10% Happier with Dan Harris How To Find Calm in a World on Fire | Pico Iyer
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Oct 8, 2025 
Pico Iyer, an acclaimed travel writer and author, explores the profound benefits of silence and retreat. He reflects on his experiences at a Benedictine monastery, revealing how silence can heal feelings of separateness and ego. Iyer discusses why many fear silence and connects retreats to personal crises, emphasizing their transformative power. He shares practical daily practices to cultivate calm, including limiting news intake and embracing nature. Travel, he argues, can strip away distractions and deepen connections with others.
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How A Wildfire Led To Monastic Silence
- Pico Iyer discovered a Benedictine Camaldolese hermitage after his house burned and needed a bed and desk.
- He found unexpected belonging and solace there despite not being Christian.
Kyoto Temple: Romance Versus Reality
- Pico tried living in a Zen temple in Kyoto but quit after a few days because it was hard manual work.
- That failed romanticism taught him he wasn't ready for rigorous practice then.
Silence Breaks The Illusion Of Separateness
- Silence in the monastery dissolves the personal sense of separateness and fills one with direct experience of the world.
- Pico calls it stepping out of himself and being filled with light, bees, and the real world.
