The Fortunate and Ongoing Disaster of Lay Life

"Both lay and monastic worlds have their pathologies. The pathologies of the monastic life seem to be about clinging to purity. Purity is not a natural thing and needs to be guarded. Another way to say this is that monasteries tend towards monotheism - a single and orthodox view of reality. The monastic consciousness doesn’t believe in fantasies or in the arts because it doesn’t like the confusion of multiple views. Monasteries like rules because when we make a rule we gain the illusion that we have dealt with the problem."

http://www.arcanology.com/2008/12/15/the-fortunate-and-ongoing-disaster-of-lay-life/

"The pathologies of a lay life relate to a kind of getting lost, a forgetting of the quest, an unconscious immersion in the world. So much time is spent changing diapers or watching the stock market ticker that zazen never gets up enough steam to bring about a real change."