02 Dec The Definition of Monk
Madhvaacharya (Madhvacharya), the Dwaita philosopher, founded ashta matha (Eight Monasteries). He appointed a monk (locally called Swamiji or Swamigalu) for each matha or monastery who has the right to worship Madhvacharyas Murti by Lord Krishna on a rotational basis. Every Swamiji every Matha has the chance to pray after fourteen years. This ritual is called Paryaya and has also been used apart from his Sampradaya, for example in the Gaudiya Vaisnava Radharamana temple in Vrindavan. Other deprivations include meditation while sitting or standing near the banks of rivers in the cold wind, or meditation on hills and mountains, especially at noon when the sun is at its fiercest. Such privations are undertaken according to the physical and spiritual limits of the individual ascetic. Jain ascetics are (almost) completely propertyless. Some Jains (Shvetambara monks and nuns) have only unsewn white robes (an upper and lower robe) and a bowl used to eat and collect alms. Male Digambara monks wear no clothes and wear nothing but a soft broom made of discarded peacock feathers (pinchi) and eat with their hands. They sleep on the floor without blankets and sit on special wooden platforms.
As they are without possessions or ties, they travel from city to city, often crossing forests and deserts and always barefoot. Jain ascetics do not stay in one place for more than two months to prevent them from engaging in any place. However, for four months of monsoon (rainy season), known as Chaturmaas, they continue to stay in one place to avoid killing the life forms that thrive during the rains. Jain monks and nuns practice complete celibacy. You do not touch or share a seating platform with a person of the opposite sex. Most communities are autonomous and the daily life of the monk is usually divided into three parts: a) community worship in the Catholicon (the main church of the monastery); (b) heavy physical labour; and (c) private prayer, spiritual study, and rest when needed. Meals are usually taken in a large dining room known as a trapeze (refectory) on elongated refectory tables. Food is usually simple and eaten in silence while one of the brothers reads the spiritual writings of the Holy Fathers.
The monastic way of life requires a lot of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks correspond to a common way of life based on the traditions of the respective monastery. In the struggle for this conformity, the monk recognizes his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father on how to treat them honestly. For the same reason, bishops are almost always chosen from the ranks of monks. One day, he took a monk with a clean-shaven head and made him walk around a blister to demonstrate this theory. The religious vows pronounced in the West were first developed by St. Benedict. These vows were threefold: obedience, conversion of life and stability. Obedience requires the monk to obey Christ, represented by the superior person of the monastery, who is abbot or prior.
Conversion of life usually means that the monk converts to the path of a monk, which is death to himself and the world and life to God and His work. A Christian monk must be an instrument of God`s work. Stability means that the monk is committed to the monastery for the rest of his life and is therefore buried in his cemetery after his death. The vow of stability is unique to the Benedictines. In Eastern Orthodoxy, monasticism occupies a very special and important place: “Angels are a light for monks, monks are a light for the laity” (Johannes Klimakos). Eastern Orthodox monks separate themselves from the world to pray unceasingly for the world. They are usually not primarily concerned with providing social services, but rather with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, caring for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, so that not all monasteries are “isolated”. The degree of contact varies from one municipality to another.
Hermits, on the other hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. He was one of the living symbols of the “white ribbon revolution” of 2012, always dressed in black, thin, shaved, almost monk. You don`t have to be a monk to practice Buddhist ethics, but you do have to practice self-cultivation and compassion in daily life. The Svetambar Terapanthi sect has a new rank of young monks called Samana. Nuns are called Aryika in the Digambar tradition and Sadhvi in the Svetambar tradition. The Austrian restaurant was first noticed by the scholar and monk Albuin, who was a fervent disciple of Charlemagne. The process of becoming a monk is intentionally slow, as vows taken imply a lifelong commitment to God and should not be taken lightly. In Eastern Orthodox monasticism, there are three ranks of monasticism after the completion of the novitiate. There is only one monastic habit in the Eastern Orthodox Church (with some slight regional differences), and the same is true for monks and nuns. Each subsequent degree receives a part of the garment, with the full hood worn only by those of the highest level, which for this reason is known as the “Great Scheme” or “Great Habit”. In general, Eastern Orthodox monks have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families.
The goal of monastic life is union with God, the way is to leave the world (i.e. the life of passions). After the tonsure, Eastern Orthodox monks and nuns are never allowed to cut their hair. The hair of the head and beard remain uncut as a symbol of the vows they made, reminiscent of the Nazarite Old Testament. The tonsure of the monks is the sign of a consecrated life and symbolizes the cutting of their own will. Although the term Monachos is of Christian origin, monk is also used in the English language for male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, as it is generic, it is not interchangeable with terms that refer to certain types of monks, such as cenobites, hermits, anchorites, hesychasts or solitaries. However, there are still several thousand Anglican monks working in about 200 parishes around the world today.
The most surprising growth was recorded in the Melanesian countries of Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The Melanesian Brotherhood, founded in 1925 in Tabalia, Guadalcanal, by Ini Kapuria, is today the largest Anglican community in the world with more than 450 brothers in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. Stavrophore (Church Slavic: Krestonosets), lit. “Cross bearer” – The next step for Eastern monks takes place a few years after the first tonsure, when the abbot feels that the monk has reached an appropriate level of discipline, devotion and humility. This degree is also known as the Small Scheme and is considered a “commitment” to the Grand Scheme. At this point, the monk makes formal vows of stability, chastity, obedience, and poverty. Then he is tonsured and dressed in the habit which, in addition to that of the raspphore, includes the paramandyas (church Slavonic: paraman), a square piece of cloth worn on the back, embroidered with the instruments of the Passion (see photo above) and connected by ties to a wooden cross worn on the heart.