Brother Adrian answered, “I know it must seem repetitive and tedious to outsiders, but the time here just flies by. Our days begin early, and we are each well focused on our duties throughout the day. Of course, we don’t have the distractions that you do, so even a routine physical task is often a vehicle for meditation. And for those of us who have not taken vows of silence, we are able to share those meditations. Some new members of our community are surprised, and sometimes need guidance, over the degree of interaction, in strictly mundane ways, that we have in this community. We can get irritated with someone. We are humans living in close community, a kind of intense microcosm of many aspects of the human condition. Such moments of irritation can be used as mirrors, to reflect back on who we are. They can be portals through which to view ourselves, from a spiritual perspective, as functioning human beings. Rather than brush off an irritating person, severing the relationship at the first opportunity, we plunge into an examination of the nature of our relationship, and we grow spiritually from it.”

Added Brother Vincentius: “We grow into an ever-expanding awareness of our oneness, and of our communion with that ultimate Oneness that seems to be represented by the Light so often cited in the NDE literature.”

Brother Basil concurred: “We feel that God cannot be ‘captured’ or portrayed in some exclusive, measurable sense. So that ‘Light’ which people report seeing is a conceptual guidepost, which we will continue to ‘see’ as distinct from us until we come to realize our true home in God.”

Said one of our FOI members: “It seems so odd that people go through their lives in thoroughly mundane ways, scratching for what they think is important, and devoting only an hour or so a week–if they do that–to the ‘spiritual’. And then they are surprised and skeptical when someone else reports a spiritual experience.” Responded Brother Adrian: “Oh, yes. A split persona. Physical here; spiritual there. I’m here, so I must be physical. When I’m there, I’ll be spiritual. In our Order, we live our lives in awareness of that duality, recognizing that it is an artifact of focus, not an ultimate truth. Someone once said, ‘I’m a spiritual being having a physical experience’.”

After the discussion, our FOI members met in the parking lot to exchange views. There was unanimous assent that this had been a moving and eye-opening experience. Several persons admitted to having had preconceptions of rigid dogmatism, now thoroughly put to rest. Because I’d had previous, lengthy interactions in monastic settings, my own greatest surprise was at the depth of surprise within the group.

In sum, this event opened up monasteries as an arena hitherto unconsidered by many as a personal resource. We hope that our experience might suggest new opportunities for members of other FOIs. We have been warmly invited to return, and will continue to maintain a thoughtful relationship with this community.

Marco M. Pardi, a psychologist with a federal health agency and an adjunct faculty member in the Georgia University system, is the coordinator of the Lawrenceville, Georgia Friends-of-IANDS.