How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction - Couverture rigide

Livre 28 sur 46: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

Cassian, John

 
9780691208084: How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0691208085 ISBN 13 : 9780691208084
Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2024

Synopsis

How you can learn to focus like a monk without living like one

Distraction isn't a new problem. We're also not the first to complain about how hard it is to concentrate. Early Christian monks beat us to it. They had given up everything to focus on God, yet they still struggled to keep the demons of distraction at bay. But rather than surrender to the meandering of their minds, they developed powerful strategies to improve their attention and engagement. How to Focus is an inviting collection of their strikingly relatable insights and advice--frank, funny, sympathetic, and psychologically sophisticated.

This wisdom is drawn from John Cassian's fifth-century CE Collationes, one of the most influential manuals for monks from late antiquity. The Collationes follow Cassian and his friend Germanus as they travel around Egypt, asking a series of sage monks how they can make their minds stronger. In response, these monks offer a range of techniques for increasing focus, including setting goals, training the body, managing the memory, using mantras, taking breaks, consulting others--and, most of all, being honest about yourself. As Cassian and Germanus eventually realize, we can't escape distraction--but we can learn how to confront it and, eventually, to concentrate.

Featuring an engaging new translation by Jamie Kreiner and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Focus can help even the least monkish of us to train our attention on what matters most.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Jamie Kreiner is professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Princeton University Press
Date d'édition
2024
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0691208085
ISBN 13 
9780691208084
Reliure
Relié
Numéro d'édition
1
Nombre de pages
288
Coordonnées du fabricant
Princeton University Press
https://press.princeton.edu/books

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