Why did Arthur Schopenhauer connect asceticism with liberation from the will to live?

Arthur Schopenhauer viewed the will—a blind, insatiable, and aimless life force—as the fundamental essence of all reality, which manifests in human life as a cycle of restless desires, suffering, and misfortune. Because this "will to live" is the source of perpetual agitation, Schopenhauer argued that true liberation requires the negation or annihilation of this will.123

He identified asceticism as the path to this liberation. By practicing self-denial and breaking through the bounds of individuality imposed by the ego, the individual can cease the service of the will. While aesthetics and art offer only momentary relief from the passions, the saintly life of asceticism allows one to transcend the suffering inherent in existence. Through acts of compassion and the abnegation of personal desires, the individual effectively rejects the "will to live," finding peace in a state that values nonbeing over the endless striving of being.2