“I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free.”

The Asceticism is a philosophical manifesto characterized by a visionary-prophetic tone, infused with the lyricism of its creator.

The meaning of life and existence is condensed in a continuous struggle against the “ascent of man,” where the moral “duty” aligns with the existential “cry,” giving voice to “freedom,” in the complete liberation of human existence from all fear but also from all hope.

Kazantzakis worked on his Asceticism again and again; it is the seed from which all his work sprouted, as he confessed at one point to Prevelakis. In other words, it is the essence of his thought.

This generous book, with its painful honesty and poetic nature, is the fervent desire for freedom, the struggle toward fulfillment, which ultimately culminates in a powerful cry to lead us to the highest step of maturity: silence.

“We come from a dark abyss; we end up in a dark abyss; the bright space in between we call Life. As soon as we are born, the return begins; simultaneously the beginning and the return, every moment we die. That is why many have proclaimed: The purpose of life is death. But as soon as we are born, the effort begins to create, to compose, to make matter life; every moment we are reborn. That is why many have proclaimed: The purpose of ephemeral life is immortality.”