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Monk Life: An Entirely New Way to Enjoy Life
Reflections from my week-long stay at a Buddhist Monastery
Note: I stayed at Plum village in mid-July of 2019, wrote the majority of this refelction shortly after, and never did anything with it until now. I hope you enjoy it!
I don’t have any terrible addictions, but like many thirty something-year-olds, I have my millennial buffet of vices. I have a few drinks the majority of nights most weeks, I enjoy weed, I eat all types of meat, I drink coffee whenever I feel like it (read: all day), I play on social media in most down moments, and I always fall asleep sometime after midnight and wake up 7 to 8 hours later.
To be fair to myself, I should point out I do also work quite hard, I exercise 5 or 6 days a week, I practice yoga, I read a lot, I drink a lot of water, and I try to be grateful and live mindfully from day-to-day. In general, despite all the unhealthy habits and low-key addictions I just listed off, I would describe my own physical, emotional, and mental health to be quite good. Better than the average for a 35-year-old male if I were a betting man—one vice I don’t have. My overall health has never been better, however, than during my week at the monastery called Plum Village. While there I was learning an entirely new way to enjoy life, which the conditions were certainly assisting.
