How to Focus

A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction

By John Cassian

View More View Less

$16.79

($17.95)

Product 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.

Read More Read Less

Quantity

Eligible For Free Shipping

Usually ships in 4-5 business days. Ships from a Cokesbury Connect Partner.

Additional Details

Kit components
The following items and their quantities are included in the kit product: How to Focus

Quantity Included Item Format SKU Individual Price
Additional Details
Product Specs
- SKU: 9780691208084
- Manufacturer: Princeton Univ Pr
- ISBN 13: 9780691208084
- Publication Date: 01/09/2024
- Format: Hardcover
- Author: John Cassian
View More View Less
Shipping & Returns
This item is available for return. At Cokesbury, we offer various expedited shipping methods for an additional charge during checkout. However, products with long lead times and those shipped from a Cokesbury Connect Partner are not eligible for expedited shipping. If you select expedited shipping at checkout and your order includes items that cannot be expedited, you will receive a notice explaining that not all items are eligible.