02395cam a2200337 i 4500 668997530 TxAuBib 20230113120000.0 221228s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2022002855 9780593420256 hardcover 059342025X hardcover (OCoLC)1356411137 TxAuBib rda Iyer, Pico, author Half known life. The half known life : in search of paradise / Pico Iyer. 1/2 known life. In search of paradise. New York : Riverhead Books, 2023. 225 pages ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier The walled garden -- The promised land -- On the lake -- Wrath -- The holy city -- The morning of the world -- A lotus in mud -- City of tomorrow -- Afterworld -- The flames of heaven. "Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it's in our midst -- or just across the ocean -- if only we can find eyes to see it. Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama's Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld -- or can it be found in the here and now? For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul's delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim's readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives."-- Amazon.com. 20230208. Spiritual life. Travel Religious aspects. Paradise. TXDCK