Pico Iyer: The Art of Stillness - Five Things I've Learned

View the archive of my two-hour class and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned about opening up space in our heads, and in our days.

Long before the global pandemic, our lives were spinning out of control. More data and distraction than we knew what to do with. Less time to take care of anything essential. A post-human pace that we could survive only by not being quite human.

As we prepare to return to something like normal, will we find ways to live at a saner pace, with things more in balance? What might help us keep both calm and clarity alive? More and more people these days turn to meditation, or yoga, to qigong or mindful eating. But even for those not ready for a formal practice, there’s something gained—this strange season has reminded us—in stepping back from the rush, in taking a break, in going for a walk or losing yourself in a book, if only so as to remind yourself of what matters most and how to remain close to what truly sustains us.

Drawing upon 30 years of going on retreat (more than 90 times), 33 years of trying to live simply in Japan and 46 years of talking to the Dalai Lama, I’d like to share five things I think I know about opening up space in our heads and our days so that our moments feel unhurried and we can best deal with all life throws at us.

This class will call upon viewer suggestions, on personal experience and on the wisdom of the ages to try to offer concrete, practical tips that anyone can use to try to restore depth and intimacy to her life and to build up what is ultimately our most essential resource: an inner savings-account.

I hope you will join us.

About Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer is the host of the “Speaking with Pico” series in Santa Barbara, regularly conducts interviews for the City Arts and Lectures series in San Francisco and, over 25 years, has conducted intimate onstage conversations with everyone from Philip Glass to Zadie Smith and from Martin Scorsese to Ireland’s President Mary Robinson.

Since 1982 he has been a full-time writer, publishing 15 books, translated into 23 languages, on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism, from the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism. They include such long-running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, The Open Road and The Art of Stillness. His most recent release, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise is a collection of essaysthat recount visits to remarkable places as only Pico can, exploring ideas of utopia and personal peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. He has also written the introductions to more than 70 other books, as well as liner and program notes, a screenplay for Miramax and a libretto. At the same time he has been writing up to 100 articles a year for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, the Financial Times and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide.

His four talks for TED have received more than 10 million views so far.

Since 1992 he has spent much of his time at a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California, and most of the rest in suburban Japan.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have access to this class?

Your ticket entitles you to ongoing access to this class — even after the live session concludes.

If you purchase a ticket in time to join the class live, you can view the archive as soon as it’s posted, as often as you like. Look for an email with information about how to access the course archive within 48 hours of the end of the live class. Once you get it, you’ll have all the information you need to access it as you like across any and all devices you own.

If you purchase a ticket after the live class takes place, you can view the archive immediately, and you can return to it as frequently as you like

What is the refund policy for this class?

If you’d like a refund, we can happily credit the card you used to register for the session. Please send a note to pre.event@extendedsession.com , and we’ll confirm receipt as soon as we see it (We don’t need your credit card info – just your email address and date of purchase.)

There are two things to know:

Unfortunately, we can only accept cancellations and refunds up to 48 hours before a scheduled session.
There is sure to be a lapse in time between the time we refund your order and the time a corresponding credit appears on your credit card statement. So that you’re not left waiting and wondering, we’ll contact you as soon as we’ve processed the credit in our system.

For reasons we hope you’ll understand – the biggest of them the fact that we make a point of compensating the folks who host Five Things I’ve Learned classes as quickly as we can – we can’t accommodate refunds for tickets purchased within 48 of the start of a scheduled live event. We can also accommodate refund requests for the purchase of an archived session only within 24 hours from the time of purchase.

What happens if my schedule changes and I can’t make the live class?

If you’ve purchased a ticket for this online class and you find that for some reason you can’t make the live session, you have two choices:

The first: View the session archive. You can view the session archive as soon as it’s posted – or any time, as often as you like. We’ll make an archive of this class available within 48 hours of the live session, and we’ll send every ticket holder details on how they can view it. As a ticket holder, you’re able to view this full session archive any time– as often as you like.
The second: Request a refund. Just send a note to pre.event@extendedsession.com, and we’ll help sort things out. Please keep in mind that we can only accommodate refund requests made more than 48 hours from the start of a live session.

How secure is my data? What’s your privacy policy?

We take data security and the need to protect your privacy as seriously as you do. That’s why we use Stripe to process your registration transaction. They take your credit card and secure your data – in fact we don’t even have access to your credit card number. Which is just the way we like it!

The information we do retain we protect carefully.

We’re committed to keeping personal information collected from those individuals who visit our website and make use of our online programming and services confidential, secure, and private. Our privacy policy ensures that we meet – and when we can – exceed most existing privacy standards.

Want to know more? Read the ExtendedSession Online Privacy Policy Agreement.

Still have a question? We’d be pleased to hear from you. Send a note to: pre.event@extendedsession.com.

Now that I’ve registered, what happens next? How do I know that my attendance for this class has been secured?

The receipt you receive via email immediately after you register is all you need to confirm you’re set for the upcoming session.

About 48 hours before the live class is scheduled to begin, we’ll send you a personalized email confirming that everything’s on schedule and containing easy instructions for accessing the class.

We’ll send another reminder on the day of the class itself, and we’ll be available online just before the class begins to make sure you have no problems joining when the time is right.

Have a question in the meantime? We’d be pleased to hear from you. Send a note to: pre.event@extendedsession.com.

I never received a confirmation of my ticket purchase via email. What do I do now?

If you’ve not received confirmation of your purchase, it’s not because we haven’t sent it. In fact, we send an immediately confirmation to the email address you share with us to ensure that we can reach you with class details.

If you don’t receive a confirmation within 10 minutes or so making your purchase, please first check your “junk” or “promotions” email first — some people’s email programs group unfamiliar emails in these types of folders. The email date and time should match closely the time you purchased your ticket online.

If the confirmation email is not there, there’s a small possibility that your email address wasn’t entered as you intended when you registered. (You’d be surprised, but this happens.)

In any case, we want to make sure we can reach you. And we want to make sure you’re registered for the class you want. if you can’t find your confirmation email, please send us a note at pre.event@extendedsession.com. We’ll get back to you right away.

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Pico Iyer

The Art of Stillness

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View the archive of my two-hour class and discover the Five Things I’ve Learned about opening up space in our heads, and in our days.

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