My Asceticism

Written on October 18, 2023

Asceticism is the pursuit or practice of a pure life by restraining one's passions and desires and applying self-discipline. It is regularly accompanied by meditation to quiet one's own mind. In ancient Hellenistic cultures it was practiced by religious mystical communities, afterwards the concept was extended to the general practice of wisdom, virtue and piety.

After reading a book about the life and teachings of Pythagoras, this word caught my interest. Not because of the precise religion his sect followed, but because of thoughts on how spirituality in a person might grow with this practice.

Without knowing it, it turned out I've been practicing it for quite a while, the book only brought me the knowledge that there is a word for it and that it is a widely practiced process. I already had, for example, stopped using a smartphone, stopped consuming for as far as that is possible in today's society — I've been using mostly the same things for a few years now — and practiced minimalism to the extent that is realistically possible.

Unfortunately I'm not rich so I can't just throw away all my belongings unless I want to become homeless, which is certainly not my intention. Now that I think about it, being poor is the main reason I already lived this way — to make ends meet — and is probably the reason why I was able to switch to asceticism so easily.

I don't plan to keep this up for years, but who knows how far I'll get. My days are no longer filled with constantly consuming content, but creating content. Some of this is posted on this website, most is kept private.

I'm outside more often and walk a lot around the few natural paths that can be found in and around my city and when I travel to work, I read a book instead of being on my phone.