"Because of so little nourishment, all my limbs became like some withered creepers with knotted joints; my buttocks like a buffalo's hoof; my back-bone protruding like a string of balls; my ribs like rafters of a dilapidated shed; the pupils of my eyes appeared sunk deep in their sockets as water appears shining at the bottom of a deep well; my scalp became shriveled and shrunk, as a bitter gourd cut unripe becomes shriveled and shrunk by sun and wind; . . . the skin of my belly came to be cleaving to my back-bone; when I wanted to obey the calls of nature, I fell down on my face then and there; when I stroked my limbs with my hand, hairs rotted at the roots fell away from my body."
He had experienced pain and tortured his own body like non others and yet have not gained Enlightenment. He recalled the meditation experience he had as a child under the rose apple tree at the ploughing ceremony. He thought that this method of mental development instead of self torture might be a way to Enlightenment. Thereon, he should lead a life that avoid extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification — the Middle Way.
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