Aflame: Learning from Silence

By Pico Iyer. Riverhead Books, 2025. 240 pages. $30/hardcover; $13.99/eBook.

Aflame: Learning from Silence centers upon author Pico Iyer’s more than 100 retreats over the course of three decades to the Hermitage, a small Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, Calif. He shares a range of discoveries from his time at the Hermitage, many of them speaking to the benefits of simplicity. Although the title names silence, the book focuses more broadly on escaping from the unnecessary noise of our often too-busy lives. Through the insights of Iyer himself, the myriad authors he reflects upon, and his fellow Hermitage community members, Aflame offers a much-needed balm for the soul in these challenging times we live in today.

After reading Aflame, I am eager to experience the magic of the Hermitage. Iyer describes how the simplicity of the space and power of its natural beauty allow residents and visitors to be their best selves. He quotes Henry Miller: “There being nothing to improve on in the surroundings, the tendency is to set about improving oneself.” Many visitors reflect that the lack of plans and the opportunity to “empty yourself out” invite them to fill their time with “everything around [them],” including the sunlight, the stars, and the friends to be made. “I write as many letters as I can while I’m above the sea,” Iyer declares, “because this is the one place where, as my Buddhist friends say, the mind is as vast as the blue open sky.” And he observes that “in silence, all the unmet strangers across the property come to feel like friends, joined at the root.” Both the community and the environment encourage those present to experience spirituality at its best.

I believe Iyer’s reflections as a spiritual writer will resonate with Friends. Iyer shares that “contemplation, I come to see, does not in any case mean closing your eyes so much as opening them, to the glory of everything around you. Coming to your senses, by getting out of your head.” As he considers the impact of the Hermitage on his work as an author, Iyer also shares the wisdom of great writers such as Franz Kafka: “Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked”; and Albert Camus: “I wanted to change lives, yes, . . . but not the world, which I worshipped as divine.”

Additionally, many of the stories Iyer shares are based on conversations he had at the Hermitage. It is clear that Iyer is a deep thinker who not only has meaningful insights to offer on his own, but is also receptive to the other seekers at the Hermitage who help him clarify the messages he has to share as a writer. In other words, the truths that Iyer comes to understand are strengthened by community, as is often true with Friends in their own meetings and other Quaker spaces.

I treasured every page of Aflame. The book articulates meaningful guidance on slowing down and listening to that of God within ourselves, each other, and the natural world. I believe Friends will recognize Quaker faith and practice in Iyer’s words and experiences at the Hermitage.

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Lauren Brownlee is a member of Bethesda (Md.) Meeting, where she serves on the Peace and Social Justice Committee.