Practices in Various Religions and Cultures
Various forms of self-denial or voluntary suffering (commonly referred to as Ascetism) are practiced in various ways by members of many religions, including Sufism, and Shi'a Islam which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in the 7th century battle of Kerbala. Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism. Various indigenous peoples and primitivists also incorporate voluntary pain, suffering, and self-denial as part of their spiritual traditions as vehicles to the divine and/or rites of passage or healing.
It has been speculated that extreme practices of mortification of the flesh may be used to obtain altered states of consciousness to achieve spiritual experiences or visions. In modern times, members of the Church of Body Modification believe that by manipulating and modifying their bodies (by painful processes) they can strengthen the bond between their bodies and spirits, and become more spiritually aware. This somewhat secular group uses rites of passage from many traditions to seek their aims, including Hindu, Buddhist, shamanic, methods of seeking altered states of consciousness.
Read more about this topic: Mortification Of The Flesh
Famous quotes containing the words practices, religions and/or cultures:
“Money made through dishonest practices will not last long.”
—Chinese proverb.
“All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organisation. For the latter makes use of violence, the former—of the corruption of the will.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“A two-week-old infant cries an average of one and a half hours every day. This increases to approximately three hours per day when the child is about six weeks old. By the time children are twelve weeks old, their daily crying has decreased dramatically and averages less than one hour. This same basic pattern of crying is present among children from a wide range of cultures throughout the world. It appears to be wired into the nervous system of our species.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)