Why is asceticism necessary for enlightenment?
 

Hi everyone - another question.
Why is asceticism necessary to achieve enlightenment?
Thanks for your help :)

I think some do asceticism as a way of removing obstacles that can slow down and/or prevent a person from quieting their mind.

… let’s ask someone who is enlightened …

I am not enlightened, but I can say that some forms of asceticism can be necessary to move up.
As BigJohn says, it's about quieting the mind and being in the present moment.

The more pleasures you have, the more day-dreaming you have, or mind wandering. They are cravings.
But as you move up (and practice meditation) you will realise more and more that most of the pleasures you enjoy are ridiculous if watched in the present moment. Cravings are dreams, they only exist in your mind.

So it's working both ways: meditating reduces the cravings because you realise they don't exist for real ; and you will want to cut down some enjoyments because they create too much mental pollution.

'There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged … that which is devoted to sensual pleasure and that which is devoted to self-affliction , by avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way is realised.'
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta 56:11

The middle path is ok if we want to reach the destination in some time but if we want to speed up the process then we should conserve the energies as we need these energies to reach higher up for us to unlock various aspects of life on the path of spiritual awkening.

A typical definition of asceticism is severe self-discipline and avoiding of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.

Another term for asceticism is austerity, which yogapedia defines as: ... a disciplined spiritual practice, or sadhana, that purifies the body and mind of anything that prevents or blocks connection with the higher Self, or God.

It is also called Tapas, the third element of the five niyamas (ethical guidelines), one of the stages in the eightfold path of yoga. The word Tapas is derived from the root Sanskrit verb ‘tap’ which means ‘to burn’, suggesting a sense of self-discipline, passion and courage in order to burn away ‘impurities’ on all levels.

Is this necessary for enlightenment? Depends what we mean by enlightenment. If we consider enlightenment as the surrender of the small separate self, allowing identification with the true limitless Self, then it makes sense that we do not indulge in activities which strengthen our identification with the small separate self.

But at the same time there are people who seem to have had genuine expansions of consciousness without being ascetics.

And equally there are those who take asceticism to an extreme, without any obvious spiritual benefit.

Perhaps the middle way combined with self-discipline is the best approach. Self-discipline may be painful to begin with but it then becomes a freedom.

Peace

Thanks iamthat. very helpful

thank you to everyone else also

What makes you think it is necessary?
To be honest, I only know it from a book by Dan Brown, I think Angels & Demons. I find it rather appalling and it isn't necessary at all. If not mistaken it stems from the old -usual religious- beliefs that having physical sensations and pleasure is sinful so you got to bash them out.

These days we are taught that there's nothing wrong with physical pleasures. We are here to experience what that is like, so it's more the other way round: allowing these as opposed to oppressing them is healthy and helpful on the path to ascensions and 5D.
The whole reason we are here is to learn to AND be in a physical body with all that comes with it (pain, pleasure, etc) AND still getting to a higher vibration.
That's why we incarnated on this planet. So we are supposed to honour our bodies, NOT damage and hurt them.

When looking at people that have been taught the wrong other beliefs you see that often their psyche is sick. Those are the people that often cannot have healthy romantic relationship, pull the legs of a frog and liking that, hurt other human beings, and so on.
Those are worst cast scenarios, milder forms are inability to love, no self-love, not happy, needing to lose themselves in gaming or something alike (also blowing, alcohol etc is possible), and as such inability to have a truly healthy relationship.
I know such people, my daughter married into such a family where the parents has psychically & emotionally damaged all 4 of their children with their idiotic religious beliefs. They btw also used corporal punishment and locking them up in cupboards.
He was a weird person, not the greatest husband in the world, although not bad but still very damaged goods. Sometimes he was really weird with their dog too. No warmth, no show of affection or care for anything. And I have seen my daughter with enormous bruises...
My daughter got out btw.

Just telling this to illustrate how damaging such practices are. Don't underestimate the extent of that.
Thinking of it, even that ascetic monk in Angels & Demons was a sick person, damaged psyche: he was the assassin that didn't feel, didn't care, just killed whomever he was ordered to kill.

I think this whole asceticism concept was created by church as another means to keep people small, to stop them from reaching a higher vibration as church wanted to be the one and only channel for the higher vibration.