The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere
Description
Nothing Is So Urgent as Sitting Still! When I recount my trip to Corsica to others, I don't usually tell them about the one day that my husband and I literally didn't go anywhere and ate nothing more than a loaf of bread because we had used the day's budget to pay for an expensive cab fare the night before. This day was a significant turning point for me because it was when I realized that just being in my life at that moment was more important to seeing all the beauty that was around me. It was a private moment until now because reading Iyer's book "The Art of Stillness" did a beautiful job at celebrating the . "A Travel Guide to Stillness, Slowing Down, and Creating One's Own Sabbath Ancient and Current Widsom" according to Jim Gray. I just finished reading the Art of Stillness; Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer. What a stimulating yet calming and thoughtful book. The book is filled with insights both philosophical and scientific regarding the wisdom of taking time to slow down and celebrate one’s own Sabbath. Iyer offers beautifully that not only will it be good for us but also we the reader will get more done, and done well, if we make time for stillness.The Book is filled with great characters and quotes. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz offers: “ If I ever go looking for my heart's de. best appreciated while unwinding on vacation Pico Iyer is a travel writer, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Harpers, Time, and other magazines. His is a lifestyle determined by deadlines and the rigours of travelling for work. “I’m not a member of any church, and I don’t subscribe to any creed; I’ve never been a member of any meditation or yoga group,” he disclaims.The title of the book, The Art of Stillness, is a call to use stillness in a world he accurately describes as “madly accelerating.” If you have any doubts about this description, try recall when las
Why would a man who seems able to go everywhere and do anything - like the international heartthrob and Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen - choose to spend years sitting still and going nowhere? What can Nowhere offer that no Anywhere can match? And 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 and getting to know the seasons and landscapes of Nowhere might be the ultimate adventure? In The Art of Stillness, Iyer draws on the lives of well-known wanderer-monks like Cohen - as well as from his own experiences as a travel writer who chooses to spend most of his time in rural Japan - to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. 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. Iyer 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 tai chi. 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 counte