> I am only aware of two major religions in the world that have a monastic > order
there is still another, i. e. the Shiite part of the world of Islam, which has quite a few orders (from several very ancient Darwish orders to little extremist orders like Naqshibandy) > the question is simple ... who came first? Or was it spontaneous combustion? as for Christianity, I may say that monasticism has resulted from a long development that was started when the first 3rd century Egyptian eremite radically seperated himself from worldly affairs and flew into the desert (Anthony). No rules at first, like no meat, no alcohol etc. Entirely different from Buddhism. BTW the Buddha didn't invent monasticism, it was already in existence when the Shakyamuni went outdoors. He is reported to have joined several different orders before his illumination. Best wishes (and let's return to the lutes, gents), Mathias -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
