YoMonastic

Hello,
I've posted my monastery proposal at:
http://twiki.yoism.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/YoMonastic

And it is also below in raw wiki form.

Sharpen your forks and knives!

Colin
http://j9k.org

This is a proposal for a Yo-related monastic order

%TOC%


---++intro

I am writing a proposal for a monastic order instead of
going outside and starting a garden. It is 2003-05-08-1823.

---+why

*why a monastic order? Why not an ecovillage?*

The idea came into my mind after encountering Yoism.
http://yoism.org.

That these guys are working on the non-monastic project, and
have the integral view, seeing the need for the religious
approach, as well as collaborative, "opensource" development
of the religion, somehow freed me to think of the monastic
approach. I was also prodded by Raphael Spindell's
[[http://www.childrenofthemillennium.org/phpESP/public/survey.php?name=COTMSoASurvey
Soldiers of Ahimsa]]. I had already thought of starting a
"cult"- but had not yet separated it into monastic and
non-monastic aspects.

---+Why the monastic approach?

On an ecovillage- and my experience was with the discussion
around the Belize ecovillage- many people are looking for
mates and planning to start families.

I find I'm most interested in being with people who are
focused on their work.

The idea also seemed natural- many religions have monastic
orders, why not Yoism?

and, there have been quite a few times in my life where I
wished there was a religion where being a monk in that
religion appealed to me. Why not make that reality happen? I
also note that Daniel Quinn was drawn to monastic life.

---+Other indications:

In my life I've been seeking to develop self-discipline,
routine, a practice, focus on work. My efforts to this end
would be significantly enhanced by working with others who
are similarly oriented.

---+Is there a need for a monastic order larger than your
need?

Yes.

on population growth:
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC31/NorbergH.htm
found from reading: http://www.eco-action.org/dt/ladakh.html

is a story about the role of a monastery in a sustainable
village.

I believe there is an over-focus on young people. Consider:
you're a child growing up. You hear parents, politicians,
and so on, saying that what they're doing is for the
children. But the parents and politicians themselves are
overweight, out of shape, and work in offices all day. As a
kid growing up, I think, surely there must be more to life
than raising children!

The development of a new monastic movement will focus on
making the lives of children ages 18 and older wonderful.
Life does not end when you become 20. Chances are you could
live five times as long.

Books such as [[http://itp-life.com/ _The life we are
given_]] affirm the ability of the older-than-adolescent
child to continue to learn, grow, and transform in radical
ways.

The monastic order will focus on creating an environment
where adults who are not raising children can play and
challenge themselves and work with focus on projects that
are important to them.

In addition, the monastic environment will offer some of the
benefits of creating an environment one loves to be in by
working with like-minded individuals, as opposed to the more
Standard American Dream, of making enough money so that one
can isolate oneself from all the things one would rather not
be around, incessant car-alarms, or amplified sound, for
example.

---+Now what?

*O.K., I can see why some people might be interested in a
monastic order. What are your goals for this particular
order?*

I'll start general and get more specific.

---+General

I would propose that the order have only two abstract
tenets.



These tenets are: (1) The most important thing you can learn
is that you are the one best able to decide what is best for
yourself.

(2) The goal of the order is to work to create a culture
where individuals whose actions benefit themselves at the
expense of the group of all things are discouraged in that
behavior and individuals whose actions benefit the group the
most are encouraged in their behavior. The group of all
things is all living things and all non-human made
non-respirating things.

That second one is an awkward tenet- in time I hope it is
refined. The basic message is "our group is the group of all
things. When we evaluate good and bad, we consider the group
of all things."

I leave the abstract tenets at that.

At this point, I do not wish to tangle with the extant Yo
texts and principles. I would like for the monasticism I'm
describing here to be seen as part of Yoism, because I think
we will be stronger together than apart. I do believe that
this and all the other aspects of the proposal will be in
line with the existing Yo texts and principles, but I feel
there is no need to enunciate more than those two abstract
tenets for now.

As with non-monastic yoism, all aspects of the order will be
open to revision by consensus of those participating in the
order. In time, I envision different monastic communities in
the order with many variations. What will stand as unifying
these diverse communities may be nothing more than those two
abstract tenets, combined with a focus on creating community
for people who are not raising children and who are over age
17.


---+Specific

*What are the specific details of the Yoan monastic
community you are proposing to start? So far nothing sounds
terribly monk-like.*

I'll describe my current goals and practices and say what I
would like in a monastic community.

---++Sustainability

(1) I wish to be a part of a community striving for 100%
sustainability on the land that it owns or can reasonably
expect to have access to indefinitely.

That is an extreme goal even by most ecovillage standards.
This means that everything used by the members of the
monastery will come from that land in a manner that they can
reasonably expect to maintain indefinitely. That is the
ideal. In order to find others to join me in monasticism,
and in order to wish to live there myself, that ideal will
be compromised, but there will always be awareness of and
reference to that vision.

---++Bread labor less than 4hrs / day

(2) I wish to arrange the schedule and metabolism of the
monastic community such that Scott Nearing's (author with
[[http://experienceart.org/cleath/docs/oldhome00/nearing
Helen Nearing]], of _Living the good life_) maximum of 4
hours of bread labor per community resident per day is
maintained or improved upon. Bread labor is the labor needed
to maintain the existence of the community and would include
raising food, making necessary money, and administrative
details.

In my own life within the larger community of the US, I have
been able to maintain myself, and even save, working
4hrs/weekday in three different cities, in the past four
years. I believe it is possible to establish a community
focusing on 100% sustainability where the amount of bread
labor per community member is as low as 10 hours per week.
That is after all a thesis of anarcho-primitivism
(http://www.eco-action.org/dt/futureprim.html ). However, I
would be quite comfortable in the monastery setting I'm
describing with a 20-hour workweek, with weekends left
absolutely free. I am aware that in establishing the
community, or depending on seasonal issues, as described in
_Living the good life_ this ideal may not be possible, but
in the long-term, in the community I am a part of, it will
be a feature (though perhaps with seasonal variation).

In browsing the [[http://reach.ic.org/ ic reachboard]], it
is easy to find communal environments where 40-hour
workweeks are mandated. But we can do much better than that.

*What will the nuns and monks do with the rest of their
time?*

For much of it, they will be left to their own devices. This
is meant to be an environment that will be appealing to
anyone who values living simply and close to the earth-
there are no other goals that we wish to require residents
to slave to.

---++Personal practice

(3) However, unlike an ecovillage or a primitive band, the
monks and nuns have an additional goal: developing a
personal practice. I have recently been attempting to
maintain a practice as described in the book _The Life We
Are Given_ by George Leonard and Michael Murphy. I would
like to see some daily group practice similar to what is
described in that book that would be a mandatory part of
monastic residence.

---+++Weekday schedule

An imaginary weekday schedule ofmonastery might be as
follows:

5am rise

5-6am personal exercise (for me a run or swim, if possible)

6-7am Integral Transformative Practice Kata (mandatory
group)

7-8am personal exercise (for me weights)

8-9am breakfast / break

9-11 or 9-1 bread labor

11 or 1 on: unstructured time.

---+++Exercise / healthcare

In addition to the group practice, monastery residence
should have additional exercises of their own including some
amount of resistance exercise. (weights)

The monastery will most likely be providing for the
healthcare of its residents, and as part of the deal, and
because residents may remain at the monastery until they
die, a fair amount of intense exercise should be required.
For both older women and older men weight training is one of
the most beneficial exercises for prolonging quality of life
(in addition to practices like yoga).

---+++Diet:

I personally aspire to be a raw food vegan. But I also
aspire to maintain a decent level of exercise, and some
amount of animal protein seems to help. Since it seems
likely that others interested in this kind of monastery will
also be vegan or aspiring vegan, I may be able to have other
vigorously exercising vegans to learn from. If animals are
eaten, ideally they should be raised on the monastery land.

---+++Weekly aspects of the practice

In the manner of Yoism, there will be a weekly gathering,
most likely also serving as outreach to the larger community
around the monastery. My preference is for this gathering to
be Friday night (similar to Jewish Shabbat). Unstructured
time is very important to the process of deciding and acting
on what is best for one's self- which I also call
"unschooling the self"--giving one's self time and seeing
what one does with it. And the weekend should remain 48
hours of such unstructured time. While I expect that I and
many other monastery members will maintain our weekday
schedule on the weekends, that is our choice, and not a
mandatory part of monastery life. I realize this division of
the week and all aspects of scheduling are arbitrary and
welcome alternative suggestions. What I've written here is
what I know will work for me-- so at least one person will
like it!


---+++Annual observances

We are a growing movement. By default, I tend to behave like
the Quaker approach of "every day is holy, ay is holier than
another" but if we were to have festivals, I imagine we
could look to the pagan community for some earth-based
approaches.

---+A note on community.

I wish to keep the mandatory meetings and meals where
attendance is required to a minimum. Beyond the weekday
group practice and morning meal & friday night gathering, I
would hope that individual freedom on the monastery would
not be constrained any more. Doing so would get in the way
of one of the basic goals of the monastery: to allow the
individuals to devote themselves to the work/play that they
choose.

I would hope that administrative meetings and meetings like
the Quaker meetings for business can be kept to a minimum or
arranged in such a way as to disrupt the lives of those they
matter to as little as possible.

---++Our place in the group of all things

There is one communal duty of the monastery related to the
second tenet that does need to be maintained, and that will
have at least some role in the Friday gatherings, if not
other aspects of monastery life as well. This also relates
to the "planetary villager" concept (
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC01/Gilman1.htm ).

In keeping up Derrick Jensen's example, at least some people
at the monastery need to stay tuned in to what's happening
in the outside world, good and bad, related to the group of
all things. On one hand this can be seen as simple
self-interest- as some of these events could affect the
monastery. More accurately, it can be seen as an aspect of
the monastery members' practice of developing a global
consciousness. Individuals will be left to decide whether to
act on the awareness, but a maintenance of the communication
and research necessary to create this awareness is a mandate
of the monastery community.

---++Other issues.

*This is a monastery. Surely there must be more
regulations!*

There are many other issues that will need addressing:

Where will the monastery be located?

How will the monastery buy its land and pay taxes /
insurance / self insure / fund
good works?

Will members be allowed private property?

How do people join or leave?

What about sex?

What about amplified sound & other questions related to
technology use?

What if someone practice the violin or start a monastery
school with lots of kids running around?

What about disabled or ill members?

What about growing old and dying?

I believe those issues will be manageable if the basic
vision above appeals to enough motivated persons.

---+How?

*Alright, so you've defined some possible characteristics of
the monastic life, how are you going to make it happen?*

On some level, this is already happening. The monastery is
at 2241 Casemont Drive in Falls Church, VA. My schedule
approximates the one above- but without the Friday
gatherings, and I'm currently funding food and health
insurance from savings. However, for many reasons, I plan to
move the monastery, preferably by November. The main reason
is that it gets cold here in winter. Another reason is that
there's only room for me here.

To make this a reality I will be presenting this idea to
various audiences and asking for feedback, especially from
people who would like to make something like this, or some
variant of it, happen.

I will also be researching other similar efforts by getting
a hold of the FIC communities book and looking at existing
monastic communities, or other communities with similar
features.

It is conceivable I will find an existing community that I
could be comfortable with.

It occurs to me that if I have land and a means of providing
the kind of lifestyle I'm describing here, many will be
interested, but the more of a long shot this seems, the
fewer that will be interested.

My hope is that there are others like me who are already and
could continue to live a monastic-like life on their own,
but by my efforts in advertising this proposal, we can find
each other, and if reasonable, pool our presences and our
resources, and eventually work towards an effort on a larger
scale.

One issue that could be a problem is if one individual has
significantly more resources than others to devote to the
project. But that would also be an opportunity that could be
evaluated should it arise.

So there you have it. I am excited to see how this vision
grows and is refined and made real.

I welcome all comments, criticisms, and reactions.






-- Mainh - 09 May 2003





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