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.
