Pico Again and the Joy of Silence

In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow.

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.

You can go on vacation to Paris or Hawaii or New Orleans three months from now, and you’ll have a tremendous time, I’m sure. But if you want to come back feeling new — alive and full of fresh hope and in love with the world — I think the place to visit may be Nowhere.

And thus Pico Iyer ends his lovely little book, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (Simon and Schuster, 2014). As an aside, Iyer is a well-known travel writer, an Indian national presumably with a cultural shaping in Hinduism but — at this point — more Buddhist than any other leaning. Drawing from singer-turned-monk Leonard Cohen along with Gandhi, Proust, and others, Iyer explores how “stillness opens up a way of living that counters the mad rush of our modern lives” (from the book jacket).

As I think I’ve mentioned many times, I do most of my spiritual reading on afternoons in my bedroom chair — in what my son calls “unstructured time.” I found this particular book to be almost life-changing. Let me cite another quote from Iyer so that you can appreciate the flavor of his text.

The idea behind Nowhere — choosing to sit still long enough to turn inward — is at heart a simple one ... it’s not our experiences that form us but the ways in which we respond to them; a hurricane sweeps through town, reducing everything to rubble, and one man sees it as a liberation, a chance to start anew, while another, perhaps even his brother, is traumatized for life. “There is nothing either good or bad,” as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.” (p. 13)

The point is that you can’t change your self-talk, or how you view the world and your own life in it, without taking time out, going “nowhere” and sitting in silence to reflect on your reality and what is happening to you in your life — this one, precious life that you have been given.

And this is hard for me. I don’t sit quietly doing nothing very easily. I can always think of something that “needs” to be done, telescope ahead, and get back to accomplishing the tasks I’ve set for myself at the beginning of each week.

But I’m trying. My current read is titled Lost in Wonder: Rediscovering the Spiritual Art of Attentiveness by Esther de Waal (Liturgical Press, 2003). And again, up front, the author writes, “I am reminded that it is important, and more than that, fundamental and essential, to keep clear, open space in my own heart. This means that in spite of all the demands, the distractions and the difficulties that besiege my time I shall try to carry a heart of stillness.” (p. 11)

Well I do urge you to consider getting hold of Iyer’s book and taking a look. Really, it could change your life — for the much better, of course. This little book really has had a profound effect on me.

Hope and blessings!