"Turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim."
Over the archway of medieval monasteries were commonly carved the wordsPax Intrantibus, "Peace to those who enter here."
These words were both a hope and a promise.
Benedict's vision of the peaceable kingdom was a real one. In a society struggling with social chaos, awash in the evils of classism, prey to foreign encroachment on all sides, and at the mercy of wave after wave of warring forces, highway piracy, and the wide-spread social disorganization and moral deterioration that came with the fall of the superpower Rome, Benedict sketched out a blueprint for world peace.
He laid a foundation for a new way of life, the ripples of which stretched far beyond the first monastery gates to every culture and continent, from one generation to another, from that era to this one, from his time and now to ours. To us.
Peace is our legacy, our mandate, our mission, as alive today as ever, more in need today -- in a nuclear world, a world of starving peoples -- than ever.
Benedictine peace, however, is not simply the absence of war. It is a lifestyle that makes war unacceptable and violence unnecessary.
It is not a lifestyle dominated by control and a plethora of rules. It is a lifestyle that foregoes violence on every level, for any reason.
Most of all, this lifestyle is a simple one. It is basic in its elements, not difficult to achieve, simple to sustain. It nurtures neither ambition nor greed.
It is straightforward in its values, without being either esoteric or convoluted. These values are clear ones: community, prayer, stewardship, equality, stability, conversion, peace -- all make for communities of love.
It is a lifestyle committed to its ideals before all else, and intent on opening its arms and taking the world into its Monastery of the Heart.
It is, then, an oasis of human peace in a striving, searing, simmering world.
Benedictine spirituality is a counterculture that calls for a rhythm of life that honors and enables, stretches and challenges, every dimension of human development.
It creates community out of a collection of strangers -- a slice of life that crosses age levels, economic backgrounds, and ethnicities -- to where differences can be honored, and differences can be broached, and peace can come to both the person and to an entire population at the same time.
Benedictine spirituality is a life that honors the earth and cultivates the planet for the sake of the all the people of the earth. It is a holy life. It passes on to the next generation a society and a globe that is in better condition than it was -- because people with a Benedictine heart have taken their responsibility to protect it for the future.
It allows no waste but provides for the needs of all. It allows no class distinctions but thrives on the exceptions that the human condition demands.
It aims for the highest standards of personal behavior and, at the same time, understands and supports those for whom growth is a struggle and the social standards of life seem always to be a work in progress.
Finally, Benedictine spirituality requires of us all the humility that allows us no room to make gods of ourselves, to impose ourselves on the rest of the universe,
to develop the hubris that leads to the oppression of others, that justifies force
as the sign of our superiority, that enthrones the arrogance in us over the holiness and wholeness of others, that smothers the awareness in a person of their small and proper place in the universe.
It is humility that makes us happy with what we have, willing to have less, kind to all, simple in our bearing, and serene within ourselves.
It teaches us that they who have themselves for God have a very small god indeed. Benedictine spirituality is a recipe for peace and a prescription for a life lived well on every level.
And now, in our Monastery of the Heart, it is ours to shape and to preserve, to share and to promote, to model and to make real in our own time.
Pax Intrantibus. Peace to those who enter here.
Lorenzo Candelaria: Praying Through Music: The History of Sacred Notation
Benedictine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Order of Saint Benedict (OSB). Index. Information about ...
"Although I am an atheist, I have a lot of respect for monks of all traditions.
It is in the monasteries of Christianity and Buddhism that some adherents of those religions
achieve higher states of human consciousness. "
I acknowledge the beauty of the vision. It inspires and moves. But as for the monasteries, I never got the "higher states of human consciousness" thing. The whole idea of the monastery is to remove one from life, and then of course one is removed from the moral stress of life; the need to maintain aliveness and contentment in the face of scarce resources and conflicting loyalties; all the things that make the world what it is. It is just creating artificially with walls and regimens the freedom from life that we all seek. Of course the individual inside the walls will be kind and non-violent and absorbed in the spiritual. But I am not convinced that the "state of human consciousness" is any different than anywhere else. Morality and spirituality are in the final analysis economic issues.
http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/culture_and_events/ottobeuren_abbey.htm
the official website http://www.abtei-ottobeuren.de/Kloster/kloster1.html mentions Yoga and meditation on its schedule
http://www.thereareplaces.com/newguidebook/pdest/germany/romanticroad/ottobeuren.htm
on the flip side of the coin of great churches, great palaces :http://www.deutschland-tourismus.de/DEU/natur_aktiv_erholung/spug_schloesser_parks_und_gaerten.htm
part of the structure of peace is beauty; modern democracy is lacking in beauty; schools are lacking in peace and pleasing architecture
moreover modern democracy, in which somehow religion is in hiding or has social services loaded unto it because taxpayers dont want to pay for them , when it builts multibillion dollars things it hides them or tries to hide them e.g. military machines and big dams which one doesnt want to see. big projects spread out to so many millions they are barely noticable on the ground , big subsidies to business rather than people and green.
my comment on religion blogs is meant to be helpfull
"peace that passes all understanding"
peace is absolute silence within. peace, like energy, needs a better appreciation by Christianity, especially catholic church
peace in action is a dynamic state, as in a charismatic. it's not a faux humility
energy is life in essence. at this most foundational level, peace "life energy" is "shivam shantam advaitam" the blissfull the peacefull the undivided
i had suggested to the churches that depiction of St Goerge on a horse with a lance and the dragon below the hooves is partly a problem
Dragon is energy, primordial energy; we need to bridal it but if we lance it then we become dull or complacent or simply intellectual or dictatorial. moreover lancing it is like wounding a animal it attacks us back
just like St Goerge has the reighn of the horse in His hands so the reighns of the dragon must be in more stressfree hands
that's the purpose of meditation practice {as distinct from and/or additional to contemplation, prayer, worship} meditation means DYANA and that is transcendental meditation (TM) tm.org
just like sleep, regular rest [and Mass for practicing catholics] TM is needed in the daily routine or flow of activity
energy, the body, is not a devil. the body if stressed and strained is a problem in the mind but it is stress or stressors, not the body/brain, which is unpeace
It is in the monasteries of Christianity and Buddhism that some adherents of those religions
achieve higher states of human consciousness.
Now about those grasping religious bureaucrats....
Most have long ago lost any vestiges of spirituality ( even if they had it to begin with).
Not so among monastics today.
The quotient of inner engagement is much higher due to the lifestyle restrictions and regular introspection. I would say as high as 10% of monastics posses spiritual legitimacy ( my own term).
Early Buddhists clearly understood that. Hence, the clear identification of Sangha.
John 15:12(AMP) - This is my commandment: that you LOVE one another, as I(Jesus) have loved you.
If we all loved one another there will be peace, because you can't harm or hurt others, if you really love them and you wouldn't allow others to suffer, when you have far more than enough.
He also brought up the questionable notion of a “church militant” where monks were expected to take up swords and engage in the worldly pursuit of power for the church as happened in the Crusades. The church itself had become a worldly power and conducted its affairs with this in mind; God and spirituality were not the foundation they were only a veneer under which lurked all the greed and corruption found in any human institution.
(more to follow, I have too many words)
I’m not saying this to be negative or to discourage people doing good in any way, I’m only pointing out what I think the Bible predicts for the future and applying it to today. Of course we should adhere to God’s requirements of kindness (mercy) justice, (honesty) and humility (our proper state of mind) because they are pleasing to God.
But unfortunately God is for individuals not nations and will never be recognized and respected by the world’s leaders because they have other than Godlike plans. That’s just the way things are; the status quo is here to stay, until that is it destroys itself in a series of events brought on by an arrogant pride.
and
The problem with the New Testament is that it was written by those with the old mindset, and they couldn't resist putting in their illusions of grandeur and their apocalyptic nihilism . The teaching if read properly is about service to others, "the last shall be first and the first shall be last". These Benedictines (who got their monastic ideals from Syrian monastic tradition) understand and practice that.
You might be interested in this article about him
http://mertonocso.wordpress.com/
Mr. KC Blair, the primary developer and advocate for compassion theory, believes that with more compassion we as individuals, and our society as a country, will be a better place to live, with more self-love, less self-hatred and less hatred for others who are different from what we are. More compassion means less violence in the world and a better world for us and our children.