You mean ascetics, not aesthetics. Wikipedia’s article on Christian monasticism [0] starts with (my emphasis): > Christian monasticism is the devotional practi

You mean ascetics, not aesthetics. Wikipedia’s article on Christian monasticism [0] starts with (my emphasis): > Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship So, am I really confusing monasticism with asceticism, when the later is a key part of many definitions of the former? Many people confuse monks with members of non-monastic Christian religious orders. Many of the famous Catholic religious orders - such as Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits - are not monks. In the traditional understanding, monks withdraw from the world to focus primarily on prayer and contemplation, and are not actively involved in activities such as preaching, education or missionary work; those religious orders whose members are actively involved in the world in those ways are not classified as “monks”, rather “religious”. Some Jesuits are even university professors in secular subjects - such as the Australian law professor Father Frank Brennan SJ (who was once awarded the accolade “Living National Treasure”) - something fundamentally incompatible with the contemplative life of a genuine monastic. Is that true of non-Christian “monks”, such as Buddhist bhikkhus? I don’t think I understand Buddhism well enough to confidently venture an opinion. But, I do think that using a Christian-origin word to describe a concept in a radically different religious tradition is a questionable decision; using the indigenous term (bhikkhu) is preferable since it avoids that issue entirely. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_monasticism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_monasticism