PICO IYER: The spiritual case for travel

Pico Iyer (bestselling travel writer; author of The Art of Stillness; Leonard Cohen’s close mate) studies the paradox of our desire to go out and explore foreign lands…and our need for stillness, the delicate dance between our outer and inner lives.

Pico has spent 50 years writing about travel for more than 250 publications, but he also spent three decades living in monasteries and 48 years as a friend and travel companion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And he concludes a bunch of things we cover off in this beautiful conversation: we move to feel moved; the benefits of global travel outweigh the carbon miles (understanding humanity is more important right now); and paradise is mostly lost. He also shares insights into how Leonard Cohen wrote Hallelujah, arguably the most stunning song ever recorded.

Get hold of Pico’s new book The Half-Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World.

Read more of his work via his website and you can also find Pico on Twitter.

Listen to Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

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