Pico Iyer: the Art of pause Bashny.Net

Wherever travel writer Pico Iyer went on a trip? Nowhere. In this counterintuitive and lyrical speech, Iyer takes a look at the incredible insight that visits us at a time when we take a break and just relax.

In our crazy, ever-moving world it offers the strategy in order to free up a few minutes of calm each day or a few days of each season. This statement is for those who want to try to be free from excessive load demands of our world.

https://embed.ted.com/talks/lang/ru/pico_iyer_the_art_of_stillness

 

0:11

I travel all my life. When I was a small child, the family had decided that it would be cheaper to send me to boarding school in England than in the best school near my parents ' house in California.

So, nine years, I own a few times a year crossed the North pole, just to go to school. The more I flew, the more I liked it, so when at 18 I finished school I worked as a waiter to be able to change jobs every season, going to a new continent.

So inevitably I became a travel writer, and the work and joy came together. I began to feel that if you are lucky enough to visit the candlelit temples of Tibet or to wander along the quays of Havana and hear the music coming from everywhere, you should be able to bring those sounds and the high cobalt skies and the shining blue of the ocean to your friends at home, to convey the elusive magic and bring clarity to your own life.

Although you probably know that nothing seems magical in the journey, if you do not set your eye and mind on the perception of magic. You take an angry man to the Himalayas, and he starts to complain that food is tasteless.

I was convinced that the best way to make the eyes more attentive to the perception of the beautiful, oddly enough, is to stop and will not move. It helps us to find that so many are eager to get in this life, rushing forward at full speed, the break. For me, it was the only way to sort through life experience and draw yourself a clear picture of the future and the past.

With great surprise I realized that to stay was just as exciting as going to Tibet or to Cuba.The stop I know just a few minutes each day, or several days in the season, or, as some do, a few years of living to stay for this amount of time, which will help you understand what drives you most, what makes you happiest, and remember that sometimes making life and the very flow of life go in opposite directions.





2:53

Of course, for centuries, we heard about this from the wise people of various cultures. This idea is as old as the world. More than 2,000 years ago, the Stoics were reminding us that not so important in our experience of life, as what we do with it. Imagine: a hurricane sweeps through your town and compares it to the ground. One person is heartbroken and the other possibly his brother, almost feels liberated and sees in the incident a chance to start all over again.

One and the same event, but with diametrically opposite attitude towards him. "There is nothing either good or bad, as Shakespeare told us in hamlet is thinking makes it so". These words confirmed my experience as a traveler. About 24 years ago, I went to the most shocking trip to North Korea. It lasted only a few days, but by staying, I went back mentally, trying to understand this country and find a place for it in my mind.

This process lasts for 24 years and is likely to last a lifetime. In other words, that trip gave me some amazing views, but only by staying I was able to turn them into long-term observation and deep understanding. Sometimes I think so much in life happens in our heads, in memory or imagination, or the idea that if I really want to change my life, I must begin with consciousness.

Again, this is not new. Shakespeare and the Stoics were telling us this centuries ago, but Shakespeare never had to face 200 emails in a day. (Laughter) as far As I know, the Stoics were not sitting in Facebook. We understand that our full requirements of life that demand the most, is ourselves. Wherever we were, at any time of the day our bosses, junk-mailers, our parents can get to us. Sociologists have found that in recent years Americans work less than 50 years ago, but they feel they actually work more. We are increasingly surrounded by devices to save time, but it seems to be increasingly lacking. We can easily communicate with people in remote corners of the planet, but sometimes in the process we lose contact with ourselves.

While traveling, I was very surprised realizing that it is often those people who helped us to overcome thousands of kilometers, do not want to go anywhere. In other words, it is the people who created the technology that helped to overcome many of the limitations of the past, understand that some restrictions, especially when it comes to technology. I once visited the headquarters of Google. I saw a lot of what you've heard: tree houses, trampolines, employees who spend 20% of their time on flights of fancy.

But what even more surprised me is the fact that while I was expecting e-pass, one of the employees told me that he wants to start to train colleagues, doing yoga, becoming a yoga teacher; the other told me that he was going to write a book about the internal search engine, and how science's research showed that stop, or meditation, can not only improve health and clear the mind, but also to develop emotional intelligence.

In Silicon valley I have a friend. He supports the development of modern technology. He is the co-founder of Wired magazine Kevin Kelly. His last book about the latest technologies Kevin did not write on smartphone, laptop or computer. Like many in Silicon valley, he strictly adheres to the so-called "Internet Sabbath", whereby for 24 or 48 hours people are completely shut off the Internet to determine their next steps before again to appear online.

The only thing perhaps that technology hasn't always given us is knowing how to make the wisest use of technology. And if you think about the Sabbath, think about the Ten commandments — the word "Holy" is used there only once — at the mention of the Sabbath. I open the Jewish Holy book Torah — the longest of times on the Sabbath. We all know that now empty space was the greatest luxury.Many musical compositions that pause gives beauty and fills their form. As a writer, I often try to leave a lot of space on the page to enable readers to think through my thoughts and give your imagination run wild.

8:24

In the physical world many of us, if possible, try to find a house in the countryside, a second home. I have never had the opportunity, but I do remember that as soon as I wanted, I found this second home, just by myself a day off. That's not easy because most catatoga of the day is spent thinking about how much extra work will fall on me tomorrow.

Sometimes I think I'd rather give up meat or sex, or wine, than from reading email. (Laughter) And every time I take three days off on retreat, part of me feels guilty to be leaving my poor wife behind I can't read all those seemingly urgent emails from my bosses and maybe to be missing the birthday of a friend.

But as soon as I reach a place of solitude, I know that only there I can find something new, creative and joyful, to share with his wife, boss and friends. Otherwise, I'm just foisting on them my exhaustion or my distractedness, which is very good.

9:37

When I was 29 years old, I decided to begin life over again and nowhere to run. One day I came home from work, it was midnight. Driving through times square in a taxi, I realized I was racing around so fast that I just don't keep up. From that moment on, my life turned into one about which I dreamed since childhood. I have had many interesting friends and colleagues, I had a nice apartment on Park Avenue and 20th street. I had an interesting job — I wrote about world events.

But I just have not had the opportunity to separate from all this, just to listen to myself to understand whether I was actually happy. So, I traded this life for one on the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. This city was a place that had long exerted a strong, mysteriously attracted to me. As a child, I frequently encountered the image of Kyoto and seemed to see familiar places. I recognized them even before you look at the image.

As you know, it's a beautiful city surrounded by hills, filled with over 2,000 temples and shrines, where people are not in a hurry for more than 800 years. Some time later, after I moved, I was founded and where still live with my wife, and before kids. This one bedroom apartment away from it all; we have no Bicycle, no car, no TV, which I could understand.

And I still have to support my loved ones as a travel writer and journalist that is not exactly very good for promotion, cultural viability, or social entertainment.But I realized that it gave me what I so desired: days and hours. I forgot, what is a mobile phone. I don't watch the clock; every morning when I Wake up, in front of me like a vast field that stretches the whole day.

And if life presents unpleasant surprises from time to time it happens: the doctor enters the room with a mourning expression Licari the driver in the car in front of my losing control on the road, I know deep down that is the time when I'm not running, give me more strength for the future than what I spent walking through Bhutan or Easter island.





12:17

I'll always be a traveler — my life depends on travel. Their charm is that they help to bring calmness in the movement and excitement of the world. Once I boarded the plane in Frankfurt, Germany. A young German woman sat next to me, we talked amiably for about half an hour, and then she turned away and sat motionless for 12 hours. She never turned on the monitor, not picked up a book she hasn't even slept. She just sat quietly, and something of her clarity and calm really imparted itself to me. I have noticed that today, more and more people taking conscious measures to free up space in their lives.

Some travel to unknown places, where for a few hundred dollars a day, you'll be asked to surrender the phone and the computer immediately upon arrival. Some of my friends before going to sleep not through the messages or watch videos on YouTube. Instead, they turn off the lights and listen to music. They will sleep much better and Wake up more rested.

Once I was fortunate enough to go to high, dark mountains outside of Los Angeles where the great and popularly beloved poet and performer Leonard Cohen was a monk lived many years in the monastery, the Mount Baldy Zen Center. I was not surprised when, at the age of 77 years, he released a CD and deliberately gave him absolutely unattractive title of "Old ideas". [eng. — “Old Ideas”]the Album topped the charts in 17 countries were in the top five in nine. Something within us craves the intimacy and depth that we get from people who find the time and energy to stay still.

I think many, like me, have a feeling that we are standing in front of a huge screen, loud and crowded, which changes the image every second. This screen is our life. Just returned back from him, as far as possible, and by staying away, you can actually understand what is depicted on the canvas. Some are doing it for us, stopping.

 



Graham hill: Less stuff — more happinessis the Whisper of fate...

14:52

In the age of continuous acceleration, nothing can be more encouraging than the slowing. In the age of distraction nothing can more luxurious than paying attention. In the era of high speeds nothing can be as important as stop and rest. Next vacation you can spend in Paris, Hawaii or New Orleans. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. But if you want to come back home alive and full of fresh hope and love to this world, I think you need to seriously consider to just stop. Thank you. (Applause). published

 



Source: www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_the_art_of_stillness/transcript?language=ru