Asceticism is the practice of austere self-discipline, voluntary undertaken, in order to achieve a higher or spiritual ideal. The term is derived from the Greek askein, which in the time of Homer meant, "to practice an art or skill.
Ascetic can be an adjective that applies to someone who turns away from his or her material comforts to follow a path of rigid self-discipline and self denial.
Asceticism
A method of altering the state of one's consciousness through the avoidance of comfort and pleasure; when extreme, may become masochism.
Aspect, Astrological ...
The ascetic should not accept any metal, and should avoid calumny, untruth, jealousy, all play with woman, and all discharge of seed (280). He should regard with an equal eye worms, men, and Devas.
Theosophy and Asceticism
Q. I have heard people say that your rules require all members to be vegetarians, celibates, and rigid ascetics; but you have not told me anything of the sort yet. Can you tell me the truth once for all about this?
Theosophy and Asceticism
Theosophy and Marriage
Theosophy and Education
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Is the Theosophical Society a Money-making Concern?
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J.C. I met an ascetic who now lives in Assisi, Italy. He had spent many years in India. On the basis of his experience he advised me that all of western mysticism is a sideshow compared to India. How do you react to such a statement?
So, finding all the ascetic practices unavailing, he decided instead to try the training of the mind along the lines of the highest meditation; and presently he seated himself beneath the Bodhi tree, ...
Classical Buddhism: Its revolutionary ascetical "realism" compared with "exoteric" and "esoteric" religious "idealism" and the "idealistic" traditions and schools associated with the sixth and seventh stages of life.
More interesting and reliable are accounts of the extraordinary physical feats of some fakirs or ascetics themselves. These are recorded in many anecdotes, and are sometimes well-documented.
the Indian Gymnosophists (naked ascetics) and Bragmanni (Brahmans, having many occult teachings and esoteric lore), India (with certain plants and as derived from the union of male and female animal as in the Upanishads), ...
The Essenes--the most prominent of the early Syrian sects--were an order of pious men and women who lived lives of asceticism, spending their days in simple labor and their evenings in prayer.
We continue with information on Brahmin ascetic practices, which are performed at astrologically significant times and, by enabling the practitioners to reach a state of dematerialization, allow them to dominate the celestial powers.
Martius was nothing like the ascetic, withered, pale professors of mystic learning of those days. He was trained in arms and renowned as a wrestler.
Scholem notes some similarities between ascetic subgroups within the QBLH community and the Cathar Perfects.
Psychic abilities have long been claimed and sought by many at all levels of society, from kitchen-sink soothsayers and wandering ascetics to heads of state and shadowy government agencies.
However it needs to be said that asceticism is not the same as simplicity. Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity puts them in proper perspective because it reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us.
the evocation of spirits, the charging of talismans, and similar operations were explored, and Mathers and his associates observed that the preparations demanded by the ancient grimoires to conduct these rituals often amounted to feats of asceticism ...
 See also: World, Spirit, Ritual, Spiritual, Light
  
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