In the present article, starting from what Hadot understands by "spiritual exercises" and from the "critics" of his philosophy, made by an Athonite monk, I will try to show, to the best my abilities, in what lies the essential difference between these "spiritual exercises" and Christian Asceticism. Of course, considering the dimensions of this article, I will try to show, as clear as possible, only the issues that I consider essential for the correct understanding of this difference, i.e. the one configured by the relation between Metaphysics and Theology in point of expression on the language level of some spiritual experience in a philosophical acceptation, as well as the one supposed by the Christian asceticism: the mystical experience.
