The Art of Stillness

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books) Hardcover – November 4, 2014
Author: Pico Iyer ID: 1476784728

Review

“This book isn’t a meditation guide or a New-Age tract but rather a celebration of the age-old practice of sitting with no goal in mind and no destination in sight…. Rather than reading it quickly and filing it, readers will likely slow down to meet its pace and might continue carrying it around as a reminder.” (Kirkus (starred))

“[A] cool drink of water, in book form” (People)

“[A] wonderful read in its entirety.” (Brain Pickings)

“A bustling paean to the stationary life . . . Iyer’s argument is an engaging amalgam of memoir, reportage, and literary essay . . . Iyer uses a fluid blend of argument and anecdote to make a persuasive and eloquent case that contemplating internal landscapes can be just as rich an experience as traveling through external ones. The fact that he has traveled to some of the world’s most obscure corners only strengthens his credibility as a defender of stillness.” (Boston Globe)

“A heartfelt manifesto to the benefits of ditching the cellphone and snipping up the frequent flier card, The Art of Stillness is anything but a self-help book or how-to guide for achieving inner peace.” (Associated Press)

“In lesser hands this tiny volume might be a throwaway of glib, “new age” comfort-speak, but like Henry David Thoreau’s equally brief classic on another seemingly mundane exercise — walking — Iyer’s thoughtful nature leads him to peel back layer upon layer, nodding toward the infinite…. Plunging effortlessly beneath platitudes, this wafer-thin volume reminds us of what might just be the greatest paradox of travel — after all our road running, after all our flights of fancy to the farthest corners of the globe, after all our touring, our seeking and questing, perhaps, just perhaps, fellow travelers, there really is no place like home.” (New York Times Book Review)

“[A] beautiful little book. . . fills an important niche. . . Iyer wants to make the conscious practice of stillness palatable to everyone.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

About the Author

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist long based in both California and Japan. He is the author of numerous books about crossing cultures, among them Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, and The Global Soul. An essayist for Time since 1986, he also publishes regularly in Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and many other publications across the globe.

Series: TED BooksHardcover: 96 pagesPublisher: Simon & Schuster/ TED (November 4, 2014)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1476784728ISBN-13: 978-1476784724 Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7 inches Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #9,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #90 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine > Meditation #117 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Happiness #303 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality
Pico Iyer is one of my favorite writers, and I think there’s a good reason for that. As a travel writer, he has offered some of the most poignant and unique insights on getting out of your comfort zone and moving continually. But, this new book takes on an entirely different tone. It is, I think, a book that is valuable for people in a generation that is increIDgly full of motion. Motion can be a good thing, but it can also be confusing and overwhelming. I think it’s certainly valuable to be still every now and again and to find enlightenment in the static. There is certainly a beauty in being still, and Iyer captures it eminently well in The Art of Stillness.

Of course, there is more to life than just sitting still. In 27 Quick Life Transformation Tips, you’ll find 27 actionable pieces of advice for how to improve your standing in life. While meditation and understanding yourself outside of the constant motion of modern life are important, I also think achieving success, health, and happiness are equally important. This book, written by Alvin Huang and Greg Frost, is an exploration of how to improve your life directly. It is written an accessible manner, and offers easy to follow tips on how to achieve your goals. Whether you use the Law of Attraction or basic common sense, the book gives you the tools to create a better and more fulfilling existence or yourself.

This is not to say that The Art of Stillness is poor. In fact, I think both of these books work well as companions of some sort.
This is a very short book, so as to engage people who are caught up in frenetic activity and travel — lots of travel. The target audience, in other words, seems to be a very small, very affluent, well-traveled and over scheduled bunch, who have lost touch with quiet and solitude. But the quiet and solitude the book discusses are almost laughably over-the-top and expensive to find: monasteries and retreats in some of the world’s most remote places, which means ironically that these frenetic travelers and movers are doing more traveling and moving to get to those places of peace and quiet.

I thought that perhaps some of the discussion of how to adjust to and take advantage of such solitude would be applicable to me, a more ordinary person who does not travel a lot but who still feels frequently caught up in frantic activity and movement (although not travel). However, I had to laugh aloud when I read about eating breakfast outdoors and listening to bird song in some far-away remote spot: without paying to go somewhere to a retreat or hotel, I can’t be outdoors in the morning without being overpowered by gas fumes from rush hours traffic and the sounds of other people’s music.

Rather than addressing people who are already fortunate and in the position to make choices, it would be nice if Pico Iyer, an author I usually admire and enjoy reading, had offered some suggestions from those of us who live in major cities (i.e. the majority of the population) and don’t have money to pursue "stillness" in the particularly expensive form he recommends here (i.e. the majority of the population).
Download The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere – November 4, 2014 PDF Free Download

PanglimaKamandaka842