Is the ascetic a voluntary or forced hermit?

Asceticism as a way of life of a moderate and devoid of all kinds of excesses has more than one thousand years. The ascetics existed always, at all times, from the remotest antiquity. The ascetic is a hermit who voluntarily chose a solitary and rather harsh way of life. For the sake of achieving certain spiritual goals, he spends his life in rigor and abstinence, observing the vows given to him.

In their example, the ascetics showed all people how to perfect the body and mind, controlling passions and controlling their unbridled desires. The word "ascetic" itself is a derivative of the Greek "asceticism", in translation, which means some preparation, exercises. Austerity in the most general sense is a certain system of spiritual and psychophysical exercises, reflecting the essence of the religion on the basis of which it is formed. This practice is very common in many types of cultures.

Hinduism

Residents of ancient India with the help of asceticism expected to find supernatural forces and achieve equal power to the gods. The forms of self-torture that the Indian ascetics resorted to struck imagination, they could hold their hands over their heads for months or stand on one leg.

Buddhism

According to the doctrine of Buddhists, asceticism is one of the ways to achieve enlightenment. But one should not give up everything at once. First, you need to drink the whole cup of life to the bottom and only then, after learning it, be disappointed in it. By and large, the ascetic was not an ideal in Buddhism, for he indulged in asceticism for the sake of the personal, in contrast to the bodhisattva, who cared for the common good.

Islam

The meaning of Islamic asceticism, referred to as "zuhd", is that one should not mourn for the worldly, which is lost, but do not rejoice in all that worldly thing that is acquired. Zuhd, followed by an Islamic ascetic, is first and foremost a rejection of all that distracts from Allah.

Christianity

The fundamental principle of Christian asceticism is the harmonization of the will of the divine and the will of man. For the salvation of the soul, a combination of grace and the free will of man is necessary, and it can be freed only by ascetic feats. Christians (if this is not an ascetic foreigner) was usually associated with a monk-hermit living in a strict moral life. Under asceticism, special exercises were meant, entailing the killing of the flesh. The Orthodox hermit exercised his will and thoughts through prayer, vigil, fasting and solitude.

The essence of asceticism

The vow of an ascetic for the sake of spiritual enlightenment at times included real self-torture, accompanied by fear and pain. Some philosophers saw here an obvious inflection and believed that various kinds of pleasures can teach us much more than deprivation. It is also important to understand that the ascetic is a person who definitely has the opportunity to live in absolute prosperity and while deliberately limiting himself in all material goods, comfort and pleasures for the sake of a certain purpose. That is, asceticism, caused by temporary material difficulties, is, in fact, false.