The History of Buddhist Thought c10.7

c10.7

There have been great movements in which the practice of the ascetic life has become an enthusiasm, but we always find that it is a new ideal which gives the inspiration.¹ Ascetic practices have seemed to be a wonderful means for attaining the positive end. For the Christian monks of Egypt in the third century the present life was a transitory period of no value in view of the glories soon to come. St. Antony, hearing in church how the apostles had left all, sold his goods, and in reply to the tempter said, “ no one shall separate me from the love of Christ.” St. Pachomius tried in the depths of the desert to “ live the life of the heavenly ones through the love of virtue ”. In those very words we may probably see the other side of the ideal, the attempt to live more than a human life, leading to results that have repeatedly shown themselves in the history of asceticism. What was wanted was a rule of life to guide the enthusiastic impulses. We need not now consider whether the ascetic life should be set up as a vocation at all. It is certain that there are natures to whom the thought of another world or a life beyond the mere pleasures of sense is so vivid that everything except the pursuit of that ideal is worthless and vain. Ascetic movements have succeeded when they have roused individuals to whom the ideal appealed, and when a guide has appeared who knew how to establish a wise rule of life through which such natures could find their realization.