Page 152 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE

Asceticism

In the Encyclopedia of Religion (Eliade 1987), asceticism is defined as "a voluntary,
sustained, and at least partially systematic program of self-discipline and self-
denial in which immediate, sensual, or profane gratifications are renounced
in order to attain a higher spiritual state or a more thorough absorption in the
sacred" (Kaelber 1987, 441). Typically associated with radical self-denial and the
suppression of physical desires, asceticism tends to be dominant in religions
that propose an eternal, unchanging, and pure soul trapped in a transient and
defiled body. In Indian religions, for example, its techniques include long periods
of fasting, sexual abstinence, bodily tortures (lying on a bed of nails, hanging
upside-down, or exposure to extreme heat, cold, or water, for example), as
well as the control of various bodily functions and rules of hygiene. Similarly,
in medieval Christianity, devotees practiced self-flagellation, wore hair shirts,
and spent many hours kneeling on the stone floors of churches. This form of
severe asceticism almost always involves an active hostility toward the body,
and a sense of the physical self as sinful, dirty, defiled, and undesirable, a major
obstacle to salvation which must be overcome.
In China, there are few known examples of severe asceticism. On the con-
trary, the dominant mode of Chinese culture is expressly anti ascetic. Confu-
cianism declares that the body is a gift every person receives from his or her
parents, and that any harm or intrusive change it is subjected to constitutes a
violation of filiality. Also, any form of radical hermitism is seen as a rejection
of society and family, the mainstays of Chinese life, and cannot be tolerated.
Body and family are essential aspects of the individual identity, and one can
only realize virtue by cultivating them in a harmonious and beneficent way.
Taoism differs from both of these religious modes, and incorporates a
form of "mild" asceticism (with the possible exception of *Quanzhen during
the early stages of its development; see Eskildsen 1990). This tendency is
evident in the practices of its key forerunners, ancient immortality seekers
and Buddhists. These devotees underwent various kinds of discipline, usually
associated with hermitism and the simplification of bodily needs, in order to
attain spiritual states; but in both cases the body was considered essential for
this undertaking. It had to be transformed, and thus removed from society
and disciplined, but not tortured. Buddhism in particular prides itself on
cultivating the "middle path," which means the rejection of both indulgence

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