ZEN FLIGHT

Prep for your getaway by doing a little bit of nothing.

EDITOR’S POV The next time you fly, travel writer Pico Iyer recommends that you try what Zen monk Matthieu Ricard calls “a retreat in the sky.” Iyer turns off the seat screen and lets his mind “go foraging—or lie down—like a dog on a wide, empty beach.” If he thinks of something important, he just jots it down in a notebook. He was inspired to do this after observing a young woman, a seatmate, sit silently through a 12-hour flight. It was her way of de-stressing and detaching from her hectic job ahead of a much-needed vacay. He explains that she wanted to land “in as clear a state as possible, ready to enjoy her days of rest.” Sounds like a true moment of Zen. CHRISTINA REYNOLDS

READING JOURNEY Pico Iyer’s The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere is based on a TED Talk by the same name that he gave last summer; Five-Mile Beach on Koh Rong Island (left), near Song Saa Private Island in Cambodia (page 174), is the...