法苑珠林 11.24

11.24

At that time, the Bodhisattva, in this Deer Forest, studied austerities under the five bhikṣus led by Kaundinya. He underwent six years of extreme hardship, surpassing his former teachers. Yet because he starved himself, he did not attain the Way, but wearied his physical form in vain. Thus the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: "The Bodhisattva should admonish his mind with austerities. Eating a single sesame seed a day for seven days; and non-glutinous rice, mung beans, hemp seeds, millet gruel, and white beans were likewise eaten for seven days each. When practicing austerities in this manner, all his flesh and skin wasted away, shrivelling and shrinking like a severed gourd left in the sun. His eyes were sunken like stars at the bottom of a well; his flesh was gone and his ribs protruded like a dilapidated thatched hut; his backbone stood out in a continuous ridge like stacked bricks tied with cord; where he sat was like a horse's footprint. When he wished to sit, he bent forward; when he wished to rise, he fell back. Although he underwent such useless suffering, he did not regress from the mind of bodhi."