Monastic Life Quotes

• I like the monastic life... in the prayer and the praising... this has charged me with new energy, spiritual energy. This is very important for my ministry outside the monastery.

  Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

  Spiritual, Prayer, Important

  10 Copy quote

• By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socioeconomic apparatus which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace.

  Thomas Merton

  Political, Trials, Favors

  Thomas Merton (2015). “Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation”, p.134, Sounds True

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Monastic life cuts off the distractions and emotional entanglements one becomes involved in, in the lay life.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Cutting, Emotional, Distraction

  Source: fpmt.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The curse should no longer rest upon the world itself, but upon that which is sinful in it, and instead of monastic flight from the world the duty is now emphasized of serving God in the world, in every position in life.

  Abraham Kuyper

  World, Flight, Should

  Abraham Kuyper (2007). “Lectures on Calvinism”, p.30, Cosimo, Inc.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Grace, Christianity, Protest

  5 Copy quote

• Cooperation in the most natural thing in the world

  Janine Benyus

  World, Pitching, Cooperation

  11 Copy quote

• There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life is all about.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Appreciate, Understanding, Problem

  Source: fpmt.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Art is a vocation, as much as anything in this world. For the real artist, it is the most natural thing in the world, not as necessary as air and water, perhaps, but as food and water. But we really do lead almost a monastic life, you know; to follow it you very often have to give up something.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Art, Giving Up, Real

  Katherine Anne Porter, Joan Givner (1987). “Katherine Anne Porter: Conversations”, p.86, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.

  Albert Camus

  Solitude, Violence, Working Conditions

  Albert Camus, Jean Grenier (2003). “Correspondence, 1932-1960”, p.195, U of Nebraska Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it would help if, when people are first ordained, they underwent a period of strict training, maybe for several years. During this time they would learn basic Buddhist philosophy in a monastic community where all the teaching and training was directed toward living a perfect monastic life and wasn't channeled out to fit into the lay life - which is what usually happens in Dharma centers where the teachings are directed toward how to live the Dharma in your everyday life.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Buddhist, Philosophy, Teaching

  Source: fpmt.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If there are 1,500 people in a theater and they're all there to see you, there are no other guys. You're the guy. So it is a monastic life, it is very lonely, if I was prone to loneliness. It's a lot like wrestling, no one can throw a block for you, no one can give you a pass. Nobody can hand the ball off to you, it's you only for an hour and a half every night.

  Jay Mohr

  Lonely, Block, Loneliness

  Source: underthegunreview.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source