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The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books)
A follow up to Pico Iyer's essay "The Joy of Quiet," The Art of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug. Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There's never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still. In The Art of Stillness--a TED Books release--Iyer investigate the lives of people who have made a life seeking stillness: from Matthieu Ricard, a Frenchman with a PhD in molecular biology who left a promising scientific career to become a Tibetan monk, to revered singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who traded the pleasures of the senses for several years of living the near-silent life of meditation as a Zen monk. Iyer also draws on his own experiences as a travel writer to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. He reflects that this is perhaps the reason why many people--even those with no religious commitment--seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or seeking silent retreats. These aren't New Age fads so much as ways to rediscover the wisdom of an earlier age. Growing trends like observing an "Internet Sabbath"--turning off online connections from Friday night to Monday morning--highlight how increasingly desperate many of us are to unplug and bring stillness into our lives. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many--from Marcel Proust to Mahatma Gandhi to Emily Dickinson--have found richness in stillness. Ultimately, Iyer shows that, in this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. In 2013, Pico Iyer gave a blockbuster TED Talk. This lyrical and inspiring book expands on a new idea, offering a way forward for all those feeling affected by the frenetic pace of our modern world.
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Community Reviews
My criticism of the book is more about my expectations than the book itself. I expected a treatise on the importance of stillness/meditation. Instead, Iyer's The Art of Stillness felt too much like a name dropping memoir. It's a memoir, it's a bit of travel writing, and too little real discussion of stillness. I didn't enjoy this book, though I imagine those who are new to meditation might find this an easily digestible start.
I resonated with the parts of the, very short, work that were about his enjoyment of meditation and what he experienced out of those sojourns - breaks in his travel writing. But felt like his way into the meditation came at a way that was too class conscious, or money oriented, to be a true thoughtful look at stillness. We won't all be taking as much time off to cultivate stillness, we can't all follow in Merton's footsteps while quoting Emily Dickinson with a lovely monastery in the California mountains. For a book on stillness and being with the self, there was too much name dropping for me to feel like it was genuine. Mentors and teachers are an important part of experience, but this was much too much "insert what famous monk told me here."
As far as production goes, the book is a nice piece but the addition of what I call "stock zen" photos seems kind of lame. They're beautiful photographs, but they're also the kind you'll see in any zen/meditation book/forum/PowerPoint ... and it felt lazy.
I liked it enough that I might look at some of Iyer's travel writing, but likely not. Wouldn't recommend this one, and I wanted to like it.
I resonated with the parts of the, very short, work that were about his enjoyment of meditation and what he experienced out of those sojourns - breaks in his travel writing. But felt like his way into the meditation came at a way that was too class conscious, or money oriented, to be a true thoughtful look at stillness. We won't all be taking as much time off to cultivate stillness, we can't all follow in Merton's footsteps while quoting Emily Dickinson with a lovely monastery in the California mountains. For a book on stillness and being with the self, there was too much name dropping for me to feel like it was genuine. Mentors and teachers are an important part of experience, but this was much too much "insert what famous monk told me here."
As far as production goes, the book is a nice piece but the addition of what I call "stock zen" photos seems kind of lame. They're beautiful photographs, but they're also the kind you'll see in any zen/meditation book/forum/PowerPoint ... and it felt lazy.
I liked it enough that I might look at some of Iyer's travel writing, but likely not. Wouldn't recommend this one, and I wanted to like it.
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