How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
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Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#2Small nitpick: the Trappists are not the only Western order that practices the "vow" of silence. There are a couple of other orders which are smaller than the Trappists: the Carthusians, the Hieronymites, and the Monks of Bethelehem. (There might be more.)
The Carthusians, in particular, are quite rigorous and notoriously reclusive. Only family members are allowed to visit them, and even then, only once per year. There was a documentary made about them in 2005. The director asked the charterhouse if it would be possible for him to film them in 1984. The monks responded that they needed some time to think about it and replied sixteen years later that he could film them if he wanted. The Trappists, Carthusians, and the Catholic Church more generally, live on a very different timescale than we are accustomed to. Reading these interviews from them is wonderful.
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#3Ironic that the article is served with automatically-starting audio ads alongside.
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#4 "I wonder if a lot of the cultural complexity you refer to
seems interesting to people because they have lost so much
consciousness of [their] ancestors and the long view
afforded by a knowledge of history. If you don’t know
history, everything today can seem quite novel. But in the
larger context of the story of human history, much of what
fascinates, today, is quite redundant."
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#5Small nitpick: the Trappists are not the only Western order that practices the "vow" of silence. There are a couple of other orders which are smaller than the Trappists: the Carthusians, the Hieronymites, and the Monks of Bethelehem. (There might be more.) The Carthusians, in particular, are quite rigorous and notoriously reclusive. Only family members are allowed to visit them, and even then, only once per year. The…
Silence, and specifically unnecessary "chatter" is also a major tenet of the Benedictine rule. Some monasteries follow it more strictly than others. (I believe the Trappist and Carthusians in particular are "reforms" of Benedictine practice.)
The documentary was "Into Great Silence" by Philip Groning. For those of us who live "in the world" it can be a challenge to watch because it moves at a really glacial scale, but ultimately, I think, it's very rewarding to see that life doesn't have to be led with so much hustle and bustle.
Monks tend to live by a completely different sense of time than the rest of us. It's been said that they don't think in terms of years, but centuries. I've managed the site for a Benedictine monastery for almost 20 years, and I've long since learned that even the smallest things are very, very carefully considered. For example, it took them nearly two years from the time I proposed it to okay an email list for their publications. This is something that would have been a 24 hour decision for a "business." However, dealing with them and getting to know several of the monks pretty well (in person and via email), they've taught me that sometimes slowing down is definitely a good thing.
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#6For anyone looking to learn more about Trappists, "The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton is quite a famous account of the life of a Trappist monk.
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#7Father A's truth speaks, such clarity.
Buddhism has been my guide for many years, by virtue of the fact that the philosophy and practice are so pure, without trappings, without a "thing" to belive in (quite the opposite, the core teaching is non-self, which is to say, neither the existence of a separate self, nor the existence of a non-separate self -- honestly, I'm not sure what remains).
And yet, this notion of sin that Father A brings up, something rings true; it's as if the busy-ness of life, one's myriad interests, etc., are all just covering over, just avoiding that which must be faced; without doing so it seems even a "rich", fulfilling life is lived on the surface of an ocean deep (i.e. from the POV of a monastic/mystic).
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#8For all the times I grumble to myself about HN losing its hacker focus, it's articles like this that make me nod and recognize all is well.
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#9Father A's truth speaks, such clarity. Buddhism has been my guide for many years, by virtue of the fact that the philosophy and practice are so pure, without trappings, without a "thing" to belive in (quite the opposite, the core teaching is non-self, which is to say, neither the existence of a separate self, nor the existence of a non-separate self -- honestly, I'm not sure what remains). And yet, this notion of sin…
he does!
The following quote is a jewel: "If you don’t know history, everything today can seem quite novel. But in the larger context of the story of human history, much of what fascinates, today, is quite redundant."
Re: How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations with Four Trappist Monks
#10Father A's truth speaks, such clarity. Buddhism has been my guide for many years, by virtue of the fact that the philosophy and practice are so pure, without trappings, without a "thing" to belive in (quite the opposite, the core teaching is non-self, which is to say, neither the existence of a separate self, nor the existence of a non-separate self -- honestly, I'm not sure what remains). And yet, this notion of sin…
he does! The following quote is a jewel: "If you don’t know history, everything today can seem quite novel. But in the larger context of the story of human history, much of what fascinates, today, is quite redundant."
Sure, I was more affected by:
> My own impression is that life in the world provides many diversions which guard a person from really engaging the battle with sin, and can even render him quite insensible of its existence.
Where Christianity's "sin" is Buddhism's "ignorance", the source of all suffering.
The great 13th century Zen master Eihei Dogen said [paraphrasing], "teaching which does not feel like something is being forced upon you is not true teaching".
Father A is a true teacher.