ascesis

Noun

ascesis (countable and uncountable, plural asceses)

1. (Rigorous) self-discipline, particularly as a religious observance; asceticism.
   • The Neo Platonic philosophy, it will now be seen, is monism, and the completion, consequently, of ancient philosophy, so far as it would reduce the totality of being to a single ultimate ground. As able, however, to find its highest principle, from which all the rest are derived, not through...1867, Albert Schwegler, “Christianity and Scholasticism”, in James Hutchison Stirling, transl., Handbook of the History of Philosophy […], Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, →OCLC, pages 142–143
   • This intellectual discipline, this progressive unification and concentration of the mind is an important part of the preparatory ascesis, the work of purification which must be carried through before any approach towards the mystical union can be expected.1945 April, A[rthur] H[ilary] Armstrong, “Platonic Mysticism”, in T. S. Gregory, editor, The Dublin Review, volume 216, number 433, Birmingham; Dublin: Burns Oates & Washbourne […], →OCLC, page 133
2. (specifically, chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism) The praxis or "exercise" of asceticism and self-denial of impulses or passions for the sake of piety, theosis, and connection with God.
   • And this we do find in the Basilican, the Byzantine, and the Romanesque architectures, each more perfect than another, and each lacking in an ever diminishing degree much of the perfect holiness of the Saint of "the most high,"—they came and passed away like different periods in the askesis of a...1845 March, “On the Nomenclature of Christian Architecture”, in The Ecclesiologist, volume I (New Series; volume IV overall), number II, Cambridge: John Thomas Walters […]; London: F[rancis] & J[ohn]...
   • Saint Anthony the Great described a process of purifying the nous by eliminating the disturbances aroused in it by thoughts, feelings, images, imitative movements—all the things that have been unconsciously taken in and remembered by the personality. [...] To achieve this illumination and...1995, Robin Amis, “The Eye of the Soul”, in A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions), Albany, N.Y.: State University of...