"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
I don't think those are very comparable to monasteries. Those are individual, a monastery was never just one person, it was a (religious) community. A commune would be closer. A few communes do still exist.
Trees don't grow on money
My take on reading UL's question was that virtue is not defined by an individual; it is more of a societal or cultural consensus. And different societies and cultures may modify what is considered "virtuous". In some cultures, for example, individualism is a virtue; in others, acting for the collective good is a virtue. Neither can say the specified virtue is good or bad; it is good or bad only in the context of the rest of that people group. So I don't think being virtuous requires sacrifice. Some people are almost born to certain virtues. Others never achieve them (that doesn't necessarily make them unvirtuous either).
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
Is this The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky?
The Russians are really heavy to read. Which translation?
I think it's safe to say that many, many wisdom-seekers and sages have advocated a simple life, going way, way back to early civilization. A lot of "simple livers" are represented in various schools of philosophy, and tons of spiritual leaders (outside of Christian Evangelicals and advocates of the Prosperity Gospel) have spoken to the "virtues" of a life of simplicity. I could start a list of historical proponents of simple living as a virtue in and of itself, but I don't have time and it would be too long a post.
So if simplicity is a virtue, what difference does it make when you get on the train? The "virtue" of taking up the simple life shouldn't be like a cross to bear, but in practicing a way to greater happiness.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
Who cares if one exhibits virtue? Who is judging? Who appointed the judge? Why? To what end for the individual?
As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
There are still monasteries out there. Until recently, there was a Benedictine and a Franciscan monastery just a few miles from me, on one of our smaller islands. The Franciscans (who used to run the ferry dock and the one-and-only store on that island) closed up shop just a few years ago, but the Benedictines are going strong.
https://olrmonastery.org/
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