The Long Āgama Sūtra 25.11

25.11

迦葉言：「瞿曇！唯有是道、是迹，比丘於中修行，自知自見。沙門瞿曇時說、實說、義說、法說、律說。但苦行穢污，有得婆羅門名，有得沙門名。何等是苦行穢污，有得婆羅門名，有得沙門名？瞿曇！離服倮形，以手自障蔽，不受夜食，不受朽食，不受兩壁中間食，不受二人中間食，不受兩刀中間食，不受兩杇中間食，不受共食家食，不受懷姙家食，狗在門前不食其食，不受有蠅家食，不受請食。他言先識則不受其飡，不食魚，不食肉，不飲酒，不兩器食，一飡一咽，至七飡止，受人益食，不過七益，或一日一食，或二日、三日、四日、五日、六日、七日一食。或復食果，或復食莠，或食飯汁，或食麻米，或食𥠆稻，或食牛糞，或食鹿糞，或食樹根枝葉花實，或食自落果；或披衣，或披莎衣，或衣樹皮，或草襜身，或衣鹿皮，或留髮，或被毛編，或著塚間衣；或有常舉手者，或不坐床席，或有常蹲者，或有剃髮留髭鬚者，或有臥荊棘上者，或有臥果蓏上者，或有倮形臥牛糞上者；或一日三浴，或一夜三浴，以無數苦，苦役此身。瞿曇！是為苦行穢污，或得沙門名，或得婆羅門名。」

Kāśyapa said, “Gautama, there’s only this path and this way that a monk cultivates, and then he himself knows and sees: ‘The ascetic Gautama’s speech is timely, genuine, meaningful, the teaching, and the discipline.’ It’s only the dirty ascetic practices that make it possible to be named a priest or an ascetic. What dirty ascetic practices make it possible to be named a priest or an ascetic?

“Gautama, they part with clothing and go naked, covering themselves with their hands. They don’t accept food in pots or bowls. They don’t accept food while between two walls, between two people, between two blades, or between two bowls. They don’t accept food when a family is eating together, when there’s a pregnancy in the household, when they see a dog at the door, or when a home has many flies.

“They don’t accept invitations to meals or food from someone who says they know them. They don’t eat fish or meat and don’t drink wine. They don’t take two bowls of food, considering one swallow to be a meal up to seven meals and stopping. When they accept a person’s beneficial food, they don’t do so more than seven times. Sometimes, they eat one meal a day or one every two days, three days, four days, five days, six days, or seven days.

“Sometimes, they eat fruit or weeds and drink juice. They eat flax seed, rice, long-grain rice, cow dung, deer dung, tree roots, branches, leaves, and fruit, or fruit that has fallen naturally.

“Sometimes, they wear clothes, throw on sedge as clothes, wear tree bark, curtain yourselves in grass, or wear deerskin. Sometimes, they fasten head hair to themselves, wear plaited hair, or wear clothes from a charnel ground.

“Sometimes, they keep your arms raised all the time, don’t sit on couches or mats, or crouch all the time. Sometimes, they cut their hair and fasten it to their beard, lie on thorns, lie on fruits and berries, or lie naked on cow dung. Sometimes, they bath three times a day or three times a night. They torment their bodies with these countless hardships. Gautama, these are the dirty practices that make it possible to be named a priest or ascetic.”