, “You have to learn how to enjoy leisure. To do nothing and be peaceful. Because leisure is where things happen to you.”

Let me give you one quote that recently struck me.

“I had hoped, spending time in the Hermitage, to learn from the monks; but by now I’m gaining so much also from the fellow travelers met along the road. Like nobody else in my life they feel like instant comrades, worthy of deepest trust, if only because what we share sits at the very heart of us.” (p. 176)

I recommend Pico Iyer’s books to you to read with the greatest joy and even a sense of liberation in your life. It could in fact be life-changing.