Monastic Life Quotes

[Martin] Luther was guilty of two great crimes. He struck the Pope in his crown and the monks in their bellies.

Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.

The happiest moments are when we sit down and we feel the presence of our brothers and sisters, lay and monastic, who are practicing walking and sitting mediation.

The voice that called us years ago still calls us today. Every monastic day is a new monastic beginning.

I turned into a monk when my mother went to learn Buddhism in Burma. While she learnt at the monastery, I used to roam around with a begging bowl and ask for food.

A monk is not forbidden to marry, but if he takes a wife she becomes a monk with the same powers and privileges and occupies the same social position as her husband.

On the whole, monks do not become famous - and that is a good thing - but monasteries do - and that is an excellent thing. In other words, it is the community that matters.

Two of my aunts are Catholic sisters.

... a woman who has been a nun is never anything else.

If I had remained in Lhasa, even without the Chinese occupation, I would probably have carried the ceremonial role in some orthodox way.

I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less.

Without sounding too pretentious, I feel my job is almost like becoming a monk or a nun - it's a calling.

Just as the habit does not make the monk, the sceptre does not make the king.

There's a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while.

Women were the reason I became a monk - and, ah, the reason I switched back.

I am a simple Buddhist monk - no more, no less.

So, at the age of nine, I became a monk, and from then on I was there practicing that kind of nonviolence.

Father monks, why do you fast! Why do you expect reward in heaven for that?...No, saintly monk, you try being virtuous in the world, do good to society, without shutting yourself up in a monastery at other people's expense, and without expecting a reward up aloft for it--you'll find that a bit harder.

I think I would like to be a monk. I really considered Catholicism a few years ago, but there were some things that I just couldn't reconcile.

The monastery of Christ in the Desert had its resident hermit, Brother Xavier, chosen after years of devotion and service, a monk so trusted and experienced that he qualified by Benedictine standards to be sent to the front lines in the fight against the devil.

Some of the priests from the Seminary were in the nunnery every day and night, and often several at a time.

If you want to be great in what you're doing, you really need to limit yourself, so I consider my life as the life of a monk.

Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.

I brought all the instincts of a writer with me into the monastery.

When a monk takes a vow of silence, is he still allowed to post messages on the Internet? Chances are God won't find out. Being ancient, God probably can't work computers. He holds the mouse gingerly, like it's made of fine china.