One can starve oneself in order to suffer—or to stop suffering; mortify oneself to avoid spirits—or to contact them. It seems abstinence is the answer to all desires.
The word ascesis comes from the Greek askesis, meaning “exercise” or “training.” In Homer’s work it refers to an art or craft; in Plato’s, to gymnastic exercises. The ancient Greek athlete engaged in askesis to achieve physical fitness. Various philosophical and religious trends led to shifts in the meaning of this term, so that it began to refer to spiritual training: the improvement of the intellect or soul through the practice of virtue.
Comparative research shows that specific ascetic practices occur in most of the major religious traditions. While ascetics may set different goals for themselves, they often use the same means: it seems that the spectrum of possible practices aimed at achieving holiness has its limits. The most common are fasting, sexual self-restraint, poverty, and exposing oneself to various trials, both physical (from maintaining a specific yoga pose to flagellation) and mental (from meditation to reciting God’s name, and—in the case of some Buddhist monks—contemplating the “disgustingness of food,” or observing corpses in a cemetery). However, the motivations of ascetics themselves are complex and infinitely varied.
Initiations and Shamanism
Since contemporary indigenous religions cannot be equated with prehistoric ones, it is only possible to vaguely speculate about the origins of asceticism. From an anthropological perspective, it is believed that the practice of asceticism arises from compliance with prohibitions of taboo activities and the desire for purification. But this is a major simplification. Sometimes asceticism deliberately leads to transgressions and the breaking of taboos. For example, Indian hermits are said to live “like dogs” or “like cows”: feeding on waste, staying in unclean places, and shocking observers. Asceticism plays a complex game with cultural norms. Practitioners might be bald—or, on the contrary, they might grow their hair long. They might dress smartly or like beggars, or abandon clothing altogether.
In indigenous religions, there is much evidence of practices such as periodic fasting, seclusion, or sexual abstinence, the purpose of which is to achieve certain religious benefits. The motivation is often to avoid the influence of harmful demons. For example, if it is believed that the demon of disease can enter the body through the mouth along with food, refraining from eating becomes a type of magical-medical prophylaxis, counteracting a possible attack by malicious beings. When preparing for marriage or initiation rituals, ritual purity is maintained in various ways—similarly to Catholics receiving communion only after confession, when they are cleansed of their sins.
In the context of asceticism, particular attention is paid to initiation practices, such as those recorded among Native American populations. Young men from the Siouan peoples living in North America would purify themselves by taking steam baths and fasting for three days. They avoided contact with others, especially women, or even mortified themselves [Ed. note—in this case, mortification refers to the process of controlling physical desires through behaviors like fasting] in order to be granted a vision of a guardian spirit who would appear in a dream in the form of an animal. There are obvious similarities here to practices observed in Christianity and the religions of India. However, there is a fundamental difference: in indigenous religions, these activities are unlikely to be voluntary. Some young Native American men are obligated to undergo initiation to become full members of their community.
In this regard, the figure of the shaman is also interesting. Take the classic model of the Siberian shaman, for example, who is also subject to discipline, including dietary restrictions. He has a strong body and finely tuned concentration, he can stay awake despite being tired, and his sex life is restricted. This preparation is intended to make it easier for him to enter a trance or, more precisely, establish contact with the spirit world.
In Ettore Biocca’s book Yanoáma: The Story of Helena Valero, about a woman who was kidnapped as a child by a Yanomami tribe and lived with them in the Amazon rainforest for over twenty years, there is a detailed description of the traditional education of a shaman. The young man in training could not approach women, even his mother. Bathing and touching the ground with his foot were forbidden. He wasn’t supposed to eat anything, especially not meat (when necessary, he had some honey), but he snorted large quantities of intoxicating powder. All this led to such weakness that he merely lay in a hammock: he couldn’t stand up, and at one point he didn’t even have the strength to speak. The older shamans, however, remained impervious to his mother’s laments: they were sure that, if he stopped his training, the spirits would turn their backs on him forever and he wouldn’t achieve the power to summon them, which was crucial to his vocation.
In the context of shamanism, there are two main themes to note. Firstly, achieving “supernatural” states and capabilities is perceived here as the result of ascetic practices. Secondly, this type of discipline applies to “religious elites” rather than society as a whole. However, the question remains of the extent to which the shaman’s behavior is voluntary. Sometimes this path is not chosen but perceived as one’s “destiny.” In certain forms of shamanism, when someone refuses to accept their fate, they are tormented by spirits with “shaman illness” until they relent or die.
Fasting Like Royalty
Some believe that asceticism in its more abstemious form developed only in more “complex” religious systems. These people tend toward the resignation from certain delights and pleasures present in the world as well as the rejection of all that is earthly—this thread can be found in some branches of Christianity or post-Vedic Indian religions and is absent in the indigenous religions that include the vision of life in a symbiotic relationship with the world and nature.
It is possible that, for asceticism to take full shape, it was necessary to develop a philosophy and theology based on the written word and the accumulation of knowledge that it made possible. There is a hypothesis that this movement is the result of resistance to religious teachings that are overly abstract and doctrinal: it is a symptom of the desire for knowledge based on experience, even the most dramatic. On the other hand, it is clear that, for asceticism to occur, some kind of developed theological context is required. For example, the practices found in Gnosticism, Christianity, and Jainism are based to a large extent on a philosophically developed, sharp opposition between body and soul, which is also rarely encountered in indigenous religions.
It is worth noting the description in the literature of an interesting phenomenon that can be defined as “royal asceticism.” It was once believed that the ruler’s behavior determined not only political life but also the survival of the world. For example, the pharaoh’s conduct was thought to influence the course of the stars and whether the Nile would flood—hence the need for the ruler to maintain restrictive regulations, deviation from which could result in catastrophe. Assyrian kings ritually shaved their heads and fasted. In Babylonia, the monarch followed a specific diet and would be publicly slapped by a priest. The Japanese mikado, the deified emperor, had to sit for many hours without moving a muscle—not even his eyes. In reality, however, royal asceticism is also a type of religious asceticism related to the fact that the rulers performed sacred functions. It wasn’t about the individual, but the entire society or even the cosmos.
In the West
Ascetic practices are evident in the two most important trends in the history of Western spirituality: in the Hellenic and Hellenistic religions as well as in Judaism.
The ancient Greeks attended to ritual purity before participating in the mysteries: this was achieved by fasting, silence, seclusion, and avoidance of sexual activity (for this reason, ritual functions were often entrusted to children, the elderly, or virgins). There is also evidence of the Greeks observing some forms of asceticism by choice. Epimenides, instructed on this matter by the nymphs, ate only plant products. Heraclitus is said to have eaten grass and leaves. Pythagoras ate only bread, honey, and beeswax. The Pythagorean school itself recommended sexual abstinence––according to Diogenes Laërtius in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, when asked about the best time to make love, Pythagoras replied: “Whenever you wish to be weaker than yourself.” Flagellation occurred in ecstatic cults and was apparently practiced by the bacchantes.
Full-blown asceticism was already present among the Neopythagoreans and Neoplatonists—in environments where a learned, mythological, radical opposition between the corporeal and the spiritual had developed. When the body came to be seen as a “prison of the soul,” the logical conclusion was to avoid all pleasures of the flesh. Plotinus refrained from sexual intercourse and eating meat, and despised earthly things—he didn’t even go to the doctor when he was sick. He believed that, by developing the ability to perceive supersensual beauty, he not only found traces of divinity in the world but also became like God himself.
It is impossible to determine exactly when the first ascetic movements in Judaism were born. The ban on self-mutilation in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:28) would suggest that these practices date back to prebiblical times. On Mount Sinai, Moses fasted for forty days—without fasting, his momentous revelation would probably have been impossible. The Bible contains many examples of ascetic customs: when the prophet Elijah, thanks to divine inspiration, was living alone by Kerith Brook, God commanded ravens to feed him (1 Kings 17:1–7)—another example of “supernatural” phenomena accompanying asceticism. Later followers of Judaism resorted to more advanced forms of renunciation: the Essenes gave up private property, and John the Baptist wore a hair shirt and ate only locusts and honey.
Christianity, often perceived as a creative meeting of Greco-Roman “paganism” and Judaism, features the original mythological and theological elements that factor in asceticism. Christ died on the cross—this fact is not without significance for the direction in which spirituality based on this religion developed. From a Christian perspective, suffering itself came to be highly valued, as evidenced by the worshipping of the famous martyrs of the religion’s early centuries. There are many times throughout history that followers of Christ have tried to imitate his suffering through mortification in order to achieve a mystical union with a suffering God. The very concept of the incarnation, which is key to Christian theology, is an example of a kind of divine asceticism: the infinite God renounced His form to become a finite man. Kenosis, or self-humiliation, is the theological justification for all voluntary self-restraint. Another important argument for the practicing of self-restraint in Christianity derived from Paul’s idea of rejecting what is worldly in favor of the kingdom of God.
Examples of religious extravaganza inspired by the Gospel are found in various corners of the Christian world. From the first Egyptian monks, the fathers of the desert, through the stylites who spent their lives on pillars, to Irish monks who dressed in animal skins and lived in trees,, or the Orthodox Yurodivy who sat on the church steps or lay down among the anthills. In more recent times, since the decline of Western monasticism, Christian asceticism is certainly less common, but the practice of mortification returns time and time again. Anyone wanting to buy spiked bracelets, custom-made penitential garments, or whips to erase sins or control lust will easily find the relevant online stores, even in Poland.
In the East
The oldest Vedic texts mention an intriguing category of people called the Keśin: they lived outside society and were described as “long-haired,” “dust-clad,” and “silent.” They drank from the same cup as the god Rudra, and the fluids they consumed were poisonous to others, which has led researchers to speculate on the possibility that the Keśin were ingesting hallucinogenic substances. They had the ability to go beyond their own bodies and experience ecstasy (thus the Rigveda contains the first known description of religious ecstasy), as well as reading the minds of others. The Keśin closely resemble the later Indian ascetics and yogis, leading to the conclusion that this is a very old tradition dating back several thousand years.
Brahmanism also inspired asceticism. The gods themselves used ascetic exercises, called tapas in the Indian literature: in the cosmology of Brahmanism, the world was created as a result of Prajapati’s tapas. Priests kept vigil at holy fires and engaged in breathing exercises and fasting. In Hinduism, life is divided into stages, the last two of which are relevant to this topic. Vanaprastha is the stage of withdrawing from social life in old age and wandering to holy places or hermitages; the subsequent stage of Sannyasa involves the cessation of traveling and the renunciation of all possessions. A sannyasi who wants to break away from the circle of life and death works on taming desires, practices virtue, and essentially sacrifices themselves. One fascinating ritual during this stage takes place by a fire, during which the sannyasi performs their own funeral and buries their former life.
The very etymology of the word “yoga” reveals ascetic ambitions: one of the interpretations of the Sanskrit root yuj is “to tame,” “to control.” There is a wealth of ancient Indian literature describing various breathing practices, methods of achieving concentration and vision, and techniques involving repeating mantras and visualizing the body dissolving in light. Again, there is a concordance here with shamanism and Western traditions: in India, asceticism is also supposed to lead to the acquisition of supernatural powers. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali lists further siddhis—the powers obtained by an advanced yogi: passing through walls, mind reading, bilocation, and so on. However, their possession is not the goal of yogic practice; on the contrary, the emergence of such skills that make it difficult to achieve the real goal is a cause for lament.
The concept of the body-soul opposition as conducive to ascetic practices was mentioned above. Tantric yoga proves that such dualism is not necessary, and , even if it occurs, it does not have to lead to a categorical condemnation of the body and corporeality. Although tantra employs various spiritual exercises, it does not completely reject desires, but sanctifies them and uses them for mystical purposes. Tantric yoga does not deny sexuality; in fact, it even renders it an element of ascetic practice.
Buddhism, Jainism, Sufism
Despite the presence of mysterious ascetics in the Vedas, well-documented, widespread asceticism did not appear in India until the sixth century BCE, along with Buddhism and Jainism. The famous Indologist Richard Gombrich presented an interesting view on this subject. He stated that the emergence of asceticism was related to urbanization, the decline of the agricultural lifestyle, and the development of new political and social relations around that time. While the old religiosity emphasized the ritual determination of the course of life through the organization of initiation, marriage, and funeral rites, the new movements have become personal “paths of liberation.” According to Gombrich, on the one hand, the expansion of trade and migration led to the emergence of new ideas, and, on the other, urban life placed greater emphasis on the individual and contributed to the development of individualism. Urbanization was the next step in the formation of the separate self, and thus the religious self. Gombrich’s thesis is confirmed by the fact that the first representatives of Buddhism and Jainism came from cities; perhaps this theory also applies to Western asceticism?
Accounts of the lives of the Buddha show that he practiced self-mortification but abandoned it, finding it ineffective and disappointing. He concluded that, in order to stabilize his mind, he needed to eat and have strength. According to an interesting theory by the Indologist Johannes Bronkhorst, the real innovation in the field of meditation that Buddhism introduced was the pleasant states achieved through its practice. Bronkhorst claims there is no evidence that ascetic exercises were previously perceived in this way; on the contrary, non-Buddhist scriptures suggest that these activities were rather unpleasant and that their purpose was to stop the wheel of karmic existence, not to achieve peace of mind, insight, or knowledge. Buddhism forbids monks and nuns from practicing mortification. Nevertheless, it has evolved in various directions, reaching the extremes of religious suicide in some branches of Buddhism. In 2015, during the scanning of a thousand-year-old Chinese statue of a meditating monk, an extraordinary discovery was made—the actual remains of a meditating monk were found inside. They belonged to master Liuquan, who starved himself to death and self-mummified. Similar cases occurred in Japan in the nineteenth century. The practice of becoming a sokushinbutsu used to be quite popular, and the mummies of those who chose this method of attaining perfection can be seen in some temples to this day.
Equally spectacular forms of renunciation are associated with Jainism. Much like Catholics, Jains imitate their saints in suffering, except that they value them more highly than gods. The parents of Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, were said to have ritually starved themselves to avoid rebirth. After their deaths, the great teacher also embarked on the path of asceticism; according to myth, when he pulled the hair from his head, the god Indra himself knelt before him. Mahavira used twelve types of mortification and meditation, thanks to which he was finally freed from the curse of life and death—when the time came, he also died by starvation. The example he set still resonates for devotees of Jainism: members of the Digambara faction (the name comes from a term meaning “sky-clad”) ceremonially pull out their hair and often choose the same method of death as the ancient master. The practice of voluntarily fasting to death, which is the goal of all ascetics, is called sallekhana—a well-thought-out, time-spaced, and carefully developed process. The initial phase involves gradually giving up eating products such as fresh and sour milk, sugars, and leafy vegetables; the following months bring further restrictions, ultimately leading to loss of life perceived not as suicide but as a beautiful triumph over death. One contemporary young Jain nun in the process of sallekhana, who was interviewed by William Dalrymple in his book Nine Lives, emphasized that she had not taken that path out of despair or disappointment in her current life. On the contrary, she explained that death was opening up a new existence, —: fresh perspectives and possibilities that excited her.
Muslim asceticism was clearly influenced by Indian and Christian religiosity. Sufi legends also mention astonishing forms of renunciation, especially between the eighth and eleventh centuries. As-Saffar al-Isfahani didn’t raise his head to the sky for forty years. Also for forty years, Kahmas ibn al-Hasan lamented his past crime of petty theft. Abu Yazid al-Bistami spent thirteen years in silence. One anonymous Sufi habitually placed pain-inducing objects on his head before going to sleep. Perhaps under the influence of Jainism, Muslim mystics moved around in such a way as to avoid harming any beings: Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri wore special wooden shoes for this purpose and was also a vegan. According to one Muslim canon, a “righteous” person does not eat more than once a day. Hunger strikes have often led Sufis to health problems and even loss of life.
Death as Ego or Pride?
Aldous Huxley presented a searing critique of asceticism in his book The Perennial Philosophy. He noted that the exercising of perseverance, and the practice practicing of renunciation and purity, can characterize a person who remains thoroughly evil. While the aim of spiritual exercises is to destroy the ego, paradoxically, asceticism can strengthen it, increase it, and lead to the sin of pride, exalting oneself over others, without resulting in true kindness or love. Spectacular public mortification might arouse admiration, but it may also be motivated by rivalry and record breaking, or it might simply result from a mistaken interpretation whereby the means leading to a specific goal are treated as the goal itself.
Huxley’s observations are certainly worth bearing in mind. At the same time, it is possible that his judgment is too harsh towards those who live as hermits and have no one before whom to demonstrate their renunciation. Besides, no ascetic could ever mount a defense against such accusations, because how can one prove the true motives of human behavior? The Jain nun mentioned earlier stated that she had experienced a freedom that she couldn’t have imagined as a lay person. It seems obvious that those who do not engage in demanding exercises will not experience the sensations that result from them.
An interesting discussion regarding asceticism occurred in Europe during the Reformation. Arguments were made that the goals its followers set themselves were unachievable, because man himself, without the help of God’s grace, would accomplish nothing. A sure sign of pride and arrogance is the belief that salvation can be achieved by “action” and initiative alone, when in fact, it requires the unknown, unknowable, and uncontrollable will of almighty God.
No discussion of Protestantism and asceticism would be complete without a mention of Max Weber’s theory, which argued that the emergence of ascetic Protestant ethics led to the birth of capitalism itself. Self-control, rational action, taming affectivity, focusing on work that is an expression of God’s glory, and the accumulation of wealth without hedonism—according to Weber, all these things arise from Protestant piety and asceticism, which led to a global revolution in culture and the economy. These significant changes, per Weber’s concept, were the product of deep religious faith, not the Italian Renaissance, the French Enlightenment, or other secular initiatives.
Weber’s notion of the influence of Protestant “inner-worldly” asceticism, meaning the application of the principles of asceticism to life in society, was developed by other scholars. The sociologist Robert K. Merton suspected that Protestant specificity had also had an impact on the modern scientific revolution. Focusing not on the (church) authorities but on one’s own experience; the resulting emphasis on rationality and empiricism; the idea of a “corrupt” nature and sinful corporeality, which are not perceived as sacred and perfect—in other words, an idea that encourages influencing and manipulating the matter of the world without the risk of profanation—all these are conditions without which, according to Merton, modern science and technology could not have emerged. Merton also cited interesting statistics according to which, in the years 1666–1883, there were only eighteen Catholics and as many as eighty Protestants on the list of members of the French Academy of Sciences. The key figures of the British Royal Society from the period of its establishment were also mainly clergy or extremely religious people.
With or Without a Godhead?
Scholars have also highlighted another important distinction: that between theistic and non-theistic asceticism. The meaning of a religious practice changes depending on whether or not there is a personal god at its center.
In both scenarios, inflicting pain on oneself can be a form of penance. However, in Christianity or Islam, its purpose is to open oneself to forgiveness granted by a personal god. In Indian spirituality, it is more of a mechanical act, most often removing a metaphysical “debt.”
In monotheistic traditions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—an important goal of spiritual training is the attainment of a mystical union with divinity. This is different in the non-theistic asceticism originating from Indian cultures: in Buddhism, yoga, or Jainism, the goal is not a union with the gods, who are sometimes perceived as less perfect than humans, but enlightenment, knowledge, insight, liberation from the circle of life, suffering, and death, and a departure from the world of illusions.
This is where another interesting difference between theistic and non-theistic traditions becomes apparent: in the latter, “enlightenment” is a lasting achievement—once attained, it remains forever; in the former, the mystical experience is only momentary and, although ineffable and huge, it does not guarantee salvation, which is the ultimate goal of religious aspirations. Within these traditions, what is most important cannot be achieved during life on Earth.
Aldous Huxley, in reviewing various mystical traditions around the world, concluded that their ambition was the “death of the ego.” Of course, the great writer and philosopher was himself influenced by certain trends in Indian philosophy. Nevertheless, his conclusion is quite a simplification if one takes into account the Indian non-theistic spiritualities, which contain many variants that are differently defined: the goal of ascetic practice may be to realize the identity of one’s own self with a metaphysical basis for existence, the total schism between the unchanging self and the constantly changing reality, or, ultimately, the fact that no self exists. The goals of religious endeavors can vary greatly, just as the denominations in which they occur are different. The extraordinary diversity of these practices, however, should not obscure the basic, astonishing truth: that these endeavors have occurred always and everywhere.
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