Letter from the Monastery – by Perpend
Background context: Perpend and I have talked several times, both on the podcast and in real life, about how we (everyone) are constantly distracted by “noise”. The “noise” of people, electronic devices, the notifications from the phone, the background noise of cars. The noise of what you didn’t do, and what you “should” be doing. The noise of constantly having to explain yourself in a conversation (because the person you are talking to is not on the same wavelength or doesn’t have the same worldview).
The monastery isn’t like this. It is silence, candles, and space. When Perpend went to the monastery in Alaska there were no electric lights. No running water – they had to haul their water. After leaving there the return to civilization was painful. Even the color of a brightly colored house was overwhelming to the senses.
This is an excerpt from his letter from the monastery. It meant a lot to me, so I am sharing it:
Decrease the static in your life.
We think of static as the white noise and pops between radio stations. If I say “noise”, people respond with “sound” and “volume” as their points of reference. Yes, a neighbor’s loud music is a potential problem, but I mean more than that. The term “inputs” also doesn’t quite fit; it doesn’t connect. “Static” is better.
“Static” is interference in your attempt to bring in the radio signal. In my case, the signal I want is God, Grace, the life of the Church, silence, prayer – a real life. These are the things that actually matter. Static is anything that hinders that.
My thoughts, emotions, perceptions, desires are a static producing mechanism. The added static from those mechanisms in other people entering my life is a lot also. How I choose to react and think about them changes my perceptions of them and those interactions (the word should be “enteractions” = entering, input). That is what thoughts determine, what life is about.
“…thus prudence and the responsibility for maintaining one’s inner peace require that one not look at everything, listen to everything, or concern himself with everything that he happens to come across. A thing will hardly show that it is capable of rousing the passions, so it is necessary to turn the eyes away from it, plug the ears in front of it, or seeing do not see, hearing do not hear…” – St. Theophan the Recluse. The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It.
After every monastery visit you say, “You are not the same. You take longer and longer to be able to communicate again.”
Each visit is a detox from the static and the reliance on the static to distract me and numb reality from sinking in.
I no longer have the external static. Now I need to deal with my own internal static.
“Love asks what you will suffer for. How much will you suffer for it? Love is outside of logic and my personal survival. It is also good for us, even though it costs. All virtues are not economically feasible. The 8 Forms of Capital won’t fix or fill the void in your soul. They are a tool. Meeting your soul’s need is Thriving!”
Perpend (David)
Perpend (David) is a postulant at the Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael in New Mexico. He is on the monastic path to become an Orthodox monk.
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