Monasticism

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in order to follow a strict discipline of meditation and self-mortification. In the early centuries of Christianity, in the Egyptian deserts, there lived a group of people whose desire was to escape all the evils of the world. They were called eremites, a Greek word meaning "dwellers in the desert", thus the name for the monastic group came about, Eremitic. Other religions, such as Jainism and Hinduism, also have had hermit monks like these.As the number of Egyptian hermits increased during the 3rd and 4th centuries, they began to gather in small groups. These were not really communities, because each hermit followed his own set of rules. There was no communal dining, meditation, or work. Everything was done individually.
Cenobitic: The main difference between Cenobitic and Eremitic , is that the Cenobitic way of life is more communal, and there are sets of rules that everyone follows. They include rules for prayer, worship, study, work, and service. The first community ...

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rid of all imperfections and to reach a state of spiritual perfection. They feel that isolation from the world and its temptations aids in their quest for this perfection. In Eastern religions, during this isolation, meditation is used to circumvent both the world and one’s ego. A Buddhist, Jaina, or Hindu monk will attempt to break the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (reincarnation), to escape to another kind of existence altogether, called moksha.
Although, not all monks pursue salvation by separation from the world. Some, such as the Franciscans, have combined service to the poor with their individual meditation and study. In the 20th century, Mother Teresa founded an order ...

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