Non-attachment means we create the concepts but remain detached and do not therefore identify with them and create emotions from them.

These concepts are not who we are but our habit of identifying with them is deeply ingrained. Instead, we can recognise that we are attaching to a concept of those things which we have created in our minds. In meditation, because we are internalised, we do not get attached to anyone or anything. Those emotions make it feel alive and so support the sense of self that it has created. Such challenges generate emotions and the ego thrives on the energy of those emotions. вЂI am right and if you do not agree with me, you are not rightвЂ™. The ego becomes defensive if one of our beliefs or opinions is challenged. We also create attachments to our beliefs, our opinions and our ideas which the ego also identifies with. When we call something вЂmineвЂ™, we become attached to it and we identify with it. The meaning of any object or thing is simply its existence. My car has value for me but that вЂmyвЂ™ value is only in my mind, it is not a part of the car. Emotions come from the вЂmyвЂ™ value we project onto things or people but that value is not a part of the object or person we call вЂmineвЂ™. How does the ego convince us that it is real? Emotions sustain the ego because emotions feel real. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many have found richness in stillness and what-from Marcel Proust to Blaise Pascal to Phillipe Starck-theyвЂ™ve gained there.Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email WhatsApp Pinterest 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. There is even a growing trend toward observing an вЂњInternet sabbathвЂќ every week, turning off online connections from Friday night to Monday morning and reviving those ancient customs known as family meals and conversation. These arenвЂ™t New Age fads so much as ways to rediscover the wisdom of an earlier age.

Iyer 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 tai chi. In The Art of Stillness, Iyer draws on the lives of well-known wanderer-monks like Cohen-as well as from his own experiences as a travel writer who chooses to spend most of his time in rural Japan-to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. Why would a man who seems able to go everywhere and do anything-like the international heartthrob and Rock вЂnвЂ™ Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen-choose to spend years sitting still and going nowhere? What can Nowhere offer that no Anywhere can match? And 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 and getting to know the seasons and landscapes of Nowhere might be the ultimate adventure? A follow up to Pico IyerвЂ™s essay вЂњThe Joy of Quiet,вЂќ The Art of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counter-intuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug.

The art of stillness