Hermit3712

Monks

Solitary's World

More Monks

Trappists

People keep writing to ask what is "my spirituality" I guess it is like the old pickup line,"What's your Sign." Actually it is a difficult question to answer.I was formed many years ago in Benedictine-Cistercian Spirituality and that is still my orientation. Yet I am also Orthodox and hesychasm is part of my path also,the cultivation of not just outer silence and solitude but,more important,INNER SILENCE,maintained by use of the Jesus Prayer.Lately the lines between East/West have become blurred.Monks are going thro a process of mixing enculturations. That is good,I think.Oriental religions have much to teach regarding psychological factors in spirituality.Sufism is far more ancient than Islam and they know a lot too. So I mix them up then try to integrate them.I will write a page on this topic in more depth soon.

LopsidedLouie

Besides the interests that monks usually have,I am a camera nut without the money to really express myself in that medium but I do best I can.I used to whitewater but getting too old and too much arthritis for that now.I love history,especially medieval European but that goes with the monastic turf.I love George Bernard Shaw,Walt Whitman,existential philosophy,esp. Kirkegaard.And I am a jazz-addict,esp the "COOL" school that I grew up listening too.

I was raised an only child and began seminary at age thirteen. The place was horrible and I am glad those minor seminaries have been mostly phased-out.My parents then decided to adopt and I have an adopted brother and sister whom I love very much but they are 6,000 miles away and I do not see them often.However,we keep in touch on our pc's.My parents have both passed on.When one is a hermit,one has many,perhaps,associates but few if any close friends.I have always been a loner anyway.I do not feel the need for close ties to friends.Loneliness is an emotion unknown to me.