Would More Monasteries Reduce the Number of Jails/Prisons? (drugs, death, revolution)

[tijlover]

I was reading in a History book, one time, the role of monasteries. If life or the world had you beaten down, you could exit the rat race, temporarily, and run off to a monastery to recharge your batteries, get a new lease on life.

There, in payment for your bed & board, you had duties to perform. And when you felt ready to rejoin the world, you'd leave!

Today, what options are there, besides suicide, escaping with drugs or going to prison/jail, when you reach that T in the road, and you've had enough, stressed out to the max, need a rechargeable vacation from the world?

I view many in our prisons/jail today as having acted on subconscious desires, although, like the Great Depression, people would consciously go out and deliberately get caught doing something to have a roof over their heads.

So do you think if we had a preponderance of monasteries today, like during the middle ages, any number of people would use them for that reason as, say, battery chargers?

[stepka]

Originally Posted by tijlover

I was reading in a History book, one time, the role of monasteries. If life or the world had you beaten down, you could exit the rat race, temporarily, and run off to a monastery to recharge your batteries, get a new lease on life.

There, in payment for your bed & board, you had duties to perform. And when you felt ready to rejoin the world, you'd leave!

Today, what options are there, besides suicide, escaping with drugs or going to prison/jail, when you reach that T in the road, and you've had enough, stressed out to the max, need a rechargeable vacation from the world?

I view many in our prisons/jail today as having acted on subconscious desires, although, like the Great Depression, people would consciously go out and deliberately get caught doing something to have a roof over their heads.

So do you think if we had a preponderance of monasteries today, like during the middle ages, any number of people would use them for that reason as, say, battery chargers?

I think that's what spas and farm stays and yoga retreats are for these days but they're very expensive. But then I'm not sure a monastery stay would have been any cheaper, comparatively.

I have thought of the prison problem quite a lot myself, but I'm not so much sure that it's a dearth in monasteries as much as it is the fact that society is so much in upheaval. I sort of compare it to England back in the early industrial revolution when people were getting thrown off the land and had to move to the cities and compete for very low paying jobs and they committed a lot of crimes due to the upheaval so England finally began shipping them off to Australia. We sort of have similar problems now only I think it's more due to changing times and the fact that many jobs that people used to do can be more easily and cheaply done by machines--like digging ditches and unloading containers off ships. There's a sort of hopeless feeling in the air that is palpable almost and drugs of course play into it. And meanwhile they distract the rest of us with celebrity gossip so we won't rise up and insist that something be done.

[Chango]

I think it is a problem with modern day society... there really is no "escape valve" anymore. It used to be you could always "go West", immigrate to a new country, join a monastery or whatever and start a new life if things go bad; now there is only jail and welfare.

Of course that is nothing new in human civilization; an ancient Egyptian farmer, Roman slave or midevil serf who was dysfunctional or dissatisfied with his/her life only had death as an alternative to their lives.

[Basiliximab]

Originally Posted by tijlover

So do you think if we had a preponderance of monasteries today, like during the middle ages, any number of people would use them for that reason as, say, battery chargers?

Well I certainly would (or I would like to think I would--you can never say exactly what you would do unless the situation actually presents itself). The aggrandized consumption of society disgusts me, and I am currently trying to live a monastic lifestyle in my attempt to not be caught up in materialism.

A retreat to a monastary would certainly be attractive to me; I spend much of my day already in reading and meditation. Gardening is an appealing idea to me, and I've had some successful ones in the past back east (none here in the desert yet, though I like to think working full-time is part of what is preventing an attempt; that and lack of an abundance of funds).

Actually, I do not see how this would be infeasible for a group of people to live in such a way. I may look into this later as year by year I am growing more dis-satisfied with what materialism can offer me.

[nightbird47]

Make somewhere available where one can live very cheaply, doing what they can, not to remain forever but to discharge. Have peaceful places they can go and perhaps talk to others who are discharging. Just provide a whole new place that can shake up the expectations. Have 'faiths' around for those who want it, any and all, but if sitting in the sun and enjoying nature on a sunny day is enough, no pressure. Don't want to leave? Let those who find peace and want to stay run the place. A retreat, but one without an agenda.

Sometimes *just* getting away can clarify what has become misery and give a new look at what can be done to fix it.

Maybe like a monestary but without the religious overtones.