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The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books) Hardcover – November 4, 2014

by Pico Iyer (Author)

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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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Editorial Reviews

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"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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster/ TED; First Edition (November 4, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1476784728
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1476784724
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.7 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #389,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #659 in Travel Writing Reference
- #2,684 in Meditation (Books)
- #4,461 in Happiness Self-Help

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Pico Iyer was born in Oxford, England--to parents from India--raised in California and educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard. Since 1987 he has been based in Western Japan, while traveling everywhere from Bhutan to Easter Island, North Korea to Los Angeles Airport. Apart from the two novels and ten works of non-fiction he has published, he has written the introductions to more than fifty other books, as well as screenplays, librettos and many liner-notes for Leonard Cohen. He speaks regularly everywhere from West Point to Davos and Shanghai to Bogota and between 2013 and 2016, he delivered three talks for TED.com
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B. Grant

An Important Book for our Times

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2014

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The ability to consume a book in a brief time is in and of itself a special and rare experience. One easily could have made it much longer, but would it have been any better for the added pages? It is a pearl that resonates and challenges the reader to consider his/her choices and direction.

This is an important and valuable book. I find myself often thinking about the glut of information and data we face. I am currently assisting my son in getting his new phone up and running and in the process of converting thousands of his songs on his computer so they can transfer to the new phone. This level of digital consumption was simply not possible for the vast history of our species and is he or we any better for it?

In generations past, one did not have to make the choice to do nothing, or be still; that was the state of being for many, much of the time. We lived and died within 30 miles of our birth. Travel abroad was a one way trip or the stuff of adventurers. Today, we are awash in stuff and choices.

We as a society face a real challenge in organizing our lives in the face of infinite choices and consumptive options that are so brilliantly marketed and instantly available. This in contrast to the fact that we have not and will not eliminate the essential limits of our consumptive capacity and our finite lives. This book reminds the reader that we exercise choices in our daily norms.

Recently on a flight I elected to do as one of the Iyer's fellow passengers did as described in the book - sit quietly and do nothing, . but only for a brief time. I experienced a brief portion of the ride without reading, listening or external engagement. It was remarkable in its novelty for me. Iyer's book has a number of examples of stillness in practice. Many readers may give it a try themselves.

There is an inherent challenge in this book that devotes pages discussing some celebrities and celebrated people who have to a degree commoditized their stillness. There is benefit in this as in the cases of Merton or Dickenson; who wrote brilliantly of their experiences. The challenge for most is to find a personal path that is not subsequently commoditized for others, which to a degree defeats the purpose of inner stillness by public declaration. And can there be anything less still than TED conferences (TED published this book) and the acolytes who attend? But at least there is a level of awareness by many attendees and the organizers of their inherent contradictions in actions vs. ideas, and some as Iyer points out are trying to figure out how to reconcile them.

An added treat are the interspersed photographs in this lovely book.

60 people found this helpful

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Ian Mann

best appreciated while unwinding on vacation

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2017

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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 last you had nights off, or did no work at all on the weekend. (Reading business literature does qualify as work.)
To get the most benefit from this book you should read it slowly and thoughtfully. It is a slim book on an important topic, best appreciated while unwinding on vacation.
“More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call,” says Iyer. We have mastered so many parts of our lives in the last half century, except how to enjoy living. Geography is fast coming under our control; we send messages around the world in seconds, parcels in hours and can talk to people anywhere easily and inexpensively. However, the clock seems to be “exerting more and more tyranny over us.”
Iyer advocates regular periods of stillness, daily if possible. Times when we take a journey to “Nothing.” It is a short period when we retreat from our busy-nes, “so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.”
In the second century, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius pointed out that it is not our experiences that form us, but the way we understand them and respond to them. Being still puts distance between our present and our experience, so we can view experiences with “clarity and sanity” and reap the benefits that comes from that. The opportunity to distance ourselves helps experiences acquire the appropriate importance. All it involves is sitting still. Nothing more.
Iyer reports that in his work world, “Every time I take a trip, the experience acquires meaning and grows deeper only after I get back home and, sitting still, begin to convert the sights I’ve seen into lasting insights.”
When he attended retreat centres, he met bankers, teachers, real estate agents, people leading normal business lives who came the centres, just to be still for a few days.
Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wire magazine is certainly one of the most articulate representatives for the technologies of our time. His wrote his latest book on the uses of technology to expand human potential while living without a smartphone, a laptop or a TV in his home. He explains that he keeps “the cornucopia of technology at arm’s length so that I can more easily remember who I am.”
Many in Silicon Valley observe what Iyer calls an “Internet Sabbath” turning off their devices from Friday evening to Monday morning. It is telling that people who do so much to speed up the world see the benefit of slowing down regularly.
At General Mills, a company with revenues of almost $14b offered a seven-week programme to senior executive on “stillness.” 80% reported a positive improvement in their ability to make decisions, and 89% that they were becoming better listeners. It is estimated that programmes like this save American businesses $300b a year!
The most telling report Iyer relays is a Stanford peer-reviewed study of the effect of stillness of military veterans. The author’s husband, a Marine Corp Scout Sniper, undertook a 40-day personal trial to see if he has similar results. He reported that his hours of concentrated attention left unusually happy, and worrying him that he was softening.
His adviser assured him that he was still hyper-alert only more selective about the “potential threats or targets to respond to.” He reported his surprise that “something so soft could also make me so much harder as a Marine.”
On a flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles Iyer was seated next to a woman who after a few pleasantries, sat in silence, doing nothing, for the next twelve hours. At the end of the journey, she explained that her job was exhausting, and she is beginning a five weeks of vacation in Hawaii. She was using the flight to get rid of the stress ready for her days of rest. Nothing for twelve hours. No reading, no watching movies, nothing.
We are living in an age of constant movement that makes being still so much more urgent.
The Art of Stillness is an important holiday read. Iyer offers the following summary advice: “Don’t just do something. Sit there.”
Readability Light +--- Serious
Insights High +---- Low
Practical High ----+ Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. .

8 people found this helpful

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Jim Gray

A Travel Guide to Stillness, Slowing Down, and Creating One's Own Sabbath... Ancient and Current Widsom

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2014

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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 desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” And the musician Leonard Cohen “ Sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it” … And Iyer himself say’s “… talking about stillness is really a way of talking about clarity and sanity and the joys that endure. “

Accompanying this book and as a supplement to it is a Ted Talk , Here is link to Iyer’s 15 minute Ted Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_the_art_of_stillness?language=en

I heartily recommend feasting on this book about stillness, and unexpected pleasures … and enjoy the advice of a travel writer who provides an invitation to the adventure of going nowhere. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

I give it 5 Stars… And heartily recommend it as a simple pleasure.

37 people found this helpful

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Ray

Great discussion

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023

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Over the years I have developed many of the concepts outlined in this book. It was rewarding to realize I was right on target. I have always said everyone must make time for themselves, only you have the power to do that. Pico Iyer found that as did I.

One person found this helpful

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Alan Fisher

a wonderful new perspective

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2023

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Read the last page over again. It gives the vision of a different way of living- all realistically possible in our busy world.

Amazon Customer

Amazing grace...

Reviewed in Germany on February 15, 2019

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Short but nevertheless delish read! Makes you want to seek out that silent place of clarity as soon as you put the book down.

Sue T.

TED Talk book a great read

Reviewed in Canada on January 21, 2017

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I enjoy most of the TED talk books and videos on the computer. This was particularly interesting so I ordered the book. Great read.

3 people found this helpful

Michelle

Like coming home

Reviewed in Australia on March 12, 2019

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It was, as promised, an invigorating story of a man uncovering what most people are afraid to dream is true: that standing still is the best way to move forward. Beautifully simple and restrained. The photos between chapters were like palate cleansers. It was like a close friend tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you what really matters.

One person found this helpful

antonella c.

inspiring book

Reviewed in Italy on April 12, 2016

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the book is an ispiring one, the experience of the author and his willingness to share his reflections with the reader, in a clear and nice way.. i really suggest to read it to anyone.
the price is a bit high being a 50 pages book, but we cannot price culture i suppose..

One person found this helpful

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