The ascetic practices

The dhutaṅgas (a Pali word for practices that "shake off" or "scour away" attachment; in Sanskrit, dhūtaguṇa) are a set of optional, voluntary austerities that a Buddhist — especially a monk or nun — may take on to intensify simplicity and renunciation. They are extra, not required: ordinary Buddhist monastic life already involves discipline, and these go further by choice, for those who want to deepen their training. The phrase "shake off" captures the aim — to loosen the mind's grip on comfort, possessions, and craving.

The standard Theravāda list (set out in the classic manual the Visuddhimagga) counts thirteen practices, and it includes all of the following: wearing robes sewn from discarded rags rather than fine cloth; owning only three robes and no more; eating only food gathered on the daily alms-round, going from house to house without skipping any door; eating just one meal a day; eating only from the single alms-bowl; not accepting extra food once the meal has begun; living in the forest rather than a village; dwelling at the foot of a tree; staying out in the open; living in or near a charnel-ground or cemetery as a vivid reminder of death; accepting whatever sleeping place one is assigned without seeking a better one; and the "sitter's" practice of never lying down, taking even one's rest while seated. A practitioner may adopt some or all of these, to a chosen degree.

It is worth heading off a common misreading: this is not the harsh self-torture that the Buddha himself tried and then rejected before his awakening. Buddhism teaches a Middle Way between indulgence and extreme self-punishment, and the dhutaṅgas are meant to support contentment and clarity, not to earn merit through suffering. They remain alive today, especially in forest-monastery traditions, as tools for those drawn to a starker, freer simplicity.