Cistercians are
Benedictine monks. Monk is a basic human stance
towards life, towards all reality. There are many kinds or
congregations of monks within the Catholic and Christian
tradition. Monks are also found among almost all, if
not all the great religious traditions.
In some traditions
monasticism plays a very important, almost central role.
Monasticism is seen as being at the very heart of the Orthodox
Church. Mount Athos, the small monastic republic in northeastern
Greece, is revered as the centre of Orthodox spiritual life." All
Orthodox bishops must be chosen from among the ranks of the
monastics.
Among the Hindus,
especially in India, the size of the monastic population is
extraordinary. Monasticism is seen as the ordinary culmination of
the human journey and, indeed, the only way to escape from the
wheel of reincarnation and attain final and lasting bliss. Among
the Buddhists, monks hold a most honoured position. In some
Buddhist countries every male is expected to spend some time,
however brief it may be, as a monk. In theory this acknowledges a
deep reality and affords the opportunity for some intense spiritual
training for life. In practice it too often becomes a mere
formality undermining the real significance of monasticism. Be that
as it may, monasticism is very present throughout the Buddhist
world.
Monasticism is
essentially a response to an inner call or compulsion. There
is a demand deep within all of us, in response to some kind
of an experience, to live a radical "yes" to what is ultimate.
There is at the root of a lived monasticism an experience that has
called for a redirection. There is a conversion.. In
some way we want to know the goal of all human existence. And we
know that it is and yet in some way is not yet within us. There is
a tension. There is a need that calls forth a certain
commitment.
The monk is one who
is committed, almost driven, to be present to the ultimate meaning
of life in such a way that we let go of and even renounce all that
is not necessary to our doing this. The monk seeks the unum
necessarium, the one thing necessary, the pearl of great
worth–the greatest worth, the treasure of life. The monk
seeks to concentrate all on this one single and ultimate
goal.
Every human person
seeks to find his true self, to be at one with himself, something
that can be found only at the very centre, at the ground of our
being where we are in some way one with the ultimate Source of Life
and come forth from that Source. Monks and nuns commit themselves,
usually in some public manner, to developing in an exemplary way
according to his particular cultural and religious environment the
deepest core of his human-ness. They commit them selves to an
uncompromising search for contact with a cosmic
creator.
Our modern age
reflects on monasticism mainly in terms of 'how' questions.
Information is provided about Cistercian architecture, the day to
day organisation of the abbey's affairs, and the political
interactions that led to growth and dissolution. However,
once articulated in a particular place the spiritual network cannot
be ignored as a framework to articulate objectives of landscape
management that have a bearing on preservation of physical remains,
access to sites and organisation of routes for pilgrimage. It
is the latter notional structures that allow people to return to
the 'why, questions that produced the Cistercian
Order.
