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Learning from Silence
- Author
- Pico Iyer
- Narrator
- Pico Iyer
- Publisher
- Cornerstone
- Publish Date
- 6 February 2025
- Run Time
- 4 hours 49 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
From the bestselling author of The Art of Stillness, a revelatory exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat
Over the past three decades, Pico Iyer has made more than a hundred journeys to a small hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He's not a Christian, nor a member of any religious group, and yet his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence.
In Learning from Silence, Iyer travels deep into inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery, even as his life is going through constant change: houses burn, a parent dies, a daughter is diagnosed with cancer. He shares the revelations he experiences, alongside wisdom from other non-monastics who have learned from adversity and inwardness. 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.
'Beautiful . . . 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
'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
'One of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time' Maria Popova
'An exquisite call to silence and the myriad connections it kindles' Katherine May
© Pico Iyer 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
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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, author of THE ARCHITECTURE OF HAPPINESS
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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
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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
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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
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A beautifully written, meditative book ... As I turned to this, I felt my blood pressure reducing, and I began to read in a different, slower, and more concentrated way.
Financial Times
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In this delicately woven memoir, Iyer combines portraits of the people he has encountered during his stays with crystalline descriptions of the natural setting and philosophical ruminations on the purposes of retreat.
The New Yorker
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Essential reading for anyone interested in the monastic tradition and those who follow it.
Kirkus, Starred Review
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Brilliantly illuminates philosophical insights about the nature of the self, the world, and how silence serves as a conduit between the two, often in elegant, evocative prose ... Stunning.
Publishers Weekly
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Details
- Author
- Pico Iyer
- Narrator
- Pico Iyer
- Duration
- 4 hours 49 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 February 2025
- ISBN
- 9781804955512
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Cornerstone
- Genre
- Spirituality and religious experience, Mind, body, spirit: meditation and visualization, Self-help, personal development and practical advice
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.From the bestselling author of The Art of Stillness, a revelatory exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreatOver the past three decades, Pico Iyer has made more than a hundred journeys to a small hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He's not a Christian, nor a member of any religious group, and yet his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence.In Learning from Silence, Iyer travels deep into inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery, even as his life is going through constant change: houses burn, a parent dies, a daughter is diagnosed with cancer. He shares the revelations he experiences, alongside wisdom from other non-monastics who have learned from adversity and inwardness. 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.'Beautiful . . . 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'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'One of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time' Maria Popova'An exquisite call to silence and the myriad connections it kindles' Katherine May© Pico Iyer 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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