76 Sentences With "self mortification" | Random Sentence Generator

IN WALKING A middle path, between self-indulgence and self-mortification, Buddhists face great temptations.

In the Bible, John wears a rough garment of camel hair, which suggests the kind of uncomfortable scratchiness that might easily go hand in hand with self-flagellation and self-mortification.

But Wilson also pointed out that in Housman's choice of Manilius there seems an element of perversity and self-mortification, and that his scholarship sometimes radiated not so much love for literature as hatred for his rivals.

He later became a monk and priest, as well as a hermit and an ascetic, fleeing the machinations of Rome, where he was denounced for sexual impropriety with a female follower, for the Syrian desert near Antioch, where he practiced penance and self-mortification.

Bracketed by a scene of earthly malfeasance on the left (bandits and murderers) and purgatory (demons and sinners) on the right, Domenic has rushed into the privacy of a cave and stripped to his waist for an urgent session of self-mortification, his halo gleaming in the dark.

You might assume that an author who has written about having a consensual sexual affair with her father, as Kathryn Harrison did in her controversial 1997 memoir "The Kiss"; one who has also detailed her struggles with anorexia and self-mortification (along with her daughter's all-consuming bout with head lice), as Harrison did in her 2003 essay collection "Seeking Rapture: Scenes From a Woman's Life"; and one who has told of exhuming her mother's remains to have them cremated 17 years after her death, as Harrison did in her 2004 memoir "The Mother Knot," would be emptied of surprising personal revelations.

The distinction of the Flagellants was to take this self-mortification into the cities and other public spaces as a demonstration of piety.

After Siddhartha had mastered all the teachings of Alara Kalama and then Uddaka Ramaputta, he left and began practicing self mortification along with Kaundinya and his four colleagues at Uruvela. Kaundinya and his colleagues attended to Siddhartha in the hope that he would become enlightened through self-mortification. These involved self-deprivation of food and water, and exposing themselves to the elements to near-death for six years, at which point Siddhartha rejected self-mortification. Kaundinya and his colleagues became disillusioned, believing Siddhartha to have become a glutton and moved away to Sarnath near Varanasi to continue their practices.

Vidya Dehejia and Thomas B. Coburn (1999), Devi: The Great Goddess, Smithsonian Institution, , p. 386 A yogi, states Banerjea, should not be confused with someone practicing asceticism and excessive self- mortification.

This is done through their concerts, which he describes as "musical rituals" that involve self-mortification and taking on an alternative, "spiritual persona" (for example by the wearing of costume and face paint).

It is suggested (here and earlier in the novel) that another reason for Dorothy's refusal of Warburton's proposal is her sexual repression. The story ends with Dorothy back in her old routine, but without the self-mortification.

Vol II, pp. 809-888. He has translated the Rāma Pūrva and Uttara-tāpinī and the Nṛsiṁha Pūrva and Uttara-tāpinī Upanishads. Deussen reads tapanīya, which means "that which must be heated" or "gold". It also has the meaning of "self-mortification".

Gordon showing his scourged back, widely distributed by Abolitionists to expose the brutality of slavery. A scourge is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type, used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self- mortification. It is usually made of leather.

Shahi then married and had three children. In 1975, he went to Sehwan Sharif for self-mortification; he spent a period of three years in the mountains of Sehwan Sharif and the forest of Laal Bagh in self-purification, "for the sake of God's love".

Buddha initially practiced severe austerities, fasting himself nearly to death of starvation. However, he later considered extreme austerities and self-mortification as unnecessary and recommended a "Middle Way" between the extremes of hedonism and self-mortification.Laumakis, Stephen. An Introduction to Buddhist philosophy. 2008. p.

Many other rules of religious orders contained similar restrictions of diet, some of which even included fowl, but fish was never prohibited, as Jesus himself had eaten fish (Luke 24:42-43). The concern of those monks and nuns was frugality, voluntary privation, and self-mortification.

He received his First Communion on 18 December 1896. Medda practiced self-mortification as a stimulus to respond to his vocation in becoming a professed religious. In March 1911 he entered a Capuchin institution in Cagliari and made his novitiate and first solemn profession. He soon took the habit and assumed the name of "Nicola".

Humphrey has since died. He is a senior apologist for Catholic Answers. Akin defended charges that Pope John Paul II engaged in self-flagellation, writing, "Self- mortification teaches humility by making us recognize that there are things more important than our own pleasure." Akin said that while Chick tracts were inaccurate, he thought they brought some people to God.

As a result, when Siddhartha renounced the world, Kaundinya and Assaji, as well as Bhaddiya, Vappa and Mahanama, three sons of three of the brahmin scholars joined Siddhartha in the ascetic life. The five joined Siddhartha in self-mortification practices at Uruvela. When Siddhartha abandoned this practice to follow the Middle Way, they left him in disappointment, believing he had become indulgent.

The Whale Caller confesses his love for Sharisha, and his concern that she might not return from her migration, while Saluni expresses her want to dispose of Sharisha in order to capture the Whale Caller's love. During confessions, Mr. Yodd taunts the Whale Caller and Saluni by occasionally laughing, causing discomfort and self-mortification for both the Whale Caller and Saluni.

Temperance is an essential part of the Eightfold Path. In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, often regarded as the first teaching, the Buddha describes the Noble Eightfold Path as the Middle Way of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self- mortification. The third and fifth of the five precepts (pañca-sila) reflect values of temperance: "misconduct concerning sense pleasures" and drunkenness are to be avoided.Harvey, P. (1990).

In the 13th century, a group of Roman Catholics, known as the Flagellants, took self-mortification to extremes. These people would travel to towns and publicly beat and whip each other while preaching repentance. The nature of these demonstrations being quite morbid and disorderly, they were during periods of time suppressed by the authorities. They continued to reemerge at different times up until the 16th century.

In Munkács, Weiss established a yeshiva with a high level of Talmudic studies that drew students from other countries. Following the death of his mentor, the Rebbe of Zidichov, in June 1873, Weiss established his own Hasidic sect in his third wife's hometown of Spinka. Weiss was called a "miracle worker", and attracted thousands of followers. He was also known for his self-mortification and ecstatic prayers.

Throughout his pontificate, Gregory X only canonized one individual. He confirmed the cultus of Franca Visalta in September 1273. She was a Cistercian nun from Piacenza, authoritarian and given to extreme forms of self-mortification. Having been eased out of a Benedictine convent, where she had been placed at the age of seven, she built her own convent, over which she ruled as Abbess.

In the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism, the term "Middle Way" was used in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which the Buddhist tradition regards to be the first teaching that the Buddha delivered after his awakening. In this sutta, the Buddha describes the Noble Eightfold Path as the middle way of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification: According to the scriptural account, when the Buddha delivered the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, he was addressing five ascetics with whom he had previously practiced severe austerities. Thus, it is this personal context as well as the broader context of Indian shramanic practices that gives particular relevancy to the caveat against the extreme (Pali: antā) of self- mortification (Pali attakilamatha). Later Pali literature has also used the phrase Middle Way to refer to the Buddha's teaching of dependent origination as a view between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism.

Backman Worlds of Medieval Europe pp. 374–380 Among the uprisings were the jacquerie in France, the Peasants' Revolt in England, and revolts in the cities of Florence in Italy and Ghent and Bruges in Flanders. The trauma of the plague led to an increased piety throughout Europe, manifested by the foundation of new charities, the self-mortification of the flagellants, and the scapegoating of Jews.Davies Europe pp.

The depiction of Jerónima's well- documented and radical practice of self-mortification, however, is conspicuously left out in the portrait; contrary to contemporaneous accounts of the nun that speak of her "dry and denigrated" body "full of scars and wounds", Jerónima in Velázquez portrait is not scarred or wounded. In fact, she is seen as "unscathed" and standing upright with an "unyielding" gaze, which reinforces her "authoritative presence".

The Nine Days are considered an inauspicious time, fraught with danger even in our day and age. Rather than view the Three Weeks and the Nine Days as times of punishment and self-mortification, some Jewish teachings see them as opportunities for introspection, repentance, and forging a closer relationship with God. The Talmud states that all who mourn the destruction of Jerusalem will merit to rejoice in its rebuilding.Ta'anit 30b.

To avoid the temptation of men, she had her mother dismiss a twelve year old boy who was helping in the household. Margaret slept little, often due to severe headaches, ate little, kept frequent vigils, engaged in long periods of fasting and continued her self-mortification. She wore ragged clothing and would go out begging until Zegher made her stop. Any money she received from begging she gave to the lepers.

The young Parvati enters the forest and performs great penances in order to obtain Shiva. Her body thins greatly due to her self-mortification after which Brahma declares that she should cease her severe penances as Shiva would soon be hers. History had produced many great sages, but none had performed such penances as this. Brahma instructs that her father would soon come for her and that she should return home with him.

The Kavadi Attam ("kavadi dance") is a ceremonial act of devotional sacrifice through dance, food offerings, and bodily self-mortification. It is often performed by devotees during the festival of Thaipusam in honor of Murugan. The kavadi is a semicircular, decorated canopy supported by a wooden rod that the pilgrim carries on their shoulders to the temple. The devotee makes the pilgrimage (the nadai payanam) with bare feet, bearing food offerings on the kavadi.

Claude Chauchetière was performing his duty as a Jesuit priest to tend to the sick but he felt drawn to Tekakwitha and sensed that there was something special and saintly about her. Tekakwitha died on April 17, 1680 and Chauchetière got to witness her death. Chauchetière's strong interest in Tekakwitha was not unfounded. Tekakwitha was a devoted follower of the Catholic faith and often practiced self-mortification as prove of her faith despite being plagued with health complications.

Many Quakers avoided eating butter as a form of self- mortification, and the most eccentric followers would avoid tea and meat. The idealist and pacifist ideas of the Quakers also encouraged many to boycott products that were considered to be tainted by sin. This included butter, due to its role in raising war taxes, and coffee, because it was produced by slave labor. Eating habits were more egalitarian than those of either the Puritans or the Virginian Anglicans.

Concurrently, the image of its Opponents as dreary intellectuals who lacked spiritual fervour and opposed mysticism is likewise unfounded. Neither did Hasidism, often portrayed as promoting healthy sensuality, unanimously reject the asceticism and self-mortification associated primarily with its rivals. Joseph Dan ascribed all these perceptions to so-called "Neo-Hasidic" writers and thinkers, like Martin Buber. In their attempt to build new models of spirituality for modern Jews, they propagated a romantic, sentimental image of the movement.

A female ascetic of the Vaishnavism tradition, 19th- century India. Renunciation from the worldly life, and a pursuit of spiritual life either as a part of monastic community or as a loner, has been a historic tradition of Hinduism since ancient times. The renunciation tradition is called Sannyasa, and this is not the same as asceticism – which typically connotes severe self-denial and self-mortification. Sannyasa often involved a simple life, one with minimal or no material possessions, study, meditation and ethical living.

At age thirty, Mahavira abandoned royal life and left his home and family to live an ascetic life in the pursuit of spiritual awakening. He undertook severe fasts and bodily mortifications, meditated under the Ashoka tree, and discarded his clothes. The Acharanga Sutra has a graphic description of his hardships and self-mortification. According to the Kalpa Sūtra, Mahavira spent the first forty-two monsoons of his life in Astikagrama, Champapuri, Prstichampa, Vaishali, Vanijagrama, Nalanda, Mithila, Bhadrika, Alabhika, Panitabhumi, Shravasti, and Pawapuri.

Traditional Maharashtrian families also organize a jagaran as part of the marriage ceremony, inviting the god to the marriage. Copper figurines of Khandoba riding on a horse (sometimes with Mhalsa) are worshipped by devotees on a daily basis in the household shrine. The Sanskrit Malhari Mahatmya suggests offerings of incense, lights, betel and animals to Khandoba. The Marathi version mentions offerings of meat and the worship by chedapatadi – "causing themselves to be cut", hook-swinging and self- mortification by viras.

It was as a śramaṇa that the Buddha left his father's palace and practised austerities. Gautama Buddha, after fasting nearly to death by starvation, regarded extreme austerities and self- mortification as useless or unnecessary in attaining enlightenment, recommending instead a "Middle Way" between the extremes of hedonism and self- mortification.Randall Collins (2000), The sociology of philosophies: a global theory of intellectual change, Harvard University Press, , p. 204 Devadatta, a cousin of Gautama, caused a split in the Buddhist sangha by demanding more rigorous practices.

Buddha was born to a Kapilvastu head of the Shakya republic named Suddhodana. He employed sramana practices in a specific way, denouncing extreme asceticism and sole concentration-meditation, which were sramanic practices. Instead he propagated a Middle Way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, in which self-restraint and compassion are central elements. According to tradition, as recorded in the Pali Canon and the Agamas, Siddhārtha Gautama attained awakening sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India.

Illustration from The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age by Edward Eggleston depicting a Methodist circuit rider on horseback. Samuel Wesley Sr. examined the writings of Thomas à Kempis on the mortification of the flesh and concluded that "mortification is still an indispensable Christian duty." His son, John Wesley, the evangelical Christian progenitor of the Methodist Church continued "to hold à Kempis in high regard". As such, he likewise wrote that "efforts to manifest true faith would be 'quickened' by self mortification and entire obedience".

The height of the column was raised over time to 18 meters. From his perch, Simeon preached twice a day to the crowds who gathered to witness this spectacle or self-mortification. A ladder attached to he column allowed messengers to bring food and written messages to Simeon, who also sent letters to his followers this way. Such was his renown and reputation for sanctity that the eastern emperors Theodosius, Leo, and Theodosius III sought his advice a implored his intervention in state affairs.

In 1853 she started to experience visions of Jesus Christ on the cross alongside the Blessed Mother and Francis of Assisi; she also experienced visions of demonic harassment that once left her immobile and bedridden. Velotti also used iron tools for self-mortification. Her order was established in 1877 (alongside the widow Eletta Albini who later became Sister Maria Francesca) and it was aimed at educating girls and to promote the role of women in Neapolitan life. Her intention was also to dedicate herself to various charitable initiatives throughout Naples.

Sufism was adopted and then grew particularly in the frontier areas of Islamic states, where the asceticism of its fakirs (or dervishes) appealed to a population used to the monastic traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism or Christianity. Ascetic practices of Sufi fakirs have included celibacy, fasting and self-mortification. Sufi ascetics also participated in mobilizing Muslim warriors for holy wars, helping travelers, dispensing blessings through their perceived magical powers, and in helping settle disputes. Ritual ascetic practices, such as self-flagellation (Tatbir), have been practiced by Shia Muslims annually at the Mourning of Muharram.

Asceticism is found in both non-theistic and theistic traditions within Indian religions. The origins of the practice are ancient and a heritage shared by major Indian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. These probably developed from a syncretism of Vedic and Sramanic influences. Asceticism in Indian religions includes a spectrum of diverse practices, ranging from the mild self-discipline, self-imposed poverty and simple living typical of Buddhism and Hinduism, to more severe austerities and self-mortification practices of monks in Jainism and now extinct Ajivikas in the pursuit of salvation.

Giovannangelo Porro (1451 - 23 October 1505) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and hermit who hailed from the Milanese region and was a professed member of the Servites. Porro was born to nobles and became a priest after the death of his father. He remained a hermit in convents in places such as Florence and Milan where he dedicated his life to inward meditation and self- mortification until his death. Charles Borromeo was healed as a child due to Porro's intercession and carried with him a foot bone fragment from Porro's incorrupt remains.

The present sanctuary is made up of the shrine, the remains of the monastery, a cave and a cistern. Maqam of Sheikh al-Qatrawani. According to local Islamic tradition, the sanctuary was named after a holy man named Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatrawani from the destroyed village of Qatra north of Gaza. Popular belief suggests that al-Qatrawani left his home town of Qatra due to his inability to fulfill his religious duties there, thus relocating to the deserted hill of Dar Hamouda where he "lived in prayer and self-mortification".

Her father died when she was four and Margaret, with her mother and three sisters, went to live with an uncle. She showed a predilection for a holy life from a young age. While attending a local convent school, she smelled a wonderful odor on first beholding the host and begged the Abbess to be allowed to partake of the Eucharist with the nuns. From the age of seven she began severe fasting and practiced self-mortification by stuffing stinging nettles and burrs down the front of her dress.

Both had given away their great wealth to the poor and had become hermits at Monte Nero near Septempeda. They also became hermits in caves near Pioraco. Victorinus was prone to strong temptations, and he inflicted upon himself a difficult and painful penance: he had himself tied to a tree, with his hands crushed between two branches. Victorinus’ particular method of self-mortification was depicted on a small panel in the church of San Venanzio, in Camerino, by the artist Niccolò da Foligno (called l'Alunno), who created the piece between 1478–80.

Instead he adopted robes that were bright yellow, the color of the bahitawi hermits, and a color which in Ethiopian tradition symbolized penance and suffering. Indeed, the Patriarch spent the entire 11 years of his reign in almost constant penance. He prayed constantly, refused to eat anything but the simplest boiled and roasted grains and beans, slept on the bare floor and wore the thinnest of sandals, in an act of constant self-mortification. Every penny of his personal allowance was spent on educating a group of famine orphans that he was personally raising in the Patriarchate itself.

The passage from Matthew is addressed by Jesus to his disciples, calling upon each of them to follow his example and "take up his cross." The homily takes an inclusive view of penitence as combining self- mortification with compassion for others: Christ is to be regarded as a model not only of meaningful suffering, but of relations to others: "everyone's sickness was sickness to him, offence to anyone was offence to him, everyone's infirmity was infirmity to him."Quoted in John Saward, Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ's Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality (Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 46 online.

Piercing combined with suspension was historically important in the religious ceremonies of some Native Americans, featuring in many variants of the Sun Dance ceremony, including that practiced by the Crow Nation. During the Crow ceremony, men who wished to obtain visions were pierced in the shoulders or chest by men who had undergone the ceremony in the past and then suspended by these piercings from poles in or outside of the Sun Dance Lodge. Some contemporary Southeast Asian rituals also practice body piercing, as a form of spiritual self-mortification. Generally, the subject attempts to enter an analgesic trance prior to the piercing.

According to Tattvartha Sutra, an ascetic’s dharma consists of ten elements i.e. abstract virtues, which are – ksama ('forebearance'), mardava ('humility'), arjava ('uprightness'), sauca ('desirelessness'), satya ('truthfulness'), samyama ('self-discipline'), tapas ('self-mortification'), tyaga ('renunciation'), akincanya ('poverty') and brahmacharya ('celibacy'). Hemachandra has recognized only two of the ten pratyakhyanas viz. sanketa-pratyakhyana and addha-pratyakhyana, the former, which is of eight types, is symbolic and the devotee refrains from taking food for some time by which renunciation he recalls his mind to his religious duties; the latter, is ritualistic, also connected with abstention from or renouncing food, and has a set methodology to adopt.

All traditional sources agree that the prince led a very comfortable life before his renunciation, emphasizing the luxury and comfort he had to leave behind. He renounced his life in the palace in order to find "the good" and to find "that most blessed state" which is beyond death. The story of the Great Renunciation is therefore a symbolic example of renunciation for all Buddhist monks and nuns. The Buddha's rejection of the hedonism of the palace life would be reflected in his teaching on the Middle Way, the path between the two extremes of sensual pleasure and self-mortification.

Kaundinya was a brahmin who first came to prominence as a youth due to his mastery of the Vedas and was later appointed as a royal court scholar of King Suddhodana of the Sakyas in Kapilavastu. There Kaundinya was the only scholar who unequivocally predicted upon the birth of Prince Siddhartha that the prince would become an enlightened Buddha, and vowed to become his disciple. Kaundinya and four colleagues followed Siddhartha in six years of ascetic practice, but abandoned him in disgust after Siddhartha gave up the practice of self-mortification. Upon enlightenment, Siddhartha gave his first dharma talk to Kaundinya's group.

After Jacques Frémin went back to France due to his failing health, Chauchetière was left alone with only one colleague, Pierre Cholenec, who would later serve an important role in helping him with getting Kateri Tekakwitha canonized. His duty as a missionary in Kahnawake included celebrating mass, taking confession, visiting the sick, instructing newcomers, tending to the dying and dead, supervising work on the farm, and writing reports. Many of the converts of Kahnawake were very devoted and would practice self-mortification as evidenced of their faith. Some took it too far that Chauchetière had to advise against excessive self-flagellation.

R. Nandakumar, HoD Visual arts, IGNCA says, 'these oracles in the various stages of trance, can be seen stomping around, sword in hand, in convulsive movements of frenzy. Weird-looking in their hysteric outbursts, the women oracles are part of the temple functionaries who devote themselves at the service of these unique customs and rituals observed in the temple that are related to ancient and possibly, pre- Brahminic mother goddess cults. Though the atmosphere is charged and overwrought with a kind of high-strung atavistic fervour, the images of these women in their redemptive bodily movements of self-mortification, have hardly any religious awe about them'.

The ascetic techniques described in the early texts include very minimal food intake, different forms of breath control, and forceful mind control. The texts report that he became so emaciated that his bones became visible through his skin. According to other early Buddhist texts, after realising that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, Gautama discovered "the Middle Way"—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path. His break with asceticism is said to have led his five companions to abandon him, since they believed that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined.

Escrivá taught that "joy has its roots in the form of a cross", and that "suffering is the touchstone of love", convictions which were represented in his own life., , , He practiced corporal mortification personally and recommended it to others in Opus Dei. In particular, his enthusiasm for the practice of self-flagellation has attracted controversy, with critics quoting testimonies about Escrivá whipping himself furiously until the walls of his cubicle were speckled with blood. Both the practice of self-mortification as a form of penance, and the conviction that suffering can help a person to acquire sanctity, have ample precedent in Catholic teaching and practice.

After drinking, prayers were said to thank the dancers for their sacrifice and the whole tribe participated in a great feast. By renewing their connection with God the Sun Dance is believed to bestow God's blessing upon the tribe, bringing them good fortune and happiness for the coming year. Before the Sun Dance was banned some Crows performed a particular type of self-mortification. Holes would be punctured into the pectoral muscles of the dancers through which rawhide rope would be laced and attached to the pole, the participant would then lean backwards, tightening the rope against their flesh in an act of self-torture.

According to Shimon Shokek, these ascetic practices were the result of an influence of medieval Christianity on Ashkenazi Hasidism. The Jewish faithful of this Hasidic tradition practiced the punishment of body, self- torture by starvation, sitting in the open in freezing snow, or in the sun with fleas in summer, all with the goal of purifying the soul and turning one's attention away from the body unto the soul. Another significant school of Jewish asceticism appeared in the 16th-century led from Safed. These mystics engaged in radical material abstentions and self-mortification with the belief that this helps them transcend the created material world, reach and exist in the mystical spiritual world.

Those who undertook this lifestyle were called Sannyasi, Sadhu, Yati,yatin Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Koeln University, Germany Bhiksu, Pravrajita/Pravrajitā,pravrajitA Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Koeln University, Germany and Parivrajaka in Hindu texts.Patrick Olivelle (1981), "Contributions to the Semantic History of Saṃnyāsa," Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 101, No. 3, pages 265–274 The term with a meaning closer to asceticism in Hindu texts is Tapas, but it too spans a spectrum of meanings ranging from inner heat, to self-mortification and penance with austerities, to meditation and self-discipline.Kaelber, W. O. (1976). "Tapas", Birth, and Spiritual Rebirth in the Veda, History of Religions, 15(4), 343-386; Lowitz, L., & Datta, R. (2004).

Augustine, Anne, and Elizabeth About 1035, however, he gave up his secular calling and, avoiding the compromised luxury of Cluniac monasteries, entered the isolated hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio. Both as novice and as monk, his fervor was remarkable but led him to such extremes of self-mortification in penance that his health was affected, and he developed severe insomnia. On his recovery, he was appointed to lecture to his fellow monks. Then, at the request of Guy of Pomposa (Guido d'Arezzo) and other heads of neighboring monasteries, for two or three years he lectured to their brethren also, and (about 1042) wrote the life of St Romuald for the monks of Pietrapertosa.

The Buddha's Middle Path refers to avoiding extremes of indulgence on the one hand and self-mortification on the other. According to the Early Buddhist Texts, prior to attaining nirvana, Shakyamuni practiced a regime of strict austerity and fasting which was common among the sramana religions of the day (limited to just a few drops of bean soup a day). These austerities with five other ascetics did not lead to spiritual progress but did cause him to become so emaciated that he could barely stand. It was only after he gave up the practice of harsh asceticism, including extreme fasting, and instead focused on the practice of meditation and jhana, that he attained awakening.

As some wondered how then they could most closely follow Christ there was a development of desert spirituality, desert monks, self-mortification, ascetics, (Paul the Hermit, St. Anthony), following Christ by separation from the world. This was a kind of white martyrdom, dying to oneself every day, as opposed to a red martyrdom, the giving of one's life in a violent death.Arena, Saints, directed by Paul Tickell, 2006 Jan Luyken's drawing of the Anabaptist :nl:Anna Utenhoven being buried alive at Vilvoorde (present-day Belgium) in 1597. In the engraving, her head is still above the ground and the Catholic priest is exhorting her to recant her faith, while the executioner stands ready to completely cover her up upon her refusal.

For the quest itself, a Crow will go alone to an isolated and prominent place, often the peak of a hill (Crows especially favour the Wolf Mountains), to gain complete solitude for their ritual prayer. In Crow the ritual is called bilisshíissanne, which translates as 'to fast from water,' as the participant vows not eat or drink for two to three days to show their devotion to God through their sacrifice. Self-mortification is also sometimes practiced, the most common being the removal of a finger, as an offering to God and as sign of their dedication. The purpose of these tortures is to show their willingness to give themselves completely to God and gain the pity of a spirit, a representative of God.

Some ascetics live as loner hermits relying on whatever food they can find in the forests, then sleep and meditate in caves; others travel from one holy site to another while sustaining their body by begging for food; yet others live in monasteries as monks or nuns. Some ascetics live like priests and preachers, other ascetics are armed and militant, to resist any persecution – a phenomenon that emerged after the arrival of Islam in India.David N. Lorenzen (1978), Warrior Ascetics in Indian History, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 98(1): 61-75William Pinch (2012), Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires, Cambridge University Press, Self-torture is relatively uncommon practice but one that attracts public attention. In Indian traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, self- mortification is typically criticized.

At first, he was used to wear gold and gems on his clothes, having belts composed of gold and gems and elegantly jeweled purses, linens covered with red metal and golden sacs hemmed with gold and all of the most precious fabrics including all of silk. But all of this was but fleeting ostentation from the beginning and beneath he wore a hairshirt next to his flesh and, as he proceeded to perfection, he gave the ornaments for the needs of the poor. Then you would see him, whom you had once seen gleaming with the weight of the gold and gems that covered him, go covered in the vilest clothing with a rope for a belt." Besides Eligius's self-mortification, Dado recalled his propensity for weeping, "For he had the great grace of tears.

In his years of scholarship, both in the governmental school and his religious studies, Ali came to find that Islam's sources of theology (the Koran and the Hadith) appeared to be in contradiction to what his studies in physical science had proven to be true. Yet in spite of this, he fortified himself in his faith by making the assertion (similar to that of Tertullian centuries prior), “What has reason to do with revelation?” However, as he continued his scholarly pursuits, his findings remained true. While being Deputy Inspector of Schools, Ali came across a group of Sufi philosophers and fakirs whose practices of austerity and self-mortification enticed him greatly, and, in an attempt to fill his feelings of spiritual emptiness, he took up their disciplinary practices.

It was during his time of recuperation that he underwent a profound spiritual crisis that challenged him to the core and resulted in his determination to make a radical change to his own life - one of penance for his earlier misdeeds. He returned to Bologna sometime in 1470 in order to start a life of penitence with austerities he would undertake as a particular penance. He separated from his wife and put on a plain shirt - hence being confused for a Carmelite - and then put on a white one with a cross on his chest that he wore all the time. He preached penance and self-mortification to the people that he encountered and he would often go with those condemned to the scaffold for merciful comfort and solace.

Giovannangelo Porro was born in 1451 in Seveso to the nobleman Protasio Porro and Franceschina as one of three male children. The death of his father in 1468 prompted him to enter the Servite Order around this time while becoming a professed member on 20 December 1470. In the summer of 1474 he travelled to a convent in Florence where he was later ordained as a priest and he remained there until around 1477 when he went to the convent of Monte Senario to dedicate his time to meditation as well as the penitential practices of fasting and self-mortification - he would remain there for about two decades. Towards the end of 1488 the unwell Porro went to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Florence and after his recuperation spent a few months as a convent prior in Chianti.

MN 26 and MĀ 204 continue with the Buddha reaching the Deer Park (Sarnath) (Mrigadāva, also called Rishipatana, "site where the ashes of the ascetics fell") near Vārānasī , where he met the group of five ascetics and was able to convince them that he had indeed reached full awakening. According to MĀ 204 (but not MN 26), as well as the Theravāda Vinaya, an Ekottarika-āgama text, the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, and the Mahāvastu, the Buddha then taught them the "first sermon", also known as the "Benares sermon", i.e. the teaching of "the noble eightfold path as the middle path aloof from the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification." The Pali text reports that after the first sermon, the ascetic Koṇḍañña (Kaundinya) became the first arahant (liberated being) and the first Buddhist bhikkhu or monastic.

Though historical records date the history of the Chamba region to the Kolian tribes in the 2nd century BC, the area was formally ruled by the Maru dynasty, starting with the Raju Maru from around 500 AD, ruling from the ancient capital of Bharmour, located 75 kilometres from the town of Chamba. In 920 AD, Raja Sahil Varman shifted the capital of the kingdom to Chamba, following the specific request of his daughter Champavati. From the time of Raju Maru, 67 Rajas of this dynasty have ruled over Chamba until it merged with the Indian Union in April, although Chamba was under British sovereignty from to then. Raja Maru is said to have been at first a religious devotee whose life was given up to tapas or self-mortification, he afterwards married, three sons were born to him.

200px One of the first purpose of the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier was the Missione Urbana, a Jesuit outreach funded by charitable donation, focused on the evangelization and catechesis of farmers and others who came into the Roman markets from the outlying farmlands, which lacked proper pastoral care. Soon several confraternities, sodalities, and lay congregations began to use the oratory to support their work, including the Mantelloni, a lay penitential confederacy at the Collegio Romano known for its excessive displays of self-mortification. Another that quickly gained appeal for the students of the Collegio Romano, and which met at the Oratory del Caravita, was the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, founded in 1563 by a Belgian Jesuit, Jean Leunis. In 1584, Pope Gregory XIII had ratified the sodality of the Roman College as the prima primeria, or primary unit, to which all other sodalities were to be affiliated, creating a universal structure for these movements.

During seven years he continued to practise this self-mortification until he was visited by St. Ronan Finn with an urgent request for help from the King of Meath, who was distressed by the inroads of British pirates. After much persuasion he accompanied St. Ronan to Tara. On the night of his arrival an inroad took place, and by Finnchu's advice, "all, both laymen and clerics, turned right- handwise and marched against the intruders", with the result that they slew them, burnt their ships, and made a mound of their garments. At this time, dissensions having arisen between the two wives of Nuadu, King of Leinster, he sent off his favourite wife to Munster "on the safeguard of Finnchua of Sliabh Cua", Arrived near Brigown the saint desired she should not come any further until her child was born, for at that time "neither wives nor women used to come to his church".

The Besht stressed the immanence of God and his presence in the material world, and that therefore, physical acts, such as eating, have an actual influence on the spiritual sphere and may serve to hasten the achievement of communion with the divine (devekut). He was known to pray ecstatically and with great intention, again in order to provide channels for the divine light to flow into the earthly realm. The Besht stressed the importance of joy and contentment in the worship of God, rather than the abstinence and self-mortification deemed essential to becoming a pious mystic, and of fervent and vigorous prayer as a means of spiritual elation instead of severe aestheticism, but many of his immediate disciples reverted in part to the older doctrines, especially in disavowing sexual pleasure even in marital relations.David Biale, The Lust for Asceticism in the Ha-sidic Movement, in: Jonathan Magonet, Jewish Explorations of Sexuality.