Initially, the purpose was simply to train the dogs to live as a group in the monastery and maintain the quiet and order that is vital to monastic life. Brother Thomas Dobush led the Monks’ training and breeding program. Valuing the connection with animals that they had developed through their farming experiences, the community of brothers began studying the sciences of breeding and training dogs. When they moved to a new, mountaintop location that wasn’t suitable for farming, they had to give up all of their animals except “Kyr,” their first German Shepherd. Originally the brothers managed a full-scale farm, with goats, cows, chickens, pigs, pheasants, and sheep. are in a unique position to offer man a mirror of himself.” Given the monastic quest to self-awareness, a community of monks and dogs makes perfectly good sense.Īccordingly, the New Skete community was created in the 1960s. ![]() Many Zen monasteries also keep dogs.Īnd, as Job Michael Evans wrote in the Monks of New Skete’s first book, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend, “Dogs, because of their association with humans. ![]() Bernard Pass in the Swiss Alps as early as the 1600s, only later developing their talent for finding lost travelers. Bernards originally served as companions to the monks of the Hospice at the St. The Lhasa Apso breed was developed by a group of Tibetan monks, who raised them in their monasteries and gave them as gifts to nobles. This may sound like a strange marriage, but it’s not as odd as it seems. For more than 30 years, the monks of New Skete have bred, trained and sold German Shepherds as part of their monastic life. At New Skete, the monks are accompanied by dogs. This could be an accurate description of the New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, New York, with just one glaring omission. ![]() What images do you see in your mind when you hear the word “monastery”? Most people envision rustic wooden buildings, with gentle, somber, bearded men in flowing brown robes and leather sandals quietly treading gravel pathways that wind through peaceful forests.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |