The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere Audiobook (Free)

A follow-up to Pico Iyer’s article “The Pleasure of Quiet,” The Artwork of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying place and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the greater we seem eager to unplug.

Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Isle to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, believe sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating globe, our lives are congested, chaotic and about The Art of Stillness: Travels in Going Nowhere loud. There’s never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and present ourselves permission to become still.

In The Art of Stillness-a TED Books release-Iyer investigate the lives of individuals who have made a life seeking stillness: from Matthieu Ricard, a Frenchman with a PhD in molecular biology who left a promising technological career to become Tibetan monk, to revered singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who traded the pleasures of the senses for quite some time of living the near-silent life of meditation as a Zen monk. Iyer also draws on his own experiences like a travel article writer to explore why developments in technology are making us much more likely to retreat. He displays that this is probably the key reason why many people-even those with no spiritual commitment-seem to become turning to yoga, or meditation, or searching for silent retreats. These aren’t MODERN fads a lot as ways to rediscover the intelligence of an earlier age. Growing styles like watching an “Internet Sabbath”-turning off on the web connections from Friday night to Monday morning-highlight how significantly desperate most of us are to unplug and bring stillness into our lives.

The Art of Stillness paints an image 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 group of constant movement and connectedness, maybe staying in one place is usually a more interesting prospect, and a larger necessity than previously.

In 2013, Pico Iyer gave a blockbuster TED Chat. This lyrical and uplifting reserve expands on a fresh idea, supplying a way forward for all those feeling suffering from the frenetic speed of our contemporary world.