HISTORY OF IDEAS - Monasticism 

I'm using this.. as a distraction from productive work.

I've sometimes thought that marriage isn't for everybody just as monasticism is also not for everybody. It's good to be reminded that there are alternative ways to live.

For a long time I had half-joked with friends, "if only there were some kind of secular monastic environment I could go live in..." Then one day I wandered into a Zen Buddhist Monastery. Three years later I came back out, having entered a boy and exited a man. I recommend it.

I am honestly thinking of founding a monastery

Brilliant! Thank you, your contribution is immeasurable to many minds and hearts, here and now. Just right and just in time. Love your unbiased and scholarly attitude about the information you present, and your wisdom is beautifully represented by your excellent delivery, both visual and oral. Brilliant, and thank you again!

So when is The School of Life monastery due to open?

I only seem to take issue with School Of Life Video's because they never seem to have anything good to say about a traditional marriage. Sure my marriage isn't easy, but I actually became more productive and happier with my wife and children in my life, then when I didn't have them in my life. Perhaps communes are an alternative but not for everyone. For me, it's my wife and children that make me truly happy. That or I would of been a hermit.

Communal living is wonderful. I have much experience with it. What is not covered in this lecture, though, are the common problems that pop up. Often the main problem for focused living communities, even religious ones, is that of basic selfishness amongst the community members. Someone in the community decides that they want something their way, others disagree; or the recognized community leader dies and suddenly everyone's arguing about who takes their place; or some in the community chastise others for not living up to the communal ethical ideals even though the chastisers are equally at fault; etc, etc. It all sounds very basic, but you'd be surprised at how often these silly matters end up pulling communities apart. For instance, in those hippie communes with loose sex norms, imagine if your spouse starts sleeping with everyone in the commune -- jealousy brews, arguments, fights -- people start to realize why faithfulness in marriage is practical and not just a social construct. Many effective communities structure themselves around general silence and/or filling up one's daily life with so much prayer (or chores or study) that no one has the time or reason to complain about each other. Those who stick with it long enough know that petty human squabbles are predictable and fickle. The community will last if there are recognized rules to which everyone (including leaders) are held accountable, and there is one recognized leader who is only chosen if they are found to be the best at living by the community rules and is willing to be responsible for managerial tasks. This leader has the FINAL say on community decisions -- yet will NEVER make a decision that affects the life of the community without consulting everyone in a meeting, taking the input of even the most junior members. Those who want to join the community may be permitted to join for a short time, and if they find they truly love the lifestyle and live well by the rules, then they may eventually join in the long term -- this makes it so the community will not be broken up by accepting the wrong people. Everything I'm saying here essentially comes from the Rule of St. Benedict. He knew what he was doing, especially after his first group of monastics tried to poison him because they despised his rigorous discipline, even though they were the ones who asked him to lead their community. Taking from the Rule of St. Benedict has yielded a steady success rate amongst emerging religious communities, as on the base level it does not seek to push anyone into spiritual heroism -- it just outlines how to live a life focused on God with other people, and in a way that BALANCES work, prayer, and study.

I never thought that a monk would keep me sane but I find listening to the western Australian cockney East London former Cambridge Physics graduate - with an amazing sense of humor - Ajahn Brahm, an almost essential youtube experience. Great to play in the background almost every night as a I drift off to sleep. Monasticism really does have a lot to teach us ie learning to let go.

Confucius had some interesting ideas about ceremony that goes hand-in-hand with Benedict's "The Rule", that I think is worth pointing out. He believed that ceremony and rules voluntarily submitted to takes away the pressure and stress of not knowing what to do in a situation, and gives us a sense of being a constructive part of something, even when we are simply sitting silently. I feel like there's some truth to this idea especially on the small scale of ceremonies, periods of silence, and chores that you personally see a community benefit from.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANNEL on RU-vid! It needs to be shared! Please, keep producing content! ❤️❤️❤️

Great video. I believe communal living is why so many people enjoy University so much and it's the best time of their life, at least in your 2nd-4th years. In the first year you live in halls, which is certainly communal living, but with a group of people you don't know and didn't choose. Most students still love this experience and thrive, but quite a few like myself hated it as they felt disconnected with the people they were put with. However in the 2nd and 3rd year nearly all students live in a communal 'student house', with the friends that they made in the first year and this is where people have a great time and make friends for life. After university ends for some reason we all expect to move in with a partner, move back home, or just live alone and find a job to support us and many have a lot less enjoyable of a life. Some people continue to live with the people they lived with in at University, and continue to reap the benefits of communal living but for some reason this isn't considered the ordinary thing to do and you're expected to find a significant other and live with them and solely them. Even if you have a significant other that is by no means a bad thing, my sister for example lives with her boyfriend, another couple and someone single and are still enjoying communal living. I think one flaw of your video is to make communal living seem more removed from an ordinary modern life than it has to be, from your examples. You don't have to be a monk and you don't have to be a hippy, but you can be an ordinary person with an ordinary modern job who happens to live in a house with 5 friends.

You left out, Alan, Irish Moncks. They contributed literature poetry and Christianity. They travelled the world bringing with them, beautiful colourful books, especially to the Vatican.

LOL the Tracey Emin bed at @8:00 was an especially nice touch. Another AMAZING video, love this channel! Thank you, Best regards, TGV

Communal life can work out for many people who find it difficult functioning in the normal daily life society has in place for us.. but to be frank the reason why living with one person in a monogamous relationship fails isn't because of the structure of relationship itself but because of people who simply don't know what they want and take advantage of the situation of being in a relationship selfishly. Good video explaining the different options one can choose to live their life. The only let down is that it doesn't really matter what type of lifestyle you live.. when it comes to living with other people expect for toxic group think to settle in and make it counter productive for individual people who want to think outside the box of everyone else in the group for a change. Groups tend to get hostile and will banish and excommunicate a person the moment difference is introduced to the group. I wish the video added on to that.

Great video once again, School of Life! Looking through your online shop I saw your very nice "philosopher's jumper" and reading into it I found there's really a lot to be discussed regarding something as seemingly simple as clothing, a part of life that most people don't give much thought. I think a video on the clothing one wears would be really interesting.

school of life is just the most fantastic channel! !! love love love it ! Thanks for the brilliant vids

This is an interesting video as always. Sometimes I feel that this way of life could be the best option for me, and its history is so rich and lovely.

Fantastic. beautiful places too. Interesting linkages of ideas, ty

This video resonated so much with all that I appreciated about living on campus during my university years

could you maybe do an art serie about famous paintings which you could analyse.

I AM loving today. Just imagining living in such a place. Namaste

I am already working towards such a life. Good to see a vid that encourages me even more. Many people deride choices like this as hippy dippy. I try to keep my lip zipped when they do.

Excellent work, as always.

@1:26 Voice Over Artist: Its the world's first proper commune based around philosophy in 300 BC. Buddha in 500 BC: Hold My Beer

I have great respect for the Sister Groups here in the Philippines Very Disciplined and Very Useful

Your films are all excellent, thank you

I can't help but imagine Carmen Miranda shaking her maracas at the start of your videos ;-)

Great presentation! I believe monasticism and communal living has a bright future in a whole new level, much different than the individualistic or modern small family life of our times.

Its amazing how much this channel has influenced my world view

Rebranding this way of living as 'intentional communities' seems to be reviving the project, at least here in the US. I find it very compelling actually.

I love this channel so much.

I love your stuff - if I could make a suggestion - Hyon Gak Sunim is worthy of studying - especially his videos on the diamond sutra.

The speaker in this video reminds me so much of the guy that plays Sebastian on Shakespear & Hathaway; my favorite character on the series.

the production values have shot up in this video, well done creatives, well done

Great stuff. I’m having ideas about monastic rules

This was a very interesting video, it is things ami have thought about but haven't had word to explain, I am doing the Swedish military service for the moment and I can see a lot of parallels between military life and monasticism, you should have made some connection there as well. Great video anyways :)

You completely forget to mention the eastern Orthodox monastic communities where saint Benedict became a monk and got the Tipikon(the rule)

Could you do a video about the 'Hellenism' epoch and the cultural exchange following it? Most educating youtube channel by the way! Keep up the great work!

'damaged by allied bombing' that's a bit of an understatement, it's was all but leveled to the ground

Very intriguing! I didn't even think about hippie communes as a type of monasticism. Great video, School of Life.

Rooting Christian monasticism in Epicureanism is beyond a little weird. In the Judeochristian tradition Epicureanism is a metaphor for worldliness & materialism. Actually, Christian monasticism, like most of the best bits of Christianity, are rooted in the mother religion of Judaism. It appears the ancient prophets founded communal groups, they gathered followers who preserved the teachings of the prophets. There followers being called the "sons of the prophets." In Alexandria Egypt there was a Jewish group called Theraputai who lived a kind of celibate commune. Then there were the Essenes who apparently created the Dead Sea Scrolls. From the beginning Christianity had what were called the desert fathers & mothers living as hermits.

I think the best way to use knowledge about the past is to learn from it and adapt it, not to go backwards. What I'm getting out of this video is that as with everything in life, the best approach is 'everything in moderation.' If you choose to build a family, you should remember to balance your priorities and treat yourself well by maintaining friendships, hobbies, interest groups, intellectual pursuits, involvement in community associations, etc. instead of isolating yourself with your significant other and kids and driving each other crazy. Monastic life in its own way is isolating and may lead to the same type of scenario as the suburban nuclear family unit situation.

Very clear and educational nice

Can you please post the script to the video in text form?

Awesome video

What a nice voice. Kudos.

Is setting up a secular monastery, Alain's true mission?

How can this channel be so good....?

wonderful video. I'm some what of a hermit so it might strike some as a surprise I've considered this type of life a nice sounding one. would just have to find like minded people and do it. ahh the possibilitys.

I really wish there was something like this that was common. Just a place to go every once in awhile, maybe on vacation or to work on a large project for work, where it would be like a monastery. A quiet, secluded place in the middle of nature where anyone was welcome, and the day was regimented for tons of free time and restricted personal time so you could work on what you needed to without being stressed or distracted. Like, "Where's Johnny been these last few days?" "Oh, he's up at the monastery working on the plans for the new housing development over near 11th and Spring"

It's interesting to think of coworking spaces and technology accelerators as pseudo-communes. The members don't (usually) sleep under the same roof, but there are shared values and ambitions like entrepreneurship, design thinking and experimentation. :) Rereading consolations of philosophy today and loved imagining life in Epicurus' "Garden"

i ask you to put subtitles. I know people who have problems to hear and they cant understand well the video just as people who are learning english and cant understand the video completely. Thanks!

I plan on being a bhikkhu in the Thai forest tradition of theravada buddhism. thank you making this video.

I feel that associating with people of different ideas and breaking barriers by finding common ground is more effective

I don't know whether the same, small movement exists in the UK, but there is a movement in the US called Intentional Communities. I sometimes fantasize about starting an intentional community (perhaps as a co-housing setup rather than a commune) of people dedicated to the study of philosophy and/or the humanities.

OK, I'm giving this video a thumbs-up, despite its many inaccuracies. Please refer to my other comments.

I'm ready to give it a try.

Would love to see a video about Sidney Morgenbesser!

I can definitely see the link with the university style of living. During my first year of university I was living in a halls of residence that contained 33 people per flat (sharing a Kitchen and common room) with 4 floors that all residents could access. We had 2 meals provided per day at set times. Some people thought this arrangement was crazy and hated the idea but in retrospect that was one of the happiest years of my life and most who lived there would agree. While not everyone got along together, the shear number of people meant that there was always someone around to talk to, watch a film, or play table tennis with. I really miss those times and think that this style of living could be used more widely then just a temporary housing arrangement for students (as this video shows).

Should be doing work but instead watching a school of life video about how easily we can be distracted. The irony!

I do 100% agree. I visited a Krishna Ashram this summer and it was amazing how easy life there is. Although they have some Rules that are not really justified, I very much believe that living in like a Commune is a huge benefit to life. :)

AWESOME!

I've always been fascinated by epicurean communities.

I think this video starts from the premise that finding a partner necessarily means finding someone who is not compatible with you and thus will drag your personal development. A life with a specific individual whom you feel free to exchange ideas, share values and grow with might be more interesting than with several others. This, of course, depending on each persons' dynamics.

I love school of life because as a teenager just starting to consider what I will do in my life, what is important, the meaning of existence and humans as animals, it offers so many good points. If I were ever to establish a monastic group, I would most certainly like to be part of one such as the fellows of Cambridge. The most liberating and rewarding thing to do is to discuss ideas and beliefs with someone else equally as interested in the topic as you are, and I find that extremely rare in the general population. Indeed, I attend a prestigious school, and within it I find it hard to be successful searching for individuals with a passion for music, philosophy or physics.

Any chance you have or are planning a video on "Polyamory"? Also your videos are very inspiring and once I find a decent job, I'll start buying some of your stuff to show my support. You've really helped me understand myself, my relationships, and my life. Thank You!

I am doing academic work that requires my undivided attention. Living with a spouse and children is not conceivable at this stage of my life. As a result, I am left with living a solitary life at home. Or so I thought. How great would it be to reinvent monasticism in a modern setting? I am very intrigued by this idea. Thank you School of Life.

i think this is more relevant today, than ever before

This sounds like a perfect solution to one of my biggest problems, I have never felt the desire to be with someone. I have fallen in love and I do enjoy being with friends once in a while. but the biggest concern in me is not becoming the person I've dreamt of ever since I have memory, a good musician and painter.

I love this curriculum!! What kind of school or major can one enroll in to study all this in more detail?

Growing up with my grandparents, I learned that keeping the place clean was valuable. While I'm not disagreeing, I'll say it definitely cuts in to my productivity.

I've dove into Buddhism the last week and this video pops up. Funny.

This makes me think very much of the experience of university halls. The drawback of these is that most people, even within the university educated, don't live in these for longer than the first few months of their degree. But even with this immense restriction people still very frequently look back on this time as one of the most stimulating, formative and happy of their lives. This is probably the closest thing to monastic living that large numbers of people still engage in in the west.

The voice over is beautiful :)

An Art/Architecture on Picasso would be great. Marvellous video btw!

Explain the very well I liked it

Anyone else think it would be a dream come true to live in a academic monastery. Specifically I'd like to live in common contact with musicians, live with philosophers (ideally that like to admit when they are wrong because they realize that with that specific circumstance they never have to be wrong again) , and in common contact with scientists. I think if done correctly it could very well increase academic progress. Anyone wish to explore this thought further with me.

Can you make a video on solitude? It would couple well with this video.

What is the name of the monastery behind Benedict at 3:42? It seems to be a digital "painting" made from a photograph

you guys should have a video about the religion and cultures of national natives around the world.

please do a video on olympe de gouges!!! :))

you talked about Hippies, you could have also talked about Hare Krishna Movement which brought Monastic life in modern perspective

An Epicurean commune sounds like paradise

I'm thinking of how to go about making a commune or a "monastery" for philosophy, science and technology. Do i have no choice but to stick to the rigidities of a university?

This isn't necessarily about monasticism but really more about communal living. Where's the desert fathers?

learning is my therapy

Hmm, what about Artist's Colonies?

I really like the ideas of epicurus you presented here, if you were to implement this kind of communities again I wonder if they would be successfull or if they would simply be rejected by the ignorant majority, I for my part would really like to live in one just for some time to experience how it feels and maybe for a longer period of time if it is like I imagine it would be ^^

Can you do a video on how or what children should be taught in school?

The 2011 Documentary called Happy has a segment on Monastic living somewhere in north Europe, can't really recall exactly where. It's a very good documentary on the whole. If you like these sort of videos then you will probably find it quite insightful. Check it out, it's on Netflix.

With regards to the monastery in Bhutan, the fact that it is a very isolated community seems atypical compared to most of the Buddhist monasteries I have seen. Buddhists are expected to practice dharna, that is to provide for the monastic community in some way, so the monks do alms rounds. This is really key to monastic life and is intended to keep monastics involved in their community as spiritual guiders rather than isolating themselves. Great video though

in Israel, it's actually very common to take a year after school before the mandatory military service and live in a mehina - a commune where you learn humanistics & judaism, work out and volunteer, not unlike a sort of secular monastry.

i have always considered being in a monastic community and i am almost certain i will do it

Am surprised you didnt mention St Anthony of Egypt.

You forgot to mention the early proto monasticism of the desert fathers and mothers. The early desert dwellers preceeded Benedict and no doubt influenced him as much if not more so than Epicurus.

How would you describe Kibutz? Where people live both communally and with family ties?

It's interesting how you jumped over any mention of monastic life in the Christian Orthodox Church even though first christian monks appeared in Egypt(eastern part of the Roman empire) after 313 AD as a consequence of Christianity becoming familiar with the masses. Rules couldn't be strict anymore as they were before so those who wanted to keep the old ways of Christianity moved to secluded places.

So how do families and couples live like in those communes? And supposedly if it is an option, how do we handle our growth if everyone starts founding a family within the commune? And how big can a commune get before it becomes unmanageable? I have so many questions yet i get no answers when i look for them. This was a thing for me weeks ago but i got frustrated on how little i could find. I couldn't even find some basic information about what makes a great, well functioning commune. Please help, Mr. Botton I'd be so infinitely grateful if you could just point me to a good source of information.

I've often wished I had the option of a commune. It seems even more relevant now given the scarcity of housing and the prevalence of loneliness.