
How to Think Like a Medieval Monk (2017) - diodorus
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/how-think-medieval-monk
======
cicero
I work with about a dozen Cistercian monks at a school run by Our Lady of
Dallas Cistercian Abbey[1]. I started here 10 years ago after working 22 years
as a software developer, and it's been the best job I've ever had. I manage
the IT and I teach computer science and theology.

The things discussed in this article are still a part of the modern Cistercian
life. In fact, the crests for the abbey and school feature the word "mors",
which is Latin for death. However, there is much more to their lives than
these meditations, especially since the monks of this community work as
educators either at our prep school or at the University of Dallas.

[1] [http://www.cistercian.org/](http://www.cistercian.org/)

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jdtang13
I wish that meditative practices like this were more common in modern-day
Western Christianity! You can still see a lot of this type of contemplation in
Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, but not so much in Western
Catholicism.

Also, I disagree with the writer that practices like this tend to "distance"
yourself from death. I think that ascetics (Christian or not) are extremely,
extremely aware of death in a way that average people are not. And I think
that to these people, it's not some "immortality standard" which is just a
checklist of rules, but a complete and all-consuming lifestyle that gravitates
towards a single principle.

~~~
djtriptych
Prayer is similar in many ways.

Even the poses associated with prayer, hands pressed in front of the heart
center, are quite common in physical meditative practices.

There are codified names in yoga for all of the poses in the islamic prayer
ritual as well (tadasana (mountain pose) and balasana (child's pose)).

These are particular orientations of the body known to the ancients to align
the mind towards meditation. It's not an accident. Nor is the fasting
requirements common to various traditions, which are meant to quiet the gut,
and thereby the mind, making meditation much easier.

Even group singing/chanting can be considered meditative. Many monk traditions
of course incorporate this as a formal meditation.

So it's not too far off. Modern life obscures the original intent of course,
but the meditative elements are there for any adherents.

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astine
It always amuses me to see articles which talk of monasticism as something of
the distant past. These traditions are alive and well. Also, a lot of these
features exist not just in monastic practice but also in the practice of lay
Christians of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

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paganel
Related to the Cistercians, there was a map posted on Reddit not so long ago
detailing their expansion in Europe during the middle ages:
[https://i.redd.it/bwirmwctdf501.jpg](https://i.redd.it/bwirmwctdf501.jpg) .
The /r/europe discussion can be found here:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7lfx2l/cistercian_o...](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7lfx2l/cistercian_order_exapnsion_in_europe_during/)

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djtriptych
I do a lot of this stuff as a yogi. Very interesting.

A while back - maybe ten years ago - I'd do a meditation where I imagined
myself on my knees facing an executioners gun and allowing my thoughts to
visit that moment. Quite illuminating.

It's long been a part of the Japanese samurai culture as well - to meditate on
death every day.

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mncharity
> meditate on death

Years ago I read a story. As I now recall it, a mother drew a picture of her
child, each day, as they headed off to school. For she (correctly) knew, that
was the last time she would ever see them alive. The child who returned in the
afternoon, was invariably a different person than the one who had left that
morning, never to be seen again.

One hears advice like "consider that this may be your last day". But it never
has been, and for most isn't likely to be. And one-shot it-will-happen-someday
processes aren't great for iterative improvement anyway. So I like the story's
twist on this.

There will likely be someone tomorrow with your name on them. They will likely
be a person very similar to you. Though given the vicissitudes of life, they
may have different, even very different priorities than you now imagine. A
disk crash, an injury, a phone call, an opportunity - things change. You can
give forward - a good night's sleep, a new bit of insight or wisdom. And you
can weigh their wellbeing in your decisions, as you do all those whom you
variously care about. But for you, this day is it. Was it. You do not get
another. _You_ will not see another. As usual, immortality lies in the lives
you have touched, now including, some future people, who though they share
your name, really aren't you.

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greenmana
Is the 'why' explained anywhere in this?

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shoshin23
Link seems to be down.

~~~
vog
<!-- insert rant about the "challenges" of serving static(!) websites here -->

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16060256](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16060256)

~~~
shams93
Yeah although ipfs looks cool until we have a p2p based web you really need a
cdn service for static sites that take a lot of hits. I wonder if Amazon is
worried about ipfs because if that gets big there won't be a need for the S3
service.

~~~
vog
_> you really need a cdn service for static sites that take a lot of hits_

No, you don't. HN traffic isn't that large. Even a Raspberry Pie should be
sufficient (with good internet connection, though). See the above link.

You'll need a CDN for videos and maybe huge hi-res images, though.

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jtrip
TL;DR

1\. Meditate on death everyday when you wake up. Face the fact that you will
die with help of a belief system that helps calm anxieties about death. Termed
Terror Management Theory (TMT), it helps reduce existential anxieties. In the
framework of the christian afterlife of resurrection and judgement, it also
makes you more motivated to do the tasks that promise a better afterlife.

2\. Through ruminating on the suffering of others and explicitly realising
emotions of empathy repeatedly would overtime make such reactions a second
nature applied in real life.

3\. Attributing boredom (or rather distraction) to an external malevolent
force helps better combat it.

4\. Performing 'living funerals', meditating on their life as if they might
die now, before going to sleep to help gauge their life and maybe how happy
they are with the direction.

~~~
saiya-jin
Fear of dying is just so distant to me, I don't understand why people make
such a great deal out of it. That doesn't mean I have some suicidal thoughts,
in contrary I love my life. And I am an atheist/agnostic, so there is no
magical fairy tale land after this life, nor does the wheel spin one more
time. Just this time we have now, and that's it. And it's perfectly fine and
correct way of things. Only exception I would understand is fear of leaving
behind people who depend on you, especially children - but I don't have the
impression that is what fuel most of the fear.

I believe in mankind, as long as I give a bit of positive energy/actions in it
and leave things in a bit better shape that's enough. Anyway we achieve some
form of immortality via our kids, have to work hard on this topic since I
believe I can be a good parent and provide loving environment for them.

I guess it helps me being active in potentially dangerous sports and
activities (climbing, alpinism, paragliding, diving, ski touring etc) where
you are facing your built-in fear of death on very regular basis, and being
successful in it lies in great part in constantly overcoming that fear in
smart ways. Of course I take great care in doing stuff as safely as possible,
within unavoidable amount of risk. But if you are 100% safe and have really
everything under control, there is simply no adventure.

When I compare to my fiancee who is hardcore catholic and should logically
look forward to meeting her creator and master of it all, she is way more
afraid. I presume emotions > rationality even long term.

~~~
fao_
Hey. I feel that I should say that a lot of your recent comments were dead. I
read them and I couldn't see any obvious reason why. I vouched for a few and I
hope that might make the HN system reconsider, but you might want to test any
new posts in a private browser window for a while just to check that they're
actually getting posted.

I feel that I should say to people who are downvoting this comment: You're
using the downvote as a disagreement, rather than to filter the content you
would like to see on Hacker News.

Content on Hacker News should be: relevant, considered, well-written. I don't
see anything above that isn't any of those points. Just because you disagree
with something, doesn't mean you should downvote it.

~~~
cirath
I don't think they are downvoting as a disagreement in this case. The answer
seems self serving and less about fostering discussion about the information
presented so much as self-aggrandizing.

It read, to me, like "I don't see why medieval monks cared about death since I
don't." Then there was the dollop of "I am atheist/agnostic," which again
didn't seem to be usefully on topic.

That isn't to say you shouldn't discuss these things, it is an interesting
conversation to have... But look at where this comment was placed; on a
summary of the article.

The whole thing just felt like something that deserved a place on Reddit's
"IamVerySmart" subreddit rather than on Hackernews.

~~~
fao_
> It read, to me, like "I don't see why medieval monks cared about death since
> I don't."

I didn't see anything self-aggrandizing in what was written, merely someone
describing how they personally related to both the comment and the article. I
can't see a reason why it wasn't relevant since the post above it is basically
the same sort of thing, just with different conclusions.

------
efoto
TL;DR imagining yourself dying every day, meditating on it, will change your
brain in a way that will make you a better person. This technique is about one
thousand years old.

~~~
skipperr
Death contemplation can be found in the buddhist scriptures, dating as far
back as 2500 years ago. So a similar technique is in fact far older.

~~~
8bitsrule
I imagine any human or protohuman, a hundred thousand years before history,
sitting before a fire in the wilderness, contemplating death. It's 'progress'
that lets us avoid having our mortality rubbed in our faces daily.

I look at the care with which humans were once buried and recognize how far
we've removed ourselves from the essential.

