Christine Valters Paintner is an artmonk
[part of the “__ is an artmonk” series] One of the Art Monastery’s spiritual teachers, Dr. Joel Levey, just forwarded me a link to the Abbey of the Arts, the “virtual monastery” of Christine Valters Paintner OblSB, PhD, REACE. What I read on Paintner’s site resonates with so many of the conversations we have been having at the Art […]
Monastics, Dependent Origination & Climate Crisis
[Part of the Daily Lectio series, named after the Benedictine tradition of lectio divina, “divine reading.” For instructions and background on the series, click here. Subscribe to Daily Lectio. Send comments or suggested readings to nathan@artmonastery.org] Take your pick:
Michael Kenna is an artmonk and a gentleman
[part of the “__ is an artmonk” series] I’ve been following Michael Kenna‘s photography for a few years now, and I’m pleased to announce that, with Kenna’s permission, I’ll be using some of his photos for the banner of this blog. Watch a short film on Kenna’s work. Often I make long time exposures so that […]
The Cloud of Unknowing, “in whiche a soule is onyd with god”
Partially in order to a brush up on my middle english (rusty since reading Chaucer in college), I’ll be working through text of the medieval Cloud of Unknowing, one of the sources of the practice of Centering Prayer. I’ll let you know what I find. HERE BYGYNNITH A BOOK OF CONTEMPLACYON, THE WHICHE IS CLEPYD THE […]
Leonard Cohen is an artmonk
[part of the “__ is an artmonk” series] Cohen, who once spent five years in a Zen Monastery, mentions the Cloud of Unknowing in his 1979 song “The Window”:
Western Lineage
The Rule of Benedict draws on the Egyptian tradition (Eastern), such as the Pachomian rule; the Cappadocian tradition (Eastern), such as Basil’s rule; and the North African tradition (Western), such as Augustine’s rule. The third was a more direct influence than the second, but the first was the most influential, coming through John Cassian and then […]
Celibacy: the View of a Zen Monk from Japan
A zen precedent for married monks, from Celibacy: the View of a Zen Monk from Japan: Examples of the marriage of monks in Japan can be found as early as the Heian period (794-1185). Moreover, beginning from the time of Shinran (1173-1262) and Ippen (1239-1289), who were known as hijiri, or wandering mendicants, there are many examples […]
“a ‘holy’ actor in a poor theatre”
Some good bits of artmonkish wisdom from a “visioning retreat” we recently held at the Art Monastery. “Theatre cannot be imprisoned inside theatrical buildings, just as religion cannot be imprisoned inside churches; the language of theatre and its forms of expression cannot be the private property of actors, just as religious practice cannot be appropriated […]
‘looking at the contours of the temple’
[Part of a new series, Daily Lectio Divina after the Benedictine tradition of “divine reading.” For instructions, click here. Subscribe to Daily Lectio Divina. Send comments or suggested readings to nathan@artmonastery.org]
