Theosophical Society,
Asceticism
This contribution is a reply by
posed at a symposium at Cardiff Lodge
Question:-
Is there any
spiritual benefit in asceticism or self denial for its own sake where there is
no benefit for others ?
Answer:-
My
dictionary definition defines an ascetic as one who refrains from all forms of
pleasure, for religious or spiritual reasons.
As
a general rule, the answer to the question would be ‘NO’ but it would obviously
depend on the motive behind the self denial. Asceticism was developed in
association with personal spiritual progress. We are told in Theosophical
literature that there are stages of Initiation that require a person to divorce
himself temporarily from the world in order to bring a condition whereby
consciousness can more easily be raised to a higher level because the
Initiation takes place on a higher level.
At
our everyday level of consciousness there so many distractions that it is
easier to focus and concentrate on spiritual training when removed from the
world.
There
will always be personal peripheral benefits by simply removing oneself from the
world, however, this can also have repercussions which would do harm because
one is in the world mainly to learn lessons in co-operation with other human
beings and the main way of learning lessons is by making mistakes.
When
following a spiritual path, an important phrase to bear in mind is that we
should try to be IN the world but not OF the world.
Theosophical Society,