For those with much personal experience with monks: Have you found monks you've met to be unusually wise, either in thought or behavior, either in spiritual or secular ways? Do you know what the distribution roughly looks like -- i.e. how often it is you come across a monk who seems to have attained great heights of wisdom of some sort vs. somewhat lesser heights vs. no perceivable heights vs. perhaps something less than that?

Why I ask: I'm vaguely considering becoming a monk, but I've been fairly disappointed in the monks I've met (in my admittedly rather limited experience). It hurts me to say, but in my honest opinion, the monks I've come across have been, on the whole:

1. extremely and blindly parochial in their views and behaviors,
2. very perfunctory and lacking in a divine love for humanity in their interactions with the public generally,
3. possessed of surprisingly poor working memory when trying to respond to specific questions, ultimately giving very blithe and overly general answers which happen to conveninently fit in with some often repeated quote or anecdote that is part of their required reading, and
4. not in possession of the kind of spiritual aura that I would have expected from someone who spends the whole of their life in renunciation from the world and devotion to God. Their aura, on the whole, if I had to describe it, seems more to me like that of a glorified shut-in.

Lastly: I was hoping specifically for people's experiences with monks from the West (though they don't have to be Christian). I've heard that in the East, because of poorer economic conditions, many people become monks as a career, so there are bigger problems there. That's just what I've heard, at least.

Much love and may God bless you. Sorry for the harsh words. Thank you for your time and for trying to help me ♥️🙏.

Given my life circumstances, being a monastic isn't a realistic option. I've been wondering, is there a communal way of life that is in-between ordinary life and monastic life? Have you wondered the same? What do you imagine would be your ideal situation? Have you found such a thing? I welcome any thoughts, experiences, etc.

Reference for types of communities: https://icmatch.org/community-types-2/

EDIT: added link

Which of the following would be eligible for monastic life (it may be more than one of them or even none of them): a. A paranoid schizophrenic b. A person with asperger's syndrome c. A person who used to be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia d. A person who used to be diagnosed with asperger's syndrome

Hello All,

I’m actually posting this in a couple different groups because I’m trying to get a large overview. Basically, here is what’s up: I have in the past had a podcast to some success (though it was just a small departmental one that few people probably heard of but I got good comments back) and produced about 10 episodes. In general I love podcasts and podcasting and would like to keep it going. The only topic I would really really be interested in is diving into medieval thought (not hardcore philosophy by any means, but philosophy none the less, mixed with the history and progression of ideas). And, lo and behold, I can’t really find a podcast on medieval thought - there are great episodes, great philosophy podcasts, and great medieval podcasts, but not one that sort of scratches that very niche itch for me on a regular basis.

Therefore, I am looking at doing it myself!

Now, the reason I am posting on here is that I need your help. Obviously I have many resources of my own (after a fair amount of formal and informal education on the subject); books on medieval history and thought, particular writers/thinkers I’d like to cover, etc. BUT, in an effort to try and cover as many bases as possible I am seeking out suggestions for writers, thinkers, pieces of writing unauthored, interesting saints’ lives, etc etc that this great community might want to help me out with. No topic is really too big or too small, I love the idea of doing a three part episodic series on Boethius’ “Consolations..” followed up by some obscure, half-page, vita written by an unknown monk.

So. If you have anything you’d like to share, please please please do so - you’d be helping me out so much to make this a great podcast.

IF (big if) this gets on the ground, I’ll also be looking for people to talk about certain subjects near and dear to their hearts - “experts” yes, such as students, profs, historians, etc., but I also really like the idea of people who just have personal vested interests in particular peoples, places, and times to pop on as well. So, if any of you fit this description, feel free to pop me a line here and we can set something up.

Many Thanks for reading this ramble.

Though I doubt there are many if any pagans here with monastic leanings (and if there are, they are probably already connected to the community), but I've recently created a self-hosted forum for pagan monastics to come together and learn, discuss, and contemplate together!

Should someone come along and want more info about what pagan monasticism entails, here are a few resources:

• A recently released class by John Beckett: https://undertheancientoaks.com/c7-0-introduction/
• 'Polytheistic Monasticism' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60120838-polytheistic-monasticism

If anyone would like to join the forum, it is private (to keep maintenance costs down, bandwidth and hacker-wise), so DM me if you'd like a link!

Hey everyone

I'm an executive chef at a monastic monastery and I put in my two weeks and the head monk really means alot to me. He's shown me nothing but respect and kindness over the years. He's a real old-school guy, very very intelligent so I'd like to write him a letter to give him when I leave. He's very philosophical so I'd like to add in a nice quote or something that he'd appreciate does anyone have any to tell me? I'm not religious myself so I do not know of any! Thanks