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How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) - Hardcover

Book 28 of 46: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

Cassian, John

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9780691208084: How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0691208085 ISBN 13: 9780691208084
Publisher: 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.

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About the Author

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.

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Publisher
Princeton University Press
Publication date
2024
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0691208085
ISBN 13 
9780691208084
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
288
Rating
  • 3.56 out of 5 stars
    233 ratings by Goodreads