The Art of Stillness The Art of Stillness

The Art of Stillness

Adventures in Going Nowhere

    • 4.3 • 57 Ratings
    • $7.99

Publisher Description

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.

GENRE
Health, Mind & Body
RELEASED
2014
November 4
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
96
Pages
PUBLISHER
Simon & Schuster/ TED
SELLER
Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC
SIZE
17.9
MB

Customer Reviews

Mega_4pt0 ,

Enjoyable

Pico has this certain calmness to his writing that makes the book enjoyable. Add to that some elements of poetry and you have a great piece of material. This is a quick, enlightening read.

Bewat ,

Why not just talk?

The idea of making a book out of a TED talk is curious. Why not just watch the talk? In this case, Iyer writes well, tells good stories, but you can't help but feel you should have just listened to him, rather than reading him.

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