ing split, as
if his belly were being cut open with a butcher's knife, and finally as
if he were thrown into a pit of burning coals. Elsewhere[319] he gives
further details of the horrible penances which he inflicted on himself.
He gradually reduced his food to a grain of rice each day. He lived on
seeds and grass, and for one period literally on dung. He wore haircloth
or other irritating clothes: he plucked out his hair and beard: he stood
continuously: he lay upon thorns. He let the dust and dirt accumulate
till his body looked like an old tree. He frequented a cemetery--that is
a place where corpses were thrown to decay or be eaten by birds and
beasts--and lay among the rotting bodies.

But no enlightenment, no glimpse into the riddle of the world came of
all this, so, although he was nearly at death's door, he determined to
abstain from food altogether. But spirits appeared and dissuaded him,
saying that if he attempted thus to kill himself they would nourish him
by infusing a celestial elixir through his skin and he reflected that he
might as well take a little food[320]. So he took a palmful or two of
bean soup. He was worn almost to a shadow, he says. "When I touched my
belly, I felt my backbone through it and when I touched my back, I felt
my belly--so near had my back and my belly come together through this
fasting. And when I rubbed my limbs to refresh them the hair fell
off[321]." Then he reflected that he had reached the limit of
self-mortification and yet attained no enlightenment. There must be
another way to knowledge. And he remembered how once in his youth he had
sat in the shade of a rose apple tree and entered into the stage of
contemplation known as the first rapture. That, he now thought, must be
the way to enlightenment: why be afraid of such bliss? But to attain it,
he must have more strength and to get strength he must eat. So he ate
some rice porridge. There were five monks living near him, hoping that
when he found the Truth he would tell it to them. But when they saw that
he had begun to take food, their faith failed and they went away.

The Buddha then relates how, having taken food, he began to meditate and
passed through four stages of contemplation, culminating in pure
self-possession and equanimity, free alike from all feeling of pain or
ease. Such meditation was nothing miraculous but supposed to be within
the power of any trained ascetic. Then there arose before him a vision
of his pr