stillness

The Art of Stillness, Adventures in Going Nowhere is a quiet little book about being still.

With machines coming to seem part of our nervous systems, while increasing their speed every season, we’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends our nights off–our holy days… p. 6

The idea behind Nowhere–choosing to sit still long enough to turn inward–is at heart a simple one. If your car is broken, you don’t try to find ways to repaint its chassis; most of our problems–and therefore our solutions, our peace of mind lie within. To hurry around trying to find happiness outside ourselves makes about as much sense as the comical figure in the Islamic parable who, having lost a key in his living room, goes out into the street to look for it because there’s more light out there.  p. 13

To me, the point of sitting still is that it helps you see through the very idea of pushing forward; indeed, it strips you of yourself, as of a coat of armor, by leading you into a place where you’re defined by something larger.  p. 45

–Pico Iyer

Tags: American culture, quiet, stillness, writing

• July 16, 2015
• ideas, reviews
• 1 Comment