What do you think of asceticism?

That's not how Buddhism works.

In Buddhism, the progression goes like this:

- you train your mind, so that you can observe clearly

- your observations (of what is going on inside of you) produces insight

- the insight produces changes in your attitudes, and this in turn produces changes in your behavior.

It makes no sense to give up watching college football when you like watching college football. This doesn't make your craving for it go away.

However, if you get some insight into watching sports on TV .. if you saw clearly how watching sports triggered unhappiness in you, you would automatically and easy stop WANTING to watch college football.

This is, of course, assuming that watching college football was one of the sources of your unhappiness. Likely, it is NOT.

In Buddhism, you don't give up things you like.

What you do, is you stop being "owned" by these things.

And some of these things you will see either cause your unhappiness, in which case they lose their attraction for you (since you know that sorrow will follow them), OR you see that they cause other unhappiness (and as your compassion grows, you start being unhappy when you cause others unhappiness .. so those things that hurt others become things you no longer want).

First comes the wisdom.

THEN comes the behavior change, as an automatic result of the wisdom gained.

The Buddha practices asceticism. And rejected it as part of the Path.

I don't get it, to be honest. I think it's mainly embraced by people as a way of rationalising the pain and deprivation we face in life and giving it a fulfilling character when it's really just an arbitrary and unfair aspect of the world. It's good to challenge and test yourself, yes, and to derive happiness from things other than material comforts. But ascetism itself- no. Also I think it's possible and worthwhile to take on useful elements of Eastern and/or Hellenistic philosophy (e.g. mindfulness, meditation) without adopting asceticism.

the Buddha practiced asceticism.

Sangha (monkshood) is with all requirements for liberation. If one practices asceticism in Buddhist way, one is simply a Buddhist monk. This is particularly true to forest monks.

I'm against it. I think the world would be better off without it (the major religions are all ascetic at heart).