The Art of Stillness Adventures in Going Nowhere

My criticism of the book is more about my expectations than the book itself. I expected a treatise on the importance of stillness/meditation. Instead, Iyer's The Art of Stillness felt too much like a name dropping memoir. It's a memoir, it's a bit of travel writing, and too little real discussion of stillness. I didn't enjoy this book, though I imagine those who are new to meditation might find this an easily digestible start. I resonated with the parts of the, very short, work that were about his enjoyment of meditation and what he experienced out of those sojourns - breaks in his travel writing. But felt like his way into the meditation came at a way that was too class conscious, or money oriented, to be a true thoughtful look at stillness. We won't all be taking as much time off to cultivate stillness, we can't all follow in Merton's footsteps while quoting Emily Dickinson with a lovely monastery in the California mountains. For a book on stillness and being with the self, there was too much name dropping for me to feel like it was genuine. Mentors and teachers are an important part of experience, but this was much too much "insert what famous monk told me here." As far as production goes, the book is a nice piece but the addition of what I call "stock zen" photos seems kind of lame. They're beautiful photographs, but they're also the kind you'll see in any zen/meditation book/forum/PowerPoint ... and it felt lazy. I liked it enough that I might look at some of Iyer's travel writing, but likely not. Wouldn't recommend this one, and I wanted to like it.

While short in length, it hammers home the principles of lookin for stillness, peace, fulfillment and happiness within ourselves. Something that, in today's chaotic, fast-paced, anger-laced world seems essential. One I believe I'll come back to time and again as a reminder to visit Nowhere.

More an extended essay or talk than a book worthwhile reminders

highly recommended