"Sorry, Kolo. But his experience reminds me a bit of Buddhism."
Christian monasticism, on the surface, isn't just a bit like Buddhism, it appears to be alot like Buddhism and various forms of Hindouism. The ultimate purpose, however, as I am sure you can and do appreciate, is quite different. As I said in my earlier post, Christian monasticism is known from the first days of Christianity. +John the Baptist, as you will remember, lived the life of a solitary in the desert as other men and women do to this day and have since the Resurrection. The deserts of the Holy Land, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Western Iraq, Sudan and Ethiopia are filled, literally, with the ruins of monasteries and the cave dwellings of monks. All of Eastern Europe is filled with them. In the West, monasticism was firmly established by the very holy +Benedict of Nursia in the late 5th - early 6th centuries.
The monks and nuns pray for their own repentence and for the salvation of the whole world. The holiness of some of these people and places can be so intense that creation can be actually altered back to a pre-Fall state around them. They also often act as spiritual fathers and mothers to people who live in the world. Their very existence serves as a sort of spiritual beacon to the world. For us Orthodox and for many Latins, these holy people are our spiritual Olympians and in Orthodox cultures the people of the villages, who live "in the world" exist in a sort of synergistic relationship with the monastics in their monasteries (the desert) out on the mountains surrounding those villages.
Were you to make your comment about the Great Commission to a holy monastic, she or he would likely agree with you that it is indeed important to spread the Good News and then point out:
"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you - [O] you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matt. 6:26-34.
This is why Step 17 of the Ladder of Divine Ascent teaches monks:
"Let us monks, then, be as trustful as the birds are; for they have no cares, neither do they gather into barns." +John Climacus
The purpose of the Great Commission is to bring all humanity to the exact point, or at least the desire to be at the exact point, where the monastics are. The Word transforms men so that they die to the self and become like Christ. Sin dies when the old man dies. As sin dies, the distortion of all creation wrought by sin diminishes. Were all of humanity to become like the monastics, all creation would be restored to the pre-Fall state in which God created it. The lion would indeed lie down with the lamb. Christ's sacrifice not only restored our potential for theosis, it also, through our theosis, provided for the restoration of creation which our sin has sullied and perverted.
The thing I see though Kolo is while I do agree it is quite different in many ways, by deprivation and seclusion many of the Holy men of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism came up with "Experiences" which they called connection with God (or Nirvana or whatever higher reality than themselves that they saw). Your monks may be in the same situation and the only way to determine that they are not is through careful comparison of their findings with Scripture.
And why we are reminded pf the same thing at every Divine Liturgy to "set aside the cares of life" [the Cherubic Hymn], and every time we sing the Lord's Prayer (the words "Thy will be done...")
Were all of humanity to become like the monastics, all creation would be restored to the pre-Fall state in which God created it
So true, Kolo, so true.
Learning from the monastics, we should follow in thier steps to the best of our abilities, always remembering the holy Scripture tell us "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." [Luke 18:14]