The History of Buddhist Thought c10.8

c10.8

¹ The term asceticism is ambiguous. It may mean self-mortification, the actual infliction of pain on himself by the devotee, or it may mean merely abstention from any or all of the pleasures of sense. Against the former practice Buddhism made a definite protest, though it did not entirely eradicate it from the discipline of its disciples, just as it did not destroy the belief in the acquisition of supernormal powers by such means.