Monasticism

Monasticism is a term encompassing religious institutions, ritual and belief systems whose agents, members or participants attempt to practice religious works that are above and beyond those required by the religious teachings of their society or of exceptional individual religious and spiritual leaders in their society. They therefore make a radical interpretation of the tenets that apply to all believers or to the whole society. Monasticism may involve such practices as celibacy, and asceticism; its practitioners usually isolate themselves physically from the surrounding society.

The purposes of monasticism include: discovery of the true self, emancipation of the self, and the improvement of society. Discovery of the true self is accomplished by overcoming imperfections of the body and mind (through discipline, control, chastisement, self-mortification, or other psychophysical procedures) and by spiritual perfection (using processes of intense contemplation, possibly accompanied by prayer, worship, incantation, propitiation, self-abasement, or self-inflation). Emancipation of the self is accomplished by salvation from bondage, by redemption as deliverance from the spiritual effect of past transgressions, and by liberation from cycles of birth and death.