I read an article this morning about an act called “Monk Mode”, basically it’s something you do to change your immediate trajectory in life. “Monk Mode” is taking a specific amount of time in your life, 3 weeks to 3 months, and pinpointing your thoughts and efforts in effecting change in that certain area. It said to use an unusual intensity in doing this, so basically semi obsess on it. It also said to include a physical detox of something that is not virtuous for your being.
This is just one of many different definitions of “Monk Mode”. The Google definition says something similar: A period of time with enhanced focus, discipline and productivity where you commit yourself to completing a goal. I’m sure if I searched the internet some more, I would find other definitions that all revolve around the same premise, create a positive change in an area of your life.
But why label it “Monk Mode?”
Well, monks have been known to be as simple and pure as the first snow of winter. Light, clean, resolved, dedicated and so on. They have been known to live simply, eat simply and be as transcendental as possible. Monks are highly disciplined in how they live, exceptionally structured when it comes to routines, meditation and the chores they do. Buddhist’s use a term called one-pointedness, the act of focusing on one thing at a time. It’s what one seeks to achieve during meditation, one pointedness to the calming of the mind.
Monks work towards spiritual purification through all aspects of living. Yet “Monk Mode” is not this, but it’s something similar in my understanding. Maybe it’s not to achieve a purification or spiritual growth, unless that’s the goal you set. But it’s to create positive change in your life on some level. We so easily rest on what we did at one time and use that as reason to be content in bad habits and harmful living. We all know change can be difficult to accomplish if we are not forced to change. Send me backpacking for a month with no sugar in my food resupplies and I will stop eating sugar, let me hit a store every week to get my food resupplies and I will have cookies and candies galore on my trek.
So how does one change when change seems to be difficult and trying? I personally look at everything I no longer do and use that as justification to do the things I shouldn’t do, which really isn’t much anymore (you catch that justification). My ego says I deserve this or that, it rationalizes and justifizes and does all the other izes to give me peace of mind when I lay my head to sleep at night. It’s a vicious cycle of self-inflicting pain and obsession. And the scary part is that I choose to live this way, it’s literally a conscious choice to create suffering in my life.
So how can a session of “Monk Mode” help me? I mean I think very highly of myself as it is, and do I really need to do this whole “Monk Mode” thing? Am I not already on my little Buddhist way to being a part-time monk?
This makes me think of the time I chose to take part in lent. For those who do not know what lent is, it’s a Catholic tradition to give something up, make some sort of sacrifice for 40 days. Being raised Catholic through a portion of my youth I felt I should take part, to get closer to what I was raised with and maybe find some sort of growth through the process. I wasn’t sure if I would last 40 days on whatever I chose to give up but I wanted to try nonetheless. I chose to give up drinking diet soda. Remarkably I managed to go 40 days without any soda, I was impressed with myself. That was over 11 years ago and I have yet to drink a diet soda since. I do however have an occasional soda as a small treat to myself or on special occasions. I accomplished this feat without prayer, without extreme difficulty, without any real struggle at all. Unlike quitting using or quitting smoking.
In doing this for lent I didn’t really dive deep into seeing what I got from it, like a growth of some sort. Yes, physically I got better, the additives in soda are horrific, especially in diet soda. I guess looking back at it I got something more out of it than I thought I did. I acquired better health and knowing more so today than yesterday how short life is, I now see better health as an immeasurable gift to myself. I think giving up the soda for lent also helped me quite smoking, something I thought I would never be able to do.
So maybe “Monk Mode” is like lent, except I don’t have to solely give something up, it can be trying to achieve something fruitful, or actually both as this one article stated. But I just can’t think of anything I want to gain or retract from my life today. I know there’s at leas 20 things I could work towards and move away from, but none of them I can think of I want to let go of or gain. Maybe that’s from laziness or fear or stagnation. It must be from something; I mean who in their right mind would have an opportunity to grow in any area of their choosing and choose not to?
So I spent the day thinking about this, unsure as to what needs changing in my life and what I should be giving up. I thought of dedicating myself to exercising more, I thought of putting more hours in at work and growing my business, I thought of giving up sweets. But what I choose I want it to be something that I will want to gravitate towards. I want it to be something I fear doing (which is defiantly giving up cookies). Sadly tho I am just so comfortable in my life today, the pros and cons of myself, that I don’t really want to change much. But the opportunity is here, the opportunity is here every day to be a better version of myself and I’m a fool for not pursuing it.
I think I will dedicate time into more meditation, you can never go wrong with some daily samatha or vipassana. I will add this to my life, especially being as my meditation practice has fallen by the wayside since I moved a few months back. I will focus on samatha in the mornings and vipassana while sanding door jambs and painting trim. I know from experience that meditation brings me back to center and relieves me of the burdens of the past and the fears of the future.
And what will I give up?
I will give up fear (that made me giggle cuz it seems impossible). I will put great focus on this, I will work towards being free from the confines of such a painful experience. Could you imagine tho, being free of all fears, that’s like being free from the chains of addiction. It brings me joy just dreaming of what it would be like to live that freely, to be that close to the moment and trusting it and myself. I tend to stay still too often out of fear, I tend to quiet my voice and shelter my vulnerability with fear, I tend to not take chances and risks. And even as I write this the fear swells within as to what it might be like living freely, forgetting to come back to now and right now I am being as transparent and honest as possible with no repercussions in sight. And are there ever repercussions when we live virtuously? No, there is not.
So I would say tomorrow is day one, but why wait till then, why not start now. Life is short. I could walk out the door tonight to go to dinner and never make it there being run over by an E-bike or suffering a life ending heart attack. I mean anything is possible, and most of all change is possible.
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