I find this concept a bit interesting and at the same time quite disturbing. I can't help but see it as a serious waste, for the most part, despite recognizing some validity in what seems to me to be parts of the motivation behind the concept.
With this thread i'm aiming to discuss the reason(s) people have to undertaking such vows , it's possible differing types (if there is more than one type of such a vow), and finally what possible reason(s) would be recognized as strong enough for breaking such vows, if there are any.
What are your thoughts/knowledge regarding these three aspects mentioned above?
Matthew 5:17-19
17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this ones religion is useless.
James 3:1-12
3 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he
is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed,[
a] we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh
water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
From the sayings of the Desert Fathers:
2. Antony said, "He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight: that is, his own heart.
3. Arsenius when he was still in the palace, prayed to God, saying, "Lord, show me the way of salvation." A voice came to him saying, "Arsenius, flee from men, and you will be saved." As he left for the monastic life, he prayed again, saying the same words; and he heard a voice saying to him, "Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the roots of sinlessness."