Avoid uttering nonsense

Think slow

“One of the sufferings awaiting the person who writes something down, and especially one who publishes it, is to catch yourself having uttered nonsense,” is how Benedictine monk Terrence Kardong began chapter 6 of his book Benedict Backwards, Reading the Rule in the 21st Century.

After about two weeks of trying to squeeze out a post on thinking slow and originalism (the philosophy of interpreting legal texts with the same meanings the original authors intended) as they might relate to the Rule of Benedict and the hard work of living—and thinking—as a monk, I read that line from Kardong and realized I was on the verge of “uttering nonsense.”

I ditched my many pages and did some slow thinking to articulate the thoughts I want to share:

• It takes consistent and honest effort to know about what we really want our life to be concerned. Slow thinking is key. For the Fifth Kind of Monk (or any kind of monk) that includes taking in new information, questioning current beliefs, and wrestling with what we have been told to think throughout life in light of new understandings that emerge in evolutionary consciousness and creation.

• Fast thinking is the mode in which we normally operate. But while this auto-pilot mode supports our basic day-to-day living, it is not sufficient for the deeper development of the self as a spiritual being, a co-creator with God. It also isn’t enough for developing meaningful human relationships or living in harmony with the earth.

• Benedict did a lot of slow thinking in the writing of his Rule. Throughout 1,500 years many monks and others have practiced slow thinking in their attempt to understand and practice Benedict’s Rule as a particular way to live a Christian life.

• Benedict wrote about four kinds of monks. My slow thinking has led me to propose that a Fifth Kind of Monk is emerging. My thinking is also leading me to consider that Benedict’s Rule is a living document and therefore I am not an “originalist.” I do not believe our task is to decipher Benedict’s intended meaning and then apply it to how we live today. Rather, our slow thinking should lead to new understandings of how Benedict’s time-transcending truths and insights into human nature, community, and God can be lived in our world today.

And to bring it home, here are a few random thoughts.

The thinking of those who went before us was as filled with biases and illusions and assumptions as is our own thinking. One hundred percent objectivity is impossible. (The issue of AI will be fodder for future posts.) We cannot know the “intended meaning” of another even if they share our home, let alone that of Benedict or the writers of scripture who lived centuries ago, or theologians, historians, and others across time.

That said, there is no denying that some among us had, and have yet today, the ability to tap into universal truths that they then articulate for the rest of us. They are mystics and visionaries, and Benedict was surely one. But that does not mean he wrote for the 21st century. However, we would be remiss to ignore these universal truths rather than build upon them.

We must engage in deep listening and slow thinking because as a living organism we are created to grow until the day we die. With a self-conscious awareness, we are created to reflect and make choices. As spiritual beings, we are created to culminate in Spirit. To feel called to be a monk is to recognize this. To be a monk is to live like we believe it.

Slow thinking is necessary to find deeper meaning beyond externals and gratifications. It helps us recognize where fast thinking is duping us into choices our intentional, slower-thinking self would not make. It frees us from the burden of pretense because when we know who we are and what we believe we can simply be.

Communal slow thinking will enhance our understanding and enable us to build more loving and inclusive community. While the Fifth Kind of Monk does not live in a monastery, they do live in relationship with monks and others. Community can be networked today in ways Benedict could not have imagined, and the Fifth Kind of Monk can strengthen the glue in those communities, fueled by slow thinking and the desire to create a different kind of presence in a world that is glutted with inflated egos, greed, and violence.

Bottom line, the Fifth Kind of Monk forgoes easy when the thinking gets hard. The Fifth Kind of Monk isn’t afraid of questions, of being wrong, of looking from different angles, until pieces of truth emerge. It takes discipline and motivation and steadfastness. Are we ready to live different?

A disclaimer: I’ve borrowed fast and slow thinking from Daniel Kahneman’s 2012 award-winning book, Thinking Fast and Slow. Here are some links if you’d like to explore his ideas: Scientific American article; Wikipedia entry; and an interesting rebuttal to some of his thinking at Replication Index.