Sounds of Silence

ROBERTA GRANT has written for Rolling Stone, New York magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and other publications. She is currently working on a memoir about her years in France.

FROM the age of nineteen, globe-trotting essayist and novelist Pico Iyer had wanted to visit Tassajara, a Zen meditation retreat nestled in the remote wilderness of northern California’s Los Padres National Forest. Iyer is no Zen Buddhist, has never meditated, and would humbly deny that he has a spiritual life as such. Yet at twenty-nine, he became a devoted practitioner of silence and a connoisseur of spaces devoted to quiet contemplation. When he arrived at Tassajara last summer, however, it was to try something new: lead a writing workshop.

Owned by the San Francisco Zen Center as a training site for its students, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center opens its doors each summer to spiritual seekers from around the world. Many participate in one of a half dozen three-day workshops that focus on how to apply aspects of Zen to activities such as painting, breadmaking, writing, and practicing law.