Description

The digital era is beset by distraction and it feels like things are only getting worse At times like these the distant past beckons as a golden age of attention We dream of recapturing the quiet of a world with less noise We imagine retreating into solitude and singlemindedness almost like latterday monks

But although we think of early monks as master concentrators a life of mindfulness did not in fact come to them easily As historian Jamie Kreiner demonstrates in The Wandering Mind their attempts to stretch the mind out to Godto continuously contemplate the divine order and its ethical requirementswere allconsuming and their battles against distraction were neverending Delving into the experiences of early Christian monks Kreiner shows that these men and women were obsessed with distraction in ways that seem remarkably modern

Drawing on a trove of sources that the monks left behind Kreiner reconstructs the techniques they devised in their lifelong quest to master their minds She captures the fleeting moments of pure attentiveness that some monks managed to grasp and the many times when monks struggled and failed and went back to the drawing board Blending history and psychology The Wandering Mind is a witty illuminating account of human fallibility and ingenuity that bridges a distant era and our own