NATIONAL BESTSELLER
โReading Aflame may help many to lead lives of greater compassion and deeper peace of mind.โ โHis Holiness the Dalai Lama
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. Heโs not a Christianโor a member of any religious groupโbut 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. Itโs not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: itโs a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.
In Aflame, 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 outsiderโs view of monastic lifeโand of a group of selfless souls who have dedicated their days to ensuring thereโs a space for quiet and recollection thatโs open to us all.
Radiant, intimate, and gripping, Aflame 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.
Gezondheid, lichaam en geest