Becoming a monk

Good evening people of ATS.
It is nearing the early morning hours here for me, and I have found myself thinking about this most of the night.
However I have had no luck finding an answer, in my own mind, nor anywhere on the internet.
So heres a question for you.

Picture yourself if you will, not really understanding the current world. You get an education, you get a work, you start a family, support the offspring through their educations and so on and so forth. Okay, so you get it, you know how it works, but it does not feel right for you. You could not imagine living that kind of life.
In fact, you would rather travel to some monestary and become a monk. You would rather go to a safe place, where you are not bound by the norms of society. A place where you can live a simple life, and take the time needed to listen to yourself and think of things, we think of much too rarely in our daily lives.

Picture a place where your duties would be nothing more, than keeping a garden pretty, preparing meals, and overall simple tasks, that allows your mind to keep calm and think of things more important than money, education, work and family.

I guess you can see why I am thinking monks and monasteries.

As for my question, are there still places like these, that you can go to and become a member, should you wish it? Also, are there other places then monestaries? What are the alternatives to someone longing for a simple life like that?

You may want to check your title, and fix it?

Depending on where you live, you can google to find monasteries, and their information for attending studies.

Doesn't life excite you with all its abundant splendour?
Why would you choose a life of seclusion?

reply to post by needlenight

Becomming a munk

Not sure if that title is intentional.. but it should be Becoming a monk

you can change it (if you wanted) by clicking the edit button at the top.

Nice idea for a thread. When you talk about monks, the idea that comes into my head is a member of a religious order. I know the Catholics have a fair supply of them. To be a Catholic monk, though, requires more than a desire to get away from this terrible world, but a passion to go to something. I'm sure you can get more information from a quick internet search.

I know there are other monks as well, Buddhist comes to mind first, but I suspect all of these "monks" are looking for a longer committment than you might be prepared to give. If you want to stay in the religious area, try finding a retreat house and asking if you can go on an extended retreat.

If the religious aspect doesn't matter, there are the communes and colonies sprinkled here and there. Remember hearing about hippie communes, and the kibbutz system in Israel? Heck, you can just go into the woods by yourself if you want and try it out for a couple of weeks.

reply to post by Destinyone


Thanks for the heads up, and thanks to whoever fixed my title for me, before I could do so myself.

Any googling turned up very few hits locally, and those local ones all seem like scams.
No, what I want is the real deal, not just some crazy fool who likes budhist monks and decided to start his own monestary, then charges his "brothers" money for being there.

I am not saying I want to be a monk and live in a monestary, but I am looking into the possibility of living the same kind of simple life. Be it as a monk or anything else. Is it still possible? Or have the governments ruined all chances of escaping their planned out world?

Originally posted by Numpty1
Doesn't life excite you with all its abundant splendour?
Why would you choose a life of seclusion?

Oh but I am not trying to escape life. Im trying to find MY life, a simple life where I get to learn values more important than 2+2=4, and "if you work hard, you can buy a cool car."

reply to post by needlenight


I am not a monk but I know that you shouldn't become a monk just because you need to escape. I assume you are referring to becoming a Buddhist monk??? I think people decided to become a Buddhist monk because they are interested in becoming enlightened and to learn the Dharma.

Ah! Now I get where your coming from.I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I don't really think it matters where you hide. God! If I knew where to hide I'd be doing the same thing right now.
Monasteries were never exempt from war, in fact, they were goto places in times of war. Nothing better than getting rid of "holy men" for the benefit of local villagers.Kill the holy men,kill hope for the locals.
I fear you are looking for an impossible escape from that which we all must face.

reply to post by charles1952


Im not exactly Christian, Catholic or anything for that matter. I believe that I have no chance on earth, to understand what God and life really is. That being said, I do think of such matters alot. I do believe both God and life is real, but in what way? I do not know.

But I once did consider becomming a priest, because I think the messages in all the religions are great. Love your fellow man, be good and kind, spread love, those are as far as I have learned the bottom line of all religions.

Budhist monks yes, I would love to live such a life, right untill the very end. Heck I would even be one of the few to take the vow of silence. But is it possible just to contact them and ask to join them? Im thinking they are a very closed of group of people.

I looked up nunneries at one point and found something in north georgia I think, but it never seems to get painted in such a way... at least not in the states. these places still seem bound to the outside world in some aspect, so you basically just become a different kind of employee bowing to new masters.

if you find a place, lemme know.

the problem is if you break away from the world, you might start to question what is going on in it... because in ways it is still very relevant. even technology is very relevant to our lives.

Truly, it's the assholes who are the problem and I have yet to create a successful asshole deflector.

Originally posted by Numpty1
Ah! Now I get where your coming from.I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I don't really think it matters where you hide. God! If I knew where to hide I'd be doing the same thing right now.
Monasteries were never exempt from war, in fact, they were goto places in times of war. Nothing better than getting rid of "holy men" for the benefit of local villagers.Kill the holy men,kill hope for the locals.
I fear you are looking for an impossible escape from that which we all must face.

Im not trying to hide, Im trying to find a way to live the life I want. Sure I can not hide from death or life, nor would I want to. Im just trying to find my way and the answers I need.. or the questions I need.

reply to post by needlenight


Then I misunderstood. I hope you find what you are looking for. We have a place in Scotland you may want to look up www.holyisle.org...

not sure about in western countries as they're mainly christian...

But here in asia its quite common for people to choose to go to buddhist temples becoming laymen (monks usually are trained/study from childhood at temples to be full monks )
where they live , study , meditate and help care for temple grounds.

Where do you live? I am sure there "should be" a local Buddhist monastery near you. Go pay them a visit and ask about to becoming a monk. I am from NY and there are maybe 2 or 3 Buddhist monasteries within 2 hours away.

Originally posted by ChiForce
Where do you live? I am sure there "should be" a local Buddhist monastery near you. Go pay them a visit and ask about to becoming a monk. I am from NY and there are maybe 2 or 3 Buddhist monasteries within 2 hours away.

I live in Denmark, nothing around here that I have been able to find.


reply to post by Expat888


What would they say to a young adult european guy asking to learn their ways?

Before becoming a monk, what exactly do you believe?

I have personally spent some time as a monk in a Buddhist monastery. I also took on the life of a monastic Muslim, travelling the country and sleeping in mosques. I have never lived a monastic life when I was a Christian, but I do know there are many Catholic oriented monasteries.

Whatever your personal beliefs, there are others living out those beliefs in a monastery. I highly recommend you try out monastic life for a few weekends or a few weeks before leaving the wordly life behind. The most I spent away from modern life was a year and a half. I would not trade that experience for anything! The monastic times of my life were very beneficial and eye-opening to me.

Peace.

Not to make you feel bad but the period when I needed to in search for myself, I did a lot of reading. Books were my friends. Library was my refuge. I became attached to Nietzsche. He didn't advocate to hide oneself from the world. The world needs to be overcome. A new kind of superhuman he had envisioned. The rest is history. You want to live a hermit-style kind of life while living in this world, spend your time in the library. Go find books you want to read. Do that for about a year and I am sure you will become a new man.

reply to post by needlenight

Dear needlenight,

I found a couple of links you might find helpful. There's more information on them than I can look through, but I don't have the same desire you do.

How to be a Buddhist monk

Another link, this one to an organization.

With respect,
charles1952

reply to post by needlenight


Monks work pretty hard from all I've read. The difference is, they pray a lot between work shifts.