On Embracing Impermanence

Pico Iyer's Learning from Silence, which includes reflections drawn from three decades of retreats at a Benedictine monastery in California, is a call to engage more deeply with the world

- Sanjay Sipahimalani

Everything is burning, the Buddha told his disciples in what is now known as the Fire Sermon. Our senses, thoughts and consciousness are ablaze with the fires of delusion. The Bible, too, uses the metaphor of refining fires for the flames that test us. Such ideas may well have resonated with Pico Iyer during and after a devastating wildfire in July 1990 when his childhood home in Santa Barbara, California, was reduced to ashes and debris.

Fortunately, he survived, and found solace in the realization that material objects are less important than the internal resources of memory, relationships, and creativity. In his writings over the years, he has emphasized the importance of resilience and embracing impermanence.

His new book, Learning from Silence (which has the topical title of Aflame in the US), continues this journey. It is a series of memories and reflections drawn from over three decades of retreats at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery in Big Sur, California, which itself has been threatened by wildfires over the years. Hushed, meditative, and questing—though occasionally solipsistic—the book echoes themes from some of his earlier works, such as The Art of Stillness (2014).