Answer Quote by Ross Douthat

There is a basic problem that a lot of Western monks and nuns become ordained without really understanding or appreciating what the monastic life…

— Tenzin Palmo

Then are they truly monks when they live by the labor of their hands.

— Benedict of Nursia

I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of their churches.

— Henry David Thoreau

It’s funny to hear priests and nuns argue with each other.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?

— Voltaire

“if monasteries accepted the irreligious and permitted abstention from prayer, I'd become a monk.”

— Henri Troyat

Priests are often well-meaning people who haven't yet looked too thoroughly into comparative religion.

— Robert Genn

“Jesus was indoctrinated in the Therapeutae Buddhist Monk tradition.”

— Lee Vickers

In the religion of Love the courtesan is a heretic; but the nun is an atheist.

— Richard B. Garnett

I think many monks hesitate to change things.

— Tenzin Palmo

I hope that Beyond the Robe helps you to feel closer to the monks and nuns and to better understand their immense potential to…

— Bobby Sager

I don't think that necessarily I was encouraged by the nuns and the priest to consider alternate possibilities to the universe.

— William Mapother