Namaste
Peace and Love
2007-01-23 01:21:13 · 8 answers · asked by digilook 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Max Weber made a distinction between innerweltliche and ausserweltliche asceticism, which means (roughly) "inside the world" and "outside the world". Talcott Parsons translated these as "worldly" and "otherworldly" (some translators use "inner-worldly", but that has a different connotation in English and is probably not what Weber had in mind).
"Otherworldly" asceticism is practiced by people who withdraw from the world in order to live an ascetic life (this includes monks who live communally in monasteries, as well as hermits who live alone). "Worldly" asceticism refers to people who live ascetic lives but don't withdraw from the world.
Weber claimed that this distinction originated in the Protestant Reformation, but later became secularized, so the concept can be applied to both religious and secular ascetics.
2007-01-23 02:16:52 · update #1
according to the legends.
2007-01-23 02:08:54 · answer #1 · answered by Rev. Two Bears 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Siddhartha was a prince who, after having been shielded from the outside world by his father, "accidentally" saw forms of "suffering" he'd never seen before. It moved him to contemplate suffering and it's causes and realized that everything is suffering and no one thing is inherenly pleasurable, and so.... in order to get an answer to the suffering he saw all about him... he initially became a Hindu ascetic, then found a "middle way". It's said that while meditating he overheard a musician teaching a student about a string being too tight might break and if it's too loose it won't play, which hit home about that "middle way".
Buddhism isn't about forsaking anything, forcing yourself to do anything, or striving too hard... it's about having patience with yourself and compassion (and with other sentient beings) and doing things as you can according to your karma, ability, etc.
_()_
2007-01-23 01:30:29 · answer #2 · answered by vinslave 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Generally he was not a hermit, as he taught to many followers. He grew up rich and, after completely forsaking material possessions for years as a monk, he began to follow the middle way which is neither completely lacking material goods nor lavish.
2007-01-23 01:30:30 · answer #3 · answered by Phoenix, Wise Guru 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is my all time favorite book. His parents were simple people and he tried the material world. He found it did not end his journey to find inner peace which he found looking into a brook with an old man.
2007-01-23 03:24:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
At times he was a hermit until he developed his "middle way" which rejected extreme asceticism.
2007-01-23 01:23:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He was at one point. All Manifestations of God go through this period. Jesus wandered in the wilderness. Moses wanderred in the desert. Baha'u'llah wandered in Kurdistan as a dervish.
His enlightenment is also paralleled by the Burning Bush, the Baptism of Jesus, the Siyah-Chal of Baha'u'llah, etc.
2007-01-23 01:24:27 · answer #6 · answered by darth_maul_8065 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Not sure if he was a hermit, but he was a wise man for sure.
2007-01-23 01:24:38 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
he was a prince who relinquished all material things
2007-01-23 01:28:12 · answer #8 · answered by rajalu p 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋