ascesis

/əˈsiːsɪs/

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin ascesis, or directly from its etymon, Ancient Greek ἄσκησις (áskēsis, “exercise, training”), from ἀσκέω (askéō, “to exercise, practise, train”) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, result or process).

Why this word is great

ASCESIS — [Noun] Rigorous self-discipline, especially as a spiritual practice to cultivate virtue or divine connection. From the Ancient Greek ἄσκησις (áskēsis, "exercise, training"), derived from ἀσκέω (askéō, "to exercise, practise, train") + -σῐς (-sis, suffix forming abstract nouns of action or process). Unlike "asceticism" (which conjures hair shirts and desert caves) or "discipline" (a blunt tool for mere productivity), ascesis is the athlete’s devotion applied to the soul. It is the monk rising before dawn to chant, the poet carving away excess words until only truth remains, the gardener pruning not to punish the vine but to let it bear fruit—a quiet rebellion against the entropy of the self.

noun

self-discipline, particularly as a religious observance; asceticism.“The Neo Platonic philosophy, it will now be seen, is monism, and the completion, consequently, of ancient philosophy, so far as it would reduce the totality of being to a single ultimate ground. As able, however, to find its highest principle, from which all the rest are derived, not through self-consciousness and natural rational explanation, but only through ecstasy, mystic annihilation of self,”
The praxis or "exercise" of asceticism and self-denial of impulses or passions for the sake of piety, theosis, and connection with God.“And this we do find in the Basilican, the Byzantine, and the Romanesque architectures, each more perfect than another, and each lacking in an ever diminishing degree much of the perfect holiness of the Saint of "the most high,"—they came and passed away like different periods in the askesis of a holy soul aiming after the perfection of the spiritual life, and truly therefore they are Christian.”