The most immediate goal of bodily asceticism is to put an end to the unnatural submission of the soul to the body; to free the soul from the body’s stranglehold, to restore the dominion of the soul over the body, to submit the body and the soul to the sovereignty of the mind. Thus St Thalassius writes: “The intelligence by nature submits to the Logos (ie. reason) and disciplines and subjugates the body.”
~Dr Jean-Claude Larchet (Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses vol.2 p.264)
