
How to Focus
A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction
John Cassian(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 9. January 2024
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-691-20808-4 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"Timely and inspiring." * Paradigm Explorer * "How to Focus presents a thoughtful, attentive, and inviting window into the world of late antiquity. It encourages readers to learn from the wisdom of the monastic tradition. And it presents Cassian's thought in a way that is readily accessible to a contemporary audience."---Jean-Marie Hogan, The American Benedictine ReviewMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 172 mm
Width: 119 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
276 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-20808-4 (9780691208084)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2024
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€18.49
Available for download
Persons
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.