Mental life

[shenghuiqiong]

Hi,
Here are some words from the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover by Lawrence :

I must say it makes one prefer Buddha, quietly sitting under a bo-tree, or Jesus, telling his disciples little Sunday stories, peacefully, and without any mental fireworks. No, there’s something wrong with the mental life, radically. It’s rooted in spite and envy, envy and spite. Ye shall know the tree by its fruit.
( I guess mental life equals "the life of the mind", which I met in para.5, this chapter)
I have met "mental life" many times in this novel, so I suspect it is a special cultural term, which is related to a certain cultural phenomenon, an organization or an activity.

Could you tell me what it means please?
Thank you in advance

[YesNo]

I think mental life means the activity of the mind viewed generally, or what people like to think about in a culture. It would not be one individual's mind or thoughts isolated from others. That's just my impression from reading the sentences you quoted. I haven't read the book.

[shenghuiqiong]

I'm afraid it's not the case, but thank you all the same.

[Whifflingpin]

"Mental life" means not a specific cultural phenomenon, organization or activity, I suspect, but maybe the whole Western approach epitomised in Socrates' words "the unexamined life is not worth living." Life itself is for living and experiencing & the more one thinks about it the less able he is to live it. Or something like that.