How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

by John Cassian, Jamie Kreiner (Translator)

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.

Genres: Philosophy, Self Help, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Psychology, Classics, Religion

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2024

About the author

Saint John Cassian was a monk and theologian. Born in the region of Scythia Minor (today's Romania and Bulgaria). As a member of wealthy family he received a good classical education (he was bilingual, knew Latin and Greek). Died in Marseille in 435. Celebrated in both the Western and Eastern Churches for his mystical writings. Cassian is noted for bringing the ideas and practices of Egyptian monasticism to the early medieval West. Influenced St. Benedict, who included many of Cassian's principles into his monastic rule.

Reviews

[Hlyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Distraction isn't a modern problem. It's fascinating to learn how Christian monks in ancient times, long before smartphones were invented, struggled with distractions.

Cassian and Germanus venture to the desert of Scetis to seek counsel from Abba Moses on how to stay focused.

Abba Moses begins with the importance of setting goals - scopos and telos - the immediate goal and the ultimate goal.

He says we should strive for the immediate goal of clarity and tranquility of the heart all the time so that we're eventually able to reach the ultimate goal, the Kingdom of God.

Then they talk about how to deal with distracting thoughts. To summarise, we can't prevent thoughts, but we can program our minds so that the kind of thoughts that arise are beneficial to our spiritual journey. How do we do that? By filling our mind with spiritual practices like reading scripture, using a mantra or prayer, or engaging in other spiritual activities. Whatever we put into our mind influence the nature of our thoughts.

They also discuss how to pray, which mantra to use to keep their mind focused on God continuously, and even how to deal with visitors distracting their practice, etc.

Though this book was written for Christian monks in ancient times, there are insights we can adapt for our modern lives because while we may have different ways to distract ourselves, the nature of our minds and the mechanics of distractions remain the same.

P.S. It's important to recognise that distraction isn't a personal problem or a personal fault. It's a systemic problem requiring systemic solutions. I highly recommend reading "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention by Johann Hari" for further insights into this topic.

[Laura Fabrycky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable new translation, appreciated even the explicit thinking about its distillation and curation. The endnotes are excellent. Love the Latin-English page layout. Cassian and Evagrius are valuable teachers for our time, and those who assist us with encountering and metabolizing their wisdom offer a great service.

[Pavsco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hay que reconocer que Juan Casiano fue un adelantado a su época. Escribir un ensayo sobre conceptos como la atención, la concentración y el rendimiento en la Edad Media no debió ser para nada fácil.

No obstante, este no es un manual de filosofía práctica ni una guía mental para cultivar la atención, sino una base teológica para practicar la oración sin distracciones, lo que dista mucho de la sinopsis de la editorial en el reverso.

[Richard Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mind is constantly prodded by thoughts and feelings, hence it is difficult to focus. It is not just in the era of smartphones that people struggle with focus, yes, but the level of focus Cassian is after is a superhuman focus, for Christian monks who can mediate for days straight without eating or standing up, what he terms "fiery prayer," hence the advices given here may verge on the extremes, and may even be irrelevant to non-religious readers.

Cassian, who longs for a perfect state of prolonged focus, realizes that a hard effort alone does not figure, that a hard resolve alone can't help him. So he seeks out elderly monks.

To sum up first, you need:
- Goals, both immediate (scopos) and ultimate (telos)
- Avoid all things that detracts one from those goals - for Cassian, it equates to... renouncing property and family, joining a community of likeminded practitioners, avoiding sex, eating sparingly, etc.
- Settle on a mantra to repeat to yourself several times daily
- Everyday routine and thought habit

Attaining focus is not so much an achievement as a perpetual practice.

It's natural for the mind to move around, but where it goes and what it thinks about is up to us.

The mind has to be remade through this sustained effort.... a steady hold.

---------------------------

Immediate goal for Cassian: clarity and tranquility of the heart. Telos: the Kingdom of God

"If your eye doesn't know where to look, it can't offer any guidance about where to adjust or realign your aim."

...unless we first demolish our weaknesses
...an unshakeable foundation that is basic and grounded..

The mind is shaped by the state it was in before it turned to prayer

A four-part schema: supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks.
'Perfect prayer is a state in which a monk is unaware of himself and the fact that he's praying at all.'

'Every lazy person has desires'

the love of God as its fixed unchanging center...

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read but an incredibly insightful one. I am inspired to put into practice these techniques in order to focus more on God. There is deep wisdom in the words of this book.

[Omar Khedr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that’s has some real gems on focusing

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memorable Quotes

1. “Concentration on the divine wasn’t going to happen simply by resolving to think harder, because a monk’s mind was affected by the world in which it was embedded, by the fluctuating constraints of social networks, obligations, physical capacities, emotional states, knowledge, perceptions, and habits. Training across many domains was both ethically and psychologically necessary (Jamie Kreiner; xv).”

2. “Attentiveness [is] not so much an achievement as a perpetual practice (Jamie Kreiner; xvi).”

3. “[Those] who want to acquire a skill...will need short-term and long-term goals. It’s too easy to get distracted otherwise: without a destination to guide its movements, the mind will take endless detours without even realizing it’s off course (Jamie Kreiner; xvii).”

4. “You can’t just clean out your mind and leave it blank...You’ve got to replace all those vivid images and ideas with other things to work with. Imagine your mind as a cool, calm sanctuary that will give you access to God. Store that vault with things you treasure, and eventually it will overflow with thoughts you actually want to be thinking (Jamie Kreiner; xxi).”

5. “...if we don’t follow a path, our work is a journey that goes nowhere (Cassian; 15).”
6. “It’s truly impossible for the mind not to be interrupted by thoughts. But it is possible, for anyone who makes the effort, to welcome them in or kick them out. Their origin doesn’t have everything to do with us, but it’s up to us to reject them or accept them (Cassian; 35)." (Consistent with the Stoic idea of giving or withholding assent to first impressions.)

7. “[I]t’s mainly through our doing that the nature of our thoughts can be improved and take shape – either as sacred and spiritual thoughts or as earthly and material ones. This is precisely the reason we take the time to read regularly and to meditate on the scriptures constantly: to create opportunities to furnish our memory with something spiritual (Cassian; 36-37).”

8. “You’re definitely as close as you can be to knowing something when you pinpoint that question you should be asking. And you’re not far from knowledge when you start to recognize what you don’t know (Cassian; 135).”

9. “When you always seek help with everything, not just when times are hard or sad but also when they’re easygoing and fortunate, you attest to the fact that God is there to attest to the fact that God is there to assist either way. And it shows you know that human beings, weak as they are, don’t subsist in either state without God’s support (Cassian; 143).”

10. “Whoever makes a habit of praying only when they kneel down doesn’t really pray very much (Cassian; 169).”

Essential Notes

1. Excerpts from writings by John Cassian, a monk who lived in the Roman Empire in the 4th to early 5th centuries.

2. Minimize the things that don’t matter in order to stretch the mind out to God.

3. It is pointless to fix your heart’s attention on proximate goals, as if they are the greatest good, rather than on the distal goal.

4. Paul taught of four types of prayer, According to Cassian, these could be defined as follows:

a. Supplication: A call for help or an appeal about sins. A person pleads for pardon with a supplication when they are stung with remorse about their past or present deeds.
b. Prayers: What we present or vow to God. Promises to think, do, or be in particular ways.
c. Intercession: Prayers offered on behalf of other people, making entreaties.
d. Gratitude: Recalling God’s previous acts of support or contemplating present ones or looking forward to what God will provide in the future for those who love him.

[Massimo Pigliucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume represents a bit of a new direction for the ongoing "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers" series being put out by Princeton Press. That said, it is a natural development: once you begin to explore the Greco-Roman thinkers, you eventually continue with the Medieval ones. (Indeed, the series has also branched further out in the meantime, beginning to tackle writings outside of the western tradition, more on that when I get to those books...) The problem with this particular volume is that if you're not a Christian you find yourself bombarded by way too much God talk, and --full disclosure -- I do fall into that category. Still, if you can get past that particular feature, the advice you get about how to keep focused is not that different from what a Stoic would say, for instance. Or a good modern positive psychologist. The book sees the two protagonists, John Cassian and his buddy Germanus, going around interviewing a number of Christian sages in search for practical tips on how to keep their attention focused on the divine and away from earthly pleasures and distractions. Replace "divine" with whatever you wish to keep focused on and you will find much of use in this book. Cassian and Germanus discover the power of mantras, for instance, as well as the notion of spiritual exercises more broadly, pretty much along the lines of those practiced before them by the Stoics as well as, much later on, by the Jesuit Ignatius of Loyola. Fun excursion into the early Middle Ages, recommended.

[Clifton D. Healy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very nice set of excerpts from St John Cassian’s The Conferences. It’s a work that focuses on those passages dealing with prayer and attention. With Latin and English on facing pages, it mirrors the famous Loeb editions of classical works and is only slightly larger than those editions. A sort of pocket hard cover. It’s one of the couple dozen or so Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series put out by Princeton, but is surprisingly affordable. The introduction is not overly academic, being just right to situate the work in its context. The footnotes are not overly proliferate nor overly academic, just enough to illuminate a point of translation or history, with an occasional scholarly reference. The translation itself is quite readable, and flows well. The only real quibble I had with it was translating “formula” as “mantra.” It is the passage dealing with the constant recitation of the Psalmic verse “O God makes speed to help me, O Lord make haste to save me.” (The more widespread practice today is the use of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”) The context is clear this is not a mantra as is used in Eastern non-Christian religions, but the use of “mantra” does give rise to the opportunity for significant misunderstanding. Nonetheless I highly recommend.

[verbava · Rating 4 out of 5]

зосередитися на цій книжечці мені довго не вдавалося, то двісті сторінок, із яких половина — латинський текст, я читала окремими підходами зо два роки.

структура проста: йоан касіян і його друг мандрують єгиптом і чіпляються до пустельників із питаннями про те, як навчитися зосереджуватися на молитві (чи на будь-чому), коли довкола стільки цікавого, спокусливого і постійно хтось приходить побалакати. пустельники майже ввічливо відповідають, що справа в усвідомлених зусиллях: якщо достатньо довго цілеспрямовано тренувати зосередженість, потім вона легше приходитиме. ні, не треба задовбуватися фізичною працею і намагатися бути якомога продуктивнішими, від цього думки, навпаки, бігають, як безголові кури; ні, не треба влаштовувати собі цілковиту ізоляцію від світу, навіть якщо це означає, що до вас у пустельню регулярно завалюватимуться молоді аскети з дивними питаннями, — від соціальної депривації можна здуріти; ні, не треба забувати всіх світських текстів, які ви будь-коли прочитали, але варто присвятити бодай стільки само часу й уваги релігійним, якщо ви вже хочете на них зосереджуватися.

одне слово, дуже м'які й людяні поради, мікродозами яких варто озброїтися на щодень, навіть якщо ви не пустельниця. і якщо вам треба був ранньосередньовічний аскет, щоб нагадати про потребу берегти себе, — то ось він.

(а осучаснений переклад джеймі крейнер дуже добре читається).

[Deviprasadh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This extremely short work on how to focus mainly directed towards mediaeval Christian monks Getting advice from their senior monks goes on to show that focusing on a single topic at hand for long periods of time is an asset and the problem of distraction isn’t unique to modern times.
This short little book punches way above its weight class, and some of the new concepts that I have learnt here are
1. Importance of having a goal to organize the mental energy, the differences between scopos and telos,
2. how to perpetually focus on single aspect that is towards God as a cure for every mental affliction
3. and a very short mantra to recite all through the day to armour Proof your focus.

Highly recommended .

[Bibliothekebohemius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro demasiado interesante que te invita a reflexionar sobre el valor de la atención. Me parece increíble como un escrito de hace 1.600 años (a su modo) entabla un puente entre el pasado y el presente (tan inundado de distracciones como antes). En efecto, se nos ha robado la atención y con este libro el autor alcanza su cometido: sembrar en ti el deseo de volver a la atención y concentración, disciplinar la mente y gobernar tu vida.

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t think that I fully understood the importance of the advices given in this book, as many of them seemed to me ambiguous. Many of them seemed to rely heavily on just focusing on something else in order to avoid getting distracted while praying, though this lack of control of the mind is the main problem in the first place. I’m not sure if there is something I’m missing or a more practical way that we can apply these concepts in modern life.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book! The translation seemed a little wonky at times, seemingly with the intention being to have a translation that was a bit more 'modern.' But it wasn't too distracting. There were some excellent points Christians today can still utilize. I loved the emphasis on 'God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.' This would also be very useful to any student of Latin, as the Latin is on one side of the page and the translation on the other. Highly recommend!

[Aman Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I have become slightly disenchanted with the 'Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers' series, this book -- as with all the others I've read in this series -- gives a lovely tease of an important classical text. I gleaned some wisdom from this collection of excerpts, but, more than anything, I now desire to read the original source text.

[Petru Bejan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado, pero le veo algunos problemas que son independientes del contenido:

- No es tanto un manual, si no más bien una especie de diario monástico.
- Los diálogos entre algunos personajes son muy dispersos y es complicado seguir el hilo argumental de la narrativa.
- La sabiduría monástica está enfocada a eso, asuntos monásticos, a veces se puede hacer denso en terminología religiosa.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassian was a Christian monk around the fourth century AD. This book by a scholar of Cassian and other Christian monks samples his writings in new translations, although the original Latin is included. Even in medieval times, people - especially monks - complained of inability to focus. This book thus remains ever-relevant in these more hectic times.

[G H M]

0

How to focus? This was so boring it was impossible to focus on it. A short — and pointless book — that offers some monk tales and other historical ideas on concentration. No structure. Just pointless.

Don’t waste your time

[Felix Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in audiobook format. the voice over Mike Cooper did an excellent job reading it out, but this book is not for me. It is too focused on its monastery origin without much real life application. The length of the book is great (not too long).

[Ashley Scow · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a relief to know that being distracted isn’t a modern problem! This was a concise, clear, and intriguing approach to the art of focusing, accompanied by translated texts of interviews with monks.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because it's a leap year, and St. John Cassian's feast day is February 29th. A very useful guide on a timeless problem, but the translation sometimes used distractingly modern syntax.

[Rikki Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughts on the intricacies that makeup the mind and its subjection to meandering will never fail to fascinate me. A good read. And short enough you could finish it in one go. That is, if you focus, lol.

[Shervin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Limited practicality for the average reader, as it really is meant for the monks of its time, but there are some interesting pointers here. Such as the one fable about the bow that needs to be relaxed rather than in a constant state of tension in order to spring when needed to shoot arrows.

[Fernando Ramírez Nieto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiene un enfoque mucho más teológico del que se describe en la contraportada.
Dependiendo de quien lo lea, esto puede ser un puente, una barrera o algo de altísimo valor.

Entrega algunos mensajes valiosos, pero depende de lo que se ande buscando.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primary sources shouldn't have ratings imo

[Jonas Short]

This particular title wasn’t for me, but the premise and format of these books is really intriguing and I want to try some others

[Syed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may have rated it 5* if not for the bad translation into modern layman english.

[Nicholas Pokorny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic wisdom for a deeply distracted person.

[Patrick Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as a wonderfully concise introduction to Cassians conferences

[Aidan Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read. Sparked a number of thoughts and was an entertaining translation