ita, I have not. But I have had dreams of being an old woman there.

It was pretty rough while I was there. Very rustic, which seems to have changed a lot in the ensuing 12 years.

During my stay, the high holy guy, who had not visited in 4 years just showed up one day. Everyone kept urging me to go to him for a blessing. For some reason, it was excruciating for me. I could watch the goings on out of the window, and really be happy for the folks who were followers, but I felt a viscerally powerful impulse to NOT participate. As a 'visitor', it was abhorrent to me to be a poseur or interloper.

I feel the same way about co-opting Native American philosophies or any other not-of-my ancestry affectations.

Still, I think I may have missed something by not being able to go with the flow in those moments at Samye Ling.

My totally uneducated sense of the nun vs. monk distinction is that it is very sect based and simply a matter of labeling. At Samye Ling, everyone was a monk and dressed in the same saffron robes. Total equality made the distinction moot.

On the Great Peace March, we had a handful of lovely monks how walked and drummed every day. When members of their sect visited, the women wore slightly different robes.

monks also priests?

Nope. Priest, monk, brother. Very different job descriptions.

My favorite classmate at Loyola was a brother from Australia, a Marist (Little Brother of Mary) who did religious development. He said he preferred being a brother because he has all the fun without all the responsibility.

Damn. I miss him. A wonderful heart, clear mind and dedicated soul.

As a 'visitor', it was abhorrent to me to be a poseur or interloper.

I feel the same way about co-opting Native American philosophies or any other not-of-my ancestry affectations.

It's perhaps because Buddhism is the closest thing I have to a philosophy, I guess, but I think I'd have done it. I'm not serious about the monastery thing right now, but I have considered taking a break to one before.

Honestly, I probably need it more now than I ever have. I certainly need something more than I ever have. Time, however, doesn't comply.

I think I could take a blessing from any religion--well, I mean, if I wanted it. If the person doing the blessing knows that I'm not a believer, that is.

Now I have to go look up knees and monks.

I agree. Any blessing is a, well, blessing. Goodness knows, I throw them out all day long...but that was a very particular time for me. I was in a lot of pain and the place itself gave me something that no person there could have.

Brief story: I was there because I had gone back to Lockerbie to do some volunteering to pay back the kindness and support I'd gotten after losing the most important person in my life on Pan Am 103. I've mentioned here before that I was supposed to be on the plane.

The town had a palpable pall over it, even 7 years later. Of course it would, but in my naive desire to give back, I didn't think. And the person who was supposed to be supporting me while I was in town ended up being someone I had to support, which pinged a lot of stuff for me...BUT, he was the one who pointed me to Samye Ling...which I'd never heard of until roughly 2 hours before I arrived there.

So it all seemed sort of meant to be.

Ooh. It's almost 6! There is a drum circle across the street in 15 minutes. To the drum cupboard!

Now I have to go look up knees and monks.

If you find anything interesting (about knees), post it here as I'm curious. Actually, I'd be curious about monks too, but my interest threshold might be a little higher....

IIRC, most robot hips are built so that the legs and knee joints are completely vertical, instead of slightly angled the way human (especially female) legs & knees are, which eliminates a lot of the joint stress issues we have.

I would give massive amounts of money right now to have robotic leg joints. Swelling + extra weight + soft useless pelvic ligaments = OW. When I become a deity capable of designing intelligent life, it's gonna lay eggs. I am so over internal gestation.

Buddhist monks always make me want to be one, and I've had the same experience in an Episcopal monestary -- it's that deeply peaceful feeling. It's like relaxing to my soul.

On the priest/brother/monk thing, I think we tend to call the Christian religious-ordered people all monks and nuns, when really those should be the term for cloistered people, not out in the world. Those are sisters and brothers. I've heard people use the term "women religious," but I think that was referring to sisters. If I've got it all right.

Even British people sometimes find British accents difficult to understand so use Close Captioning - and included directions on how to get your close captioning to work.

That's really funny.

I wish I trusted the weather enough to put my air conditioner in my bedroom, but if I do that, I can never leave the window open again.

women religious

Right. At Loyola, they used 'avowed religious' to cover anyone how had taken specific vows.

I cracked up when another classmate described why he'd become a Jesuit, rather than some other order. "We have all the money and the best clothes...oh, and there is that education thing too."

He was always impeccably dressed...in an academic setting.

Oh, and no, I don't think cloistering dictates the job title. Many, many nuns in my program lived independently...apart from a mother house. Though, I'm not sure about monks.

My cousin's ex's father founded a major buddhist center in...St.Paul? I think it was St.Paul, not Minneapolis. Oh! He's on wikipedia! [link]

Wikipedia tells me that among Catholics, at least, the nun/sister thing I was saying is right: [link] I realize Wikipedia is not infallible, but it sure is convenient.