This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, my fellow suffering beings, how we doing today?

It's an urgent question.

In a noisy and chaotic world, how do you find some degree of calm, some stillness, some quiet?

Here's another question.

In a world on fire, is it possible that the greatest luxury, the greatest thrill, is to simply sit still and be

quiet? Let me address any skeptics in the audience who might be thinking, fuck that, I want as much

action and as much excitement as possible. Alternatively, you might be thinking in a world that has

devolved in many aspects into a kind of dumpster fire,

don't I need to be as noisy as possible? Don't I need to be out there making change?

So let me say, I hear both of those concerns. But truly, if you want to stoke your energy,

if you want to have as much fun as possible, or alternatelyately if you want to be as effective as possible,

and by the way, neither of those are in conflict, whatever your goal, you really do need to rest.

I like the way my guest today puts it. Only by doing nothing can you do anything at all.

Said guest is Pico Iyer. You may have heard of him. He's a kind of connoisseur of quiet.

He's written more than a dozen well-regarded books, but his latest is called A Flame, Learning

from Silence. In this conversation, we talk about why and how Pico found himself spending a lot

of time at a silent monastery, what he's learned about the power

and potency of silence, why so many of us fear silence, when silence is a tonic and when it can be a

weapon or a shield, why taking time out of your life is deeply beneficial, both to you and to the

people around you, how Pico takes what he learns at the monastery into his daily life.

He's got lots of practical tips that you can use, whether you plan to go to a monastery or not.

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