Askesis signifies not simply a selfish quest for individual salvation but a service rendered to the total human family; not simply the cutting off or destroying of the lower but, much more profoundly, the refinement and illumination of the lower and its transfiguration into something higher. The same conclusion could be drawn from an examination of other key ascetic terms, such as hesychia (stillness, tranquillity, quietude). This too is affirmative rather than negative, a state of plenitude rather than emptiness, a sense of presence rather than absence. It is not just a cessation of speech, a pause between words, but an attitude of attentive listening, of openness and communion with the eternal: in the words of John Climacus, “Hesychia is to worship God unceasingly and to wait on him. . . . The Hesychast is one who says, ‘I sleep, but my heart is awake’” (Song 5.2). Interpreted in this positive way, as transfiguration rather than mortification, askesis is universal in its scope--not an elite enterprise but a vocation for all. It is not a curious aberration, distorting our personhood, but it reveals to us our own true nature. As Father Alexander Elchaninov observes, “Asceticism is necessary first of all for creative action of any kind, for prayer, for love: in other words, it is needed by each of us throughout our entire life. . . . Every Christian is an ascetic.'" Without asceticism none of us is authentically human.

POLUS: What an absurd position you’re trying to maintain, Socrates!
SOCRATES: Yes, and I’ll try to get you to take the same position too, my good man, for I consider you a friend. For now, these are the points we differ on. Please look at them with me. I said earlier, didn’t I, that doing what’s unjust is worse than suffering it?
POLUS: Yes, you did.
SOCRATES: And you said that suffering it is worse.
POLUS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And I said that those who do what’s unjust are miserable, and was “refuted” by you.
POLUS: You certainly were, by Zeus!
SOCRATES: So you think, Polus.
POLUS: So I truly think.
SOCRATES: Perhaps. And again, you think that those who do what’s unjust are happy, so long as they don’t pay what is due.
POLUS: I certainly do.
SOCRATES: Whereas I say that they’re the most miserable, while those who pay their due are less so. Would you like to refute this too?
POLUS: Why, that’s even more “difficult” to refute than the other claim, Socrates!
SOCRATES: Not difficult, surely, Polus. It’s impossible. What’s true is never refuted.

You don't speak well, O man, if you believe that someone worth anything at all would give countervailing weight to danger of life or death or give consideration to anything but this when he acts: whether his action is just or unjust, the action of a good or evil man.