If I took a vow of silence

The written word is not a voice. I don't think you will be thrown into the moat for typing if you chose to take a vow of silence. But I couldn't see why anyone with such an amazing voice would ever want to voluntarily silence it.

Some of the most famous silent vow takes from India that I know of wear pieces of slate and chalk around there necks so they can communicate. I think it depends on the level of the vow you take. ;-)

That's a good question. I would equate silence with noise i.e. talking or lack thereof. So I would have to say that typing is not breaking a vow of silence. I don't know much about monks so I can't say if they consider typing talking. But they do remove themselves from the outside world and technology in ways so they may actually consider typing as breaking that vow. That is, if they ever were around computers. I can't see a monk sitting at a computer seems like a weird picture.

You a Monk? LOL That's it, putting you on You-Tube in your bra for sure and sending to every monk with a computer I know so that you never get accepted to the monastic life! The very idea! *pout, pout* I doubt they'll throw you over the wall anyway. The world is changing even in Monastaries. PC's are de rigour everywhere you know. Even in cloisters. Monks are canny creatures P1ke. If you could show them a way to make money online they'd let you have at it for sure. But you'd have to change your user name to Monkfish! ROFL

Well, I know of people who took vows of silence and they did often write down things for their followers. They just did not talk so I think that you may be in the clear. I do think though that it might not actually be in the spirit of complete silence though as you are here going out of your way to converse and are not just doing it because you have to in order to exist or to complete the duties that are assigned to you or to educate and assist followers.

A vow of slience is to meditate on your faith and love for God no? If you are journaling for you and God that is one thing. Not sure Mylots is considered part of a vow of slience.

As long as you mute the sound on the computer and press the keys quietly I would think you'd be safe. I've often wondered about cughing or sneezing, do you have to silence them as well?

As far as I know, when people do a sponsored silence or anything like that, they communicate by writing so it would be ok. Apart from that, you're still silent. It's not a vow of no conversation is it? Just a vow of silence so as long as you don't use a scratchy pen or bang too hard on the keyboard then it should be acceptable!

Sorry, my friend, but I think you would be thrown over the Monastery wall. The vow of silence is taken in order that the monk may go beyond the noise from inside and outside himself, will be able to hear the cry of others, as well as the call of God. If you're typing, and interacting with fellow Mylotians, then you're not going beyond the noise from inside and outside. You are allowing it inside the mind. Therefore, you can't hear the cry of others and the call of God. Brightest Blessings, my friend.

If you ask me, silence indicates sound. As long as no sound is coming from your vocal cords, then you are all clear. I can think of a few people around me who should consider taking such a vow. Haha, I am one of them too.

Ya know, my former roommate decided to try not talking for an hour once a day for a while. She decided that brief notes were okay, but not whole writen conversations. She would try finger spelling to me, but I am lousy at spelling, I can read fine, but if you spell a word of more than a few letters aloud or with finger spelling I get lost. I finally told her that a point was fine, but fingerspelling was conversation. We did develope a few specific signs for the cats' we had then names.

Well isn't the vow of silence meant to make the monk reflect on his own thoughts and relationship with God? somehow I think that typing on mylot or anyplace else would contavene that vow. Please, please don't ever do that pike my darling - we would be too sad without you to cheer up our days! xxx

personally i don't think you'll be thrown out of the monastery. the way i look at it, the vow of silence is meant to stop a person from saying what's on his mind. not that you're not supposed to say it at all. but by not being able to talk, you actually need to take the time to pause and think how to get it across. i'm sure the monks/nuns have their own way of communicating. sign language is still communication. nothing sets it apart from typing. so the vow is not to stop you from communicating with another, but just to make you HAVE TO stop and think about what you are about to say.

It would not break the vow of silence! Did you see the television commercial where all the monks who took the vow of silence are typing to each other? It was very funny!

I am not to sure about that but I would say no as you are not saying anything unless you talk while you are typing but I am not sure about that at all

I like to take things extremely literally, so for me silence would mean "lack o sound, or lack of speech. If they wanted me to take a vow of "not typing, chatting, texting, myloting, etc" they would need to specify that.

LOL i am not sure really. what an interesting question you have post here. i am going to A$$UME, that posting and chatting on IM would be cheating just a little bit,. good thing you are not going off to become a monk my friend

I think a vow of silence prohibits you from communicating at all. Also, when you become a monk, you usually take a vow of poverty, so I doubt they would let you enter a monastery with your laptop or blackberry!

I think discussing or typing into a forum would be considered part of the vow of silence. The vow of silence includes not only talking, but writing. After all, there are probably deaf monks as well so the vow would have to include something they could do, like typing on mylot to tell of the Abbot's love of cream cheese with onions on his ham and rye sandwich. So you decide to be a monk and have an overlying desire to myLot, you had better hope there is a pile of mattresses on the other side of the wall.

I think, p1kef1sh, that your vow should be considered in the manner you originally perceived it. Was your intent no communication, or simply no vocal communication? I have learned that when people are deprived of one way of communicating they will invariably find another way to communicate. It is human nature. Written communication would not qualify as vocal communication in my book.