we’ve come to see living on our own or
in a small family unit of our own as a
key step in growing up it’s the dominant
image we have of adult existence so
monasticism which involves unmarried
people working and living together in
highly organized communities can seem
very marginal and odd we may not have
anything particularly against
monasticism but it can seem just very
unusual something that might work for a
very few individuals without being
relevant to the lives of most people
today at its core monasticism puts
forward the bold thesis that people can
actually lead the most fruitful
productive and happy lives when they
abandoned the idea of coupledom and the
single family dwelling get together into
controlled very organized groups of
friends have some clear rules and direct
themselves towards a few big ambitions
the modern world insists that will
always be happier in a small home on our
own or with one or two very special
people
but this ideal can be deeply problematic
leaving us occasionally looking around
for some sort of an alternative even if
we’re not planning on setting up a
secular version of a monastery any time
soon the history of monasticism deserves
to be studied for the lessons it can
yield about the limits to modern
individualism a site near Athens 300 BC
the philosopher Epicurus buy some land
just outside the city of Athens and
invites his friends to come and live
with him it’s the world’s first proper
commune based around philosophy Epicurus
has come to the view that we tend not to
be very happy because we over ate the
importance of three things
romantic love having lots of money and
the enjoyment of luxury the point of his
commune is to help people avoid these
mistakes and to focus instead on
friendship simple pleasures and
cultivating the mind in the commune
everyone has a room and there are common
areas downstairs and in the grounds that
way the residents are always surrounded
by people who share their outlooks are
entertaining and kind children are
looked after in Rota everyone needs to
gather one can chat in the corridors
late at night
it’s a very successful arrangement and a
great many other epicurean communities
are founded the movement flourishes for
almost 400 years the big move that
Epicurus makes is that people should
live together not because they happen to
be related by family ties or are born in
the same geographical region they should
do so because they share values and
ideals
Epicurus proposes that we need the
presence and assistance of like-minded
people if we to free ourselves from the
usual social preoccupations and get on
monte cassino
italy 5 to 9 ad inspired by the example
of Epicurus saint benedict establishes
his first monastery halfway between Rome
and Naples it’s still there although it
had to be heavily rebuilt after it was
damaged by Allied bombing in 1944
Benedict writes an instruction manual
for his followers with a simple and
emphatic title the rule in his book
Benedict lays out strict regulations
about how to run a monastery he details
what to eat when it’s ok to talk and
when you have to be silent who has to do
the cooking washing up and gardening
everyone has to take turns when to go to
bed and when to get up what sorts of
clothes to wear and what kind of haircut
to have the list can seem like a huge
denial of individual liberty but
Benedict’s contribution to the history
of monasticism is his faith in the
benefit of extensive explicit and
detailed rules to which members
voluntarily agree Benedict believes that
only under regulated conditions can the
best potential of people be harnessed he
works on the idea that although high
level of personal freedom sounds like a
lovely idea it’s not in fact an optimum
condition for most of us because we have
a fatal tendency to veer towards
dissipation distraction and wasting our
time North Yorkshire England 657 ad
st. hildreth Whitby one of the most
powerful and accomplished women in the
early history of England founds a
monastery in her role as the head of the
monastery of Whitby she becomes a very
senior administrator runs a large
agricultural enterprise is a management
consultant to visiting kings and princes
and has an impact as a leading
educationalist and she does all this
while being noted for her
good temper of course she’s unmarried
it’s not that because she’s a nun
she isn’t allowed to get married and so
has to make the best of her work
opportunities without a supportive home
life the line of thought runs the other
way around she’s able to have a stellar
career and achieved so much for the
community because she’s free of the
demands of relationships and domestic
life being a nun means she’s supplied
with meals laundry and heating without
having to organize everything for
herself she can be astonishingly
productive we tend to associate monastic
life with religious devotion but people
like Hilda suggests that there are many
benefits of monasteries which are not
really tied to religion at all most
crucially the monastery removes the
problem of finding a work-life balance
within the monastery work and life are
not really two separate things you’re
always at work it’s an attitude summed
up by the followers of Saint Benedict in
one of their key mottos libera RA s or
re to work is to pray that is what
you’re doing when you’re digging the
fields administering the accounts
deliberating policy were involved in
contemplation are not opposed activities
to be weighed up against each other you
can fully immerse yourself in your work
which when it’s meaningful can be the
highest of pleasures kingdom of Bhutan
1692 the establishment of the tax town
Pal fook Buddhist monastery like
Christianity Buddhism has a
long-standing interest in communal
living the lofty and rather inaccessible
location isn’t an accident the point of
going to a monastery is to avoid the
distractions that might take one’s
attention away from what’s really
important the Buddhists are acutely
aware of the problems of distraction
what they call the monkey mind this is
one of the recurrent themes around
monasteries so locating the monastery
far away from the city and in a setting
where nature appears at its most
impressive is a careful strategic play
it’s using geography and architecture in
struggle to get us to focus on the right
things monasticism knows that human
beings are pathetically prone to
distraction it’s almost comically easy
to get us to stop concentrating on
anything serious or even a tiny bit
challenging but collectively we’ve been
very reluctant
to take serious steps to address this
mania for distraction it’s almost
shocking to imagine what one might be
able to do where our attention not
always wandering off but isn’t leading
figures are prepared to accept but
asking for prolonged non-distracted
attention
minds making huge and specific
adjustments that’s what monasticism is
for Trinity College Cambridge England
October 1911 the philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein enrolls as a student at
Trinity College Cambridge to study under
the great and eminent professor Bertrand
Russell Trinity College is like most of
the Oxford and Cambridge colleges
founded on the plan of a medieval
monastery it isn’t centered around a
relationship with God but it does have a
belief system one focused on the idea of
academic work Fellows of the college
such as Russell live a communal life and
they have to be unmarried in order to be
admitted inside the community married
academics live elsewhere in Cambridge
the arrangements are an admission that
certain kinds of jobs especially
intellectual and creative ones are not
well aligned with the demands of family
life or even of running your own
household this academic monastery means
you can socialize mainly with people who
are involved in the same kind of work as
you who can offer you sympathy help and
advice and will never nag you about the
laundry the sneaking suspicion that
someone who does your job might be
harming their talents by emptying the
bins or making the beds might the
college system argues just be true
ruslan Wittgenstein will together
revolutionize 20th century philosophy
San Francisco 1966 the first hippie
communes spring up in haight-ashbury
district of the city the hippies go in
for a very particular style of communal
living involving beards lentils chanting
freewheeling attitudes to sex suspicion
of Technology and dislike of tidiness
they so grip the public imagination that
their way of doing things becomes what
living together looks like to most
people when they think of what it might
mean to live in a commune almost by
chance it comes to seem as if being
interested in shared property collective
responsibility and mutual assistance
with your work means you also have to be
interested in dancing naked and sitting
cross-legged on the floor with a large
beard it hence becomes hard to imagine a
secular monastery with non hippie
values for example a commune devoted to
entrepreneurship traditional manners or
a strong enthusiasm for clean design and
modernist architecture many options for
communal living still lie before us
monasteries and communes have not
exhausted the possibilities even if
their examples can act as sources of
ongoing inspiration when we try to live
together with just one special other
person the experiment often runs aground
we get bored sexually frustrated or
constrained we often blame the other
person for this and rush off to repeat
the experiment with someone else
we’d be wise to see that the institution
of romantic marriage can play some
intolerable burdens on otherwise very
good people who would hugely benefit
from other ways of structuring their
time and their laundry responsibilities
as an alternative to the dispiriting
domestic bickering of certain couples it
may be time to revisit the fascinating
examples of earlier modes of monastic
and communal life if you like our films
take a look at our shop the School of
Life comm forward slash shop you’ll find
lots of thoughtful books games stationery and more
in a small family unit of our own as a
key step in growing up it’s the dominant
image we have of adult existence so
monasticism which involves unmarried
people working and living together in
highly organized communities can seem
very marginal and odd we may not have
anything particularly against
monasticism but it can seem just very
unusual something that might work for a
very few individuals without being
relevant to the lives of most people
today at its core monasticism puts
forward the bold thesis that people can
actually lead the most fruitful
productive and happy lives when they
abandoned the idea of coupledom and the
single family dwelling get together into
controlled very organized groups of
friends have some clear rules and direct
themselves towards a few big ambitions
the modern world insists that will
always be happier in a small home on our
own or with one or two very special
people
but this ideal can be deeply problematic
leaving us occasionally looking around
for some sort of an alternative even if
we’re not planning on setting up a
secular version of a monastery any time
soon the history of monasticism deserves
to be studied for the lessons it can
yield about the limits to modern
individualism a site near Athens 300 BC
the philosopher Epicurus buy some land
just outside the city of Athens and
invites his friends to come and live
with him it’s the world’s first proper
commune based around philosophy Epicurus
has come to the view that we tend not to
be very happy because we over ate the
importance of three things
romantic love having lots of money and
the enjoyment of luxury the point of his
commune is to help people avoid these
mistakes and to focus instead on
friendship simple pleasures and
cultivating the mind in the commune
everyone has a room and there are common
areas downstairs and in the grounds that
way the residents are always surrounded
by people who share their outlooks are
entertaining and kind children are
looked after in Rota everyone needs to
gather one can chat in the corridors
late at night
it’s a very successful arrangement and a
great many other epicurean communities
are founded the movement flourishes for
almost 400 years the big move that
Epicurus makes is that people should
live together not because they happen to
be related by family ties or are born in
the same geographical region they should
do so because they share values and
ideals
Epicurus proposes that we need the
presence and assistance of like-minded
people if we to free ourselves from the
usual social preoccupations and get on
monte cassino
italy 5 to 9 ad inspired by the example
of Epicurus saint benedict establishes
his first monastery halfway between Rome
and Naples it’s still there although it
had to be heavily rebuilt after it was
damaged by Allied bombing in 1944
Benedict writes an instruction manual
for his followers with a simple and
emphatic title the rule in his book
Benedict lays out strict regulations
about how to run a monastery he details
what to eat when it’s ok to talk and
when you have to be silent who has to do
the cooking washing up and gardening
everyone has to take turns when to go to
bed and when to get up what sorts of
clothes to wear and what kind of haircut
to have the list can seem like a huge
denial of individual liberty but
Benedict’s contribution to the history
of monasticism is his faith in the
benefit of extensive explicit and
detailed rules to which members
voluntarily agree Benedict believes that
only under regulated conditions can the
best potential of people be harnessed he
works on the idea that although high
level of personal freedom sounds like a
lovely idea it’s not in fact an optimum
condition for most of us because we have
a fatal tendency to veer towards
dissipation distraction and wasting our
time North Yorkshire England 657 ad
st. hildreth Whitby one of the most
powerful and accomplished women in the
early history of England founds a
monastery in her role as the head of the
monastery of Whitby she becomes a very
senior administrator runs a large
agricultural enterprise is a management
consultant to visiting kings and princes
and has an impact as a leading
educationalist and she does all this
while being noted for her
good temper of course she’s unmarried
it’s not that because she’s a nun
she isn’t allowed to get married and so
has to make the best of her work
opportunities without a supportive home
life the line of thought runs the other
way around she’s able to have a stellar
career and achieved so much for the
community because she’s free of the
demands of relationships and domestic
life being a nun means she’s supplied
with meals laundry and heating without
having to organize everything for
herself she can be astonishingly
productive we tend to associate monastic
life with religious devotion but people
like Hilda suggests that there are many
benefits of monasteries which are not
really tied to religion at all most
crucially the monastery removes the
problem of finding a work-life balance
within the monastery work and life are
not really two separate things you’re
always at work it’s an attitude summed
up by the followers of Saint Benedict in
one of their key mottos libera RA s or
re to work is to pray that is what
you’re doing when you’re digging the
fields administering the accounts
deliberating policy were involved in
contemplation are not opposed activities
to be weighed up against each other you
can fully immerse yourself in your work
which when it’s meaningful can be the
highest of pleasures kingdom of Bhutan
1692 the establishment of the tax town
Pal fook Buddhist monastery like
Christianity Buddhism has a
long-standing interest in communal
living the lofty and rather inaccessible
location isn’t an accident the point of
going to a monastery is to avoid the
distractions that might take one’s
attention away from what’s really
important the Buddhists are acutely
aware of the problems of distraction
what they call the monkey mind this is
one of the recurrent themes around
monasteries so locating the monastery
far away from the city and in a setting
where nature appears at its most
impressive is a careful strategic play
it’s using geography and architecture in
struggle to get us to focus on the right
things monasticism knows that human
beings are pathetically prone to
distraction it’s almost comically easy
to get us to stop concentrating on
anything serious or even a tiny bit
challenging but collectively we’ve been
very reluctant
to take serious steps to address this
mania for distraction it’s almost
shocking to imagine what one might be
able to do where our attention not
always wandering off but isn’t leading
figures are prepared to accept but
asking for prolonged non-distracted
attention
minds making huge and specific
adjustments that’s what monasticism is
for Trinity College Cambridge England
October 1911 the philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein enrolls as a student at
Trinity College Cambridge to study under
the great and eminent professor Bertrand
Russell Trinity College is like most of
the Oxford and Cambridge colleges
founded on the plan of a medieval
monastery it isn’t centered around a
relationship with God but it does have a
belief system one focused on the idea of
academic work Fellows of the college
such as Russell live a communal life and
they have to be unmarried in order to be
admitted inside the community married
academics live elsewhere in Cambridge
the arrangements are an admission that
certain kinds of jobs especially
intellectual and creative ones are not
well aligned with the demands of family
life or even of running your own
household this academic monastery means
you can socialize mainly with people who
are involved in the same kind of work as
you who can offer you sympathy help and
advice and will never nag you about the
laundry the sneaking suspicion that
someone who does your job might be
harming their talents by emptying the
bins or making the beds might the
college system argues just be true
ruslan Wittgenstein will together
revolutionize 20th century philosophy
San Francisco 1966 the first hippie
communes spring up in haight-ashbury
district of the city the hippies go in
for a very particular style of communal
living involving beards lentils chanting
freewheeling attitudes to sex suspicion
of Technology and dislike of tidiness
they so grip the public imagination that
their way of doing things becomes what
living together looks like to most
people when they think of what it might
mean to live in a commune almost by
chance it comes to seem as if being
interested in shared property collective
responsibility and mutual assistance
with your work means you also have to be
interested in dancing naked and sitting
cross-legged on the floor with a large
beard it hence becomes hard to imagine a
secular monastery with non hippie
values for example a commune devoted to
entrepreneurship traditional manners or
a strong enthusiasm for clean design and
modernist architecture many options for
communal living still lie before us
monasteries and communes have not
exhausted the possibilities even if
their examples can act as sources of
ongoing inspiration when we try to live
together with just one special other
person the experiment often runs aground
we get bored sexually frustrated or
constrained we often blame the other
person for this and rush off to repeat
the experiment with someone else
we’d be wise to see that the institution
of romantic marriage can play some
intolerable burdens on otherwise very
good people who would hugely benefit
from other ways of structuring their
time and their laundry responsibilities
as an alternative to the dispiriting
domestic bickering of certain couples it
may be time to revisit the fascinating
examples of earlier modes of monastic
and communal life if you like our films
take a look at our shop the School of
Life comm forward slash shop you’ll find
lots of thoughtful books games stationery and more
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