unHagiography: what modern-day social innovators can learn from the life and times of St. Benedict

[ben]

Amazing Post

This is truly a brilliant post Alberto. I wanted to make a quick reply to flag two essential pieces of reading that I’m currently working through.

I too have been delving into the metaphor and seeking to understand the Rule. The more I read the more I realise that what the unMonastery is seeking to manifest is very much grounded in the emergence of monastic life, as this realisation grows it’s beginning to feel less like unMonastery and more like reMonastery. In some sense at least.

Two books that strike at the core of this thinking is Agamben’s The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life, Bembo yours is in the post. Then this http://www.strelka.com/press_en/less-is-enough/?lang=en > LESS IS ENOUGH by Pier Vittorio Aureli. Both of which are very recent and I would at some point, perhaps during the time of unMonastery in Matera like to invite both of them to speak at our new home.

[alex_fradera]

This is really great stuff

I’m really enjoying the bent of this. Andrew Taggart, another fellow traveller (Dark Mountain contributor and more) has much to say on St Benedict:

http://andrewjtaggart.com/tag/st-benedict/

Reading again, I am taken by this section:

The last motif, which also calls for phronesis, is perhaps the most vexing and least accessible in abstract terms. A robust institution can persist only if students are able to make progress, external challenges can be met, and leaders new and old can maintain their legitimacy. Simmer-Brown points out that a monastery is unlike a representative democracy or a monarchy in that legitimacy is conferred upon a new superior through some collective assent to the wisdom of whoever—regardless of age, “expertise,” or qualifications—embodies wisdom. However, since neither popularity nor lineage can grant legitimate au- thority, the transfer of power is always uneasy and potentially disastrous. Here, practitioners showed good sense, offering no pat solutions or potted guidelines; individually and collectively, they recognized the need for in situ conversations.

[jorge_couchet]

Perhaps it is useful …

http://www.openideo.com/join-the-creative-confidence-openideo-challenge/

[alex_fradera]

Buy a book? I’m ok thanks

[alberto]

Great to have you back!

[Jorge Couchet], long time no see. Welcome back

And [Alex Fradera], I don’t think we’ve met but I know who you are through mutual friends. Looking forward to more exchanges

[alex_fradera]

Ah, Alberto! Good to ‘see’ you - actually we have met, at the last edgemeeting in Brussels, where I worked on the first pass of the unMonastery content

It’s certainly come a way since!

[alberto]

Whoops, right

You are right, [Alex Fradera], of course. Nadia reminded me of your role in #LOTE2. And yes, the unMonastery is certainly picking up steam. Are you going to apply for the residencies?

[jorge_couchet]

The challenge …

Thanks! A bit busy lately

The “challenge format” is interesting and also the topic being discussed.  Open Ideo belongs to IDEO (a kind of creative agency) and the challenges are a crowdsourced way to get inspiration from people in order to atack some problems …

[alberto]

Not sure about challenges

I know about IDEO, and even know someone who works there. I am no fan of the challenges format, because they tend to be exploitative and waste a colossal amount of time if the challenger does not put skin in the game of you (as the challenged person) addressing it. The Stanford Social Innovation Review has a paper making this point forcefully and, for me convincingly.  The unMonastery does relatively well on this account, because it offers something for your time: bed, board, a social role as innovator-in-residence in a real-life community, and the company of smart and dedicated fellow unMonasterians.

[arthurd]

Great post…

Thanks for this…it is the kind of analysis/synthesis that makes me happy to be a part of Edgeryders.

[bembo_davies]

ahhh - the blessings of doing ones homework

Ben’s re-monastery is useful; I was moving towards neo monastery.

By all means let us mine the threads of Catholicism for all they are worth; in addition I’m going to take a peak at the pre-christian tradition.  After all, if palaeolithic hermits have been camped out along the Gravina, we have a lot of digging to do.

I was interrogating a friend the other day: she regularily returned home to Vietnam and usually took a stint of a week or two in the buddhist monasteries that dot the country.  In their tradition, the major administrative decision is to appoint the calmest, happiest monk to lead the kitchen work…

[toolosophy]

Snippets of Monastic Wisdom

What a great post by Alberto and an interesting discussin that followed. Gaia in her post wrote this: “The job of the unMonasterians is now to work hard and be nice to each other – not too light a request when living and working in the same space as up to ten people for up to four months.”

While visiting the Stony Point Center, a multi-faith intentional community I was given a book called “Essential Monastic Wisdom. Writings on the Contemplative Life”, written by Hugh Feiss [Order of St. Benedict]. It includes quotes on issues like Mutual Support, Work, Peace, Simplicity, Authority, Hospitality, et al. Shall it be interesting / worthwhile for the unMonasterians, I would be happy to share on a regular basis (say 2-3 times a week) an excerpt from the book. I figured this would be better than shipping the book to Matera. I will give you a small sample below.

“There’s to be acceptance to people that come from very different places (using this metaphorically as well as literaly). There is to be willingness to hear “reasonable criticisms or observations” and to learn from the example of others…In a world that builds barriers, puts up walls, keeps the other ut, and is looking for certainty, we turn to the Rule and find a man who insists on balance, mutual respect, reciprocity, openess. [Benedict]…refused to live with a clsed mind.”      Esther de Waal, A Life-giving Way

“Complaining is the acid that shrivels our own sould and the sould of the community around us as well”          Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

[alberto]

Look who’s come home!

[TOOLosophy], great to hear from you! Sure, snippets of monastic wisdom are always a good thing for the people trying to bring you the unMonastery. So what have you been up to? Got another ryde to share?

[cristiano_siri]

Great!

As unMonk at the moment in Matera i would love that you would do this! Thank you!

[ben]

That makes 2 of us

I agree with [Cristiano Siri] - the ones you’ve shared already have been quite apt!

Good to see you in these parts again [Toolosophy] when might you pay us a visit?

[toolosophy]

Tough Ryde, Good TImes

Hey guys!

Thank you all for the responses. I’m happy to do this.

1. Where do you think would be the best place to post the passages from the book so that it has enough visibilty, accessibity? Shall I keep writing in this thread, create a new one, post on the unMnastery FB page, or else?

2. The book (obviously) has many references to God. I don’t know the team’s views of faith/spritual stuff so I’ll try to have some sort of ballance in the quotes I will select. Given the fact  that unMon is a secular project, in some instances the G word can work a substitute for community/local population. After all, everthing is up for enterpretation anyways.

3. I would love to be a part of the unMon team. I have applied for the first call, but since then have realized that there are far more suitable awesome people to make a real difference on the ground. At the moment I don’t think I have the necessary skills and experience to do it. But if I can be of help from the internet in a way or another, I am glad to do it!

4. Alberto, no big ryde worth mentining, but a route I am trying to map out and ryde it! I am drafting an email to you long enught to explain what I want to do and ask for advice and short enough not to bore you.

[cristiano_siri]

Some ideas

Hi [TOOLosophy]!

For question 1 I would suggest to create a new wiki inside the unMonastery group, where you 2-3 times a week post an excerpt, editing the wiki and adding it on the bottom as the example in the end of this comment.

For question 2 I would go not modifying the original text. It will be then each one interpretation to feel what is God for her.

Thank you!

13 february excerpts

“There’s to be acceptance to people that come from very different places (using this metaphorically as well as literaly). There is to be willingness to hear “reasonable criticisms or observations” and to learn from the example of others…In a world that builds barriers, puts up walls, keeps the other ut, and is looking for certainty, we turn to the Rule and find a man who insists on balance, mutual respect, reciprocity, openess. [Benedict]…refused to live with a clsed mind.”

 Esther de Waal, A Life-giving Way

“Complaining is the acid that shrivels our own sould and the sould of the community around us as well”

Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

17 february excerpts

“There’s to be acceptance to people that come from very different places (using this metaphorically as well as literaly). There is to be willingness to hear “reasonable criticisms or observations” and to learn from the example of others…In a world that builds barriers, puts up walls, keeps the other ut, and is looking for certainty, we turn to the Rule and find a man who insists on balance, mutual respect, reciprocity, openess. [Benedict]…refused to live with a clsed mind.”

 Esther de Waal, A Life-giving Way

“Complaining is the acid that shrivels our own sould and the sould of the community around us as well”

Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

…

[bernard]

Gathering info from old threads.

Thanks @Alberto, this is a really useful thread, and will be factored into plans for a new settlement in Galway.

The link to the Rule appears broken, new link here.

A nice quote from St Benedict of Nursia… “Idleness is the enemy of the soul; and therefore the brethren ought to be employed in manual labour at certain times, at others, devout reading.”

[alex_levene]

Agree. This is a great old post, well worth a read through as we all embark on new and exciting Edgeryders projects in 2017 and beyond.

Lots of interesting ideas and parallels. Well done @Alberto for committing the time to the initial research.

[alberto]

Link fixed

Thanks @Bernard , fixed. And @Alex_Levene you are right. In the Halcyon days of the Matera unMonastery we did make solid analytical progress. Let’s all make sure we do not forget those lessons, as we move towards The Reef.