..续本文上一页it of live coals.
"And each time, though tireless energy was roused in me and unremitting mindfulness established, yet my body was overwrought and uncalm because I was exhausted by the painful effort. But such feelings as arose in me gained no power over my mind."
M.I,242ff (abridged); II,93; 212 (Nanamoli, LoB, p.17ff)
Though very diligent in his endeavours to win to some spiritual truth, the Buddha-to-be still was not satisfied with the results. Not having achieved significant results with various meditation practices, the Buddha-to-be undertook to follow some of the ascetic practices for which India was renowned.
7. "Such was my asceticism that I went naked, rejecting conventions, licking my hands, not coming when asked, not stopping when asked . . . I clothed myself in hemp, in hemp mixed cloth, in shrouds, in refuse-rags, in tree bark, in antelope hide, in kusa-grass fabric, in bark fabric, in wood (shavings) fabric, in head-hair wool, in animal wool, in owl”s wings.
"I was one who pulled out hair and beard, pursuing the practice of pulling out hair and beard. I was one who stood continuously, rejecting seats. I was one who squatted continuously, devoted to maintaining the squatting position. I was one who used a mattress of spikes; I made a mattress of spikes my bed. I dwelt pursuing the practice of bathing in water for the third time by nightfall. Such was my asceticism.
"I would go off to some awe-inspiring grove and dwell there -- a grove so awe-inspiring that normally it would make a man”s hair stand up if he were not free from lust. I would dwell by night in the open and by day in the grove when those cold wintry nights came during the Eight-days Interval of Frost. I would dwell by day in the open and by night in the grove in the last month of the hot season. And there came to me spontaneously this stanza never heard before:
Chilled by night and scorched by day,
Alone in awe-inspiring groves,
Naked, no fire to sit beside,
The hermit yet pursues his quest.
"I would make my bed in a charnel ground with the bones of the dead for a pillow. And cowherd boys came up and spat on me, made water on me, threw dirt at me, and poked sticks into my ears. Yet I never knew the arising of an evil mind (thoughts) about them. Such was my abiding in equanimity." M.I,77ff (Nanamoli, Treasury 3, p.249ff)
"I thought: `Suppose I take very little food, say, a handful each time, whether it is bean soup or lentil soup or pea soup
” I did so. And as I did so, my body reached a state of extreme emaciation; my limbs became like the joined segments of vine stems or bamboo stems, because of eating so little. My back-side became like a camel”s hoof; the projections on my spine stood forth like corded beads; my ribs jutted out as gaunt as the crazy rafters of an old roofless barn; the gleam of my eyes, sunk far down in their sockets, looked like the gleam of water sunk far down in a deep well; my scalp shrivelled and withered as a green gourd shrivels and withers in the wind and sun. If I touched my belly skin, I encountered my backbone too; and if I touched my backbone, I encountered my belly skin too -- for my belly skin cleaved to my backbone. If I relieved myself, I fell over on my face then and there. If I tried to ease my body by rubbing my limbs with my hands, the hair, rotted at its roots, fell away from my body as I rubbed -- because of eating so little." M.I,242ff; II,93; 212 (adapted from Nanamoli, LoB, p.17ff)
Some of these ascetic practices were common among the various religious sects which proliferated during the 6th century BC. The Buddha-to-be tried them, but found them unsatisfactory to his quest.
8. "I thought: `Whenever a samana or brahmana has felt in the past, or will feel in the future, or feels now -- painful, racking,…
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