The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [209]
“This is the time, Blessed One, this is the time, Sublime One, for the Blessed One to expound in detail these four kinds of persons. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the bhikkhus will remember it.”
“Then, bhikkhus, listen and attend closely to what I shall say.”
“Yes, venerable sir,” the bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this:
8. “Bhikkhus, what kind of person torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself?547 Here a certain person goes naked, rejecting conventions, licking his hands, not coming when asked, not stopping when asked; he does not accept food brought or food specially made or an invitation to a meal; he receives nothing from a pot, from a bowl, across a threshold, across a stick, across a pestle, from two eating together, from a pregnant woman, from a woman giving suck, from a woman in the midst of men, from where food is advertised to be distributed, from where a dog is waiting, from where flies are buzzing; he accepts no fish or meat, he drinks no liquor, wine, or fermented brew. He keeps to one house, to one morsel; he keeps to two houses to two morsels;…he keeps to seven houses, to seven morsels. He lives on one saucerful a day, on two saucerfuls a day…on seven saucerfuls a day. He takes food once a day, [343] once every two days…once every seven days; thus even up to once every fortnight, he dwells pursuing the practice of taking food at stated intervals. He is an eater of greens or millet or wild rice or hide-parings or moss or ricebran or rice-scum or sesamum flour or grass or cowdung. He lives on forest roots and fruits, he feeds on fallen fruits. He clothes himself in hemp, in hemp-mixed cloth, in shrouds, in refuse rags, in tree bark, in antelope hide, in strips of antelope hide, in kusa-grass fabric, in bark fabric, in wood-shavings fabric, in head-hair wool, in animal wool, in owls’ wings. He is one who pulls out hair and beard, pursuing the practice of pulling out hair and beard. He is one who stands continuously, rejecting seats. He is one who squats continuously, devoted to maintaining the squatting position. He is one who uses a mattress of spikes; he makes a mattress of spikes his bed. He dwells pursuing the practice of bathing in water three times daily including the evening. Thus in such a variety of ways he dwells pursuing the practice of tormenting and mortifying the body. This is called the kind of person who torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself.
9. “What kind of person, bhikkhus, torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others? Here a certain person is a butcher of sheep, a butcher of pigs, a fowler, a trapper of wild beasts, a hunter, a fisherman, a thief, an executioner, a prison warden, or one who follows any other such bloody occupation. This is called the kind of person who torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others.
10. “What kind of person, bhikkhus, torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself and also torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others? Here some person is a head-anointed noble king or a well-to-do brahmin. 548 Having had a new sacrificial temple built to the east of the city, and having shaved off his hair and beard, dressed himself in rough hide, and greased his body with ghee and oil, scratching his back with a deer’s horn, he enters the sacrificial temple together with his chief queen and his brahmin high priest. There he lies down on the bare ground strewn with grass. The king lives on the milk in the first teat of a cow with a calf of the same colour [344] while the chief queen lives on the milk in the second teat and the brahmin high priest lives on the milk in the third teat; the milk in the fourth teat they pour onto the fire, and the calf lives on what is left. He says thus: ‘Let so many bulls be slaughtered for sacrifice, let so many bullocks be slaughtered for sacrifice, let so many heifers be slaughtered for sacrifice, let so many goats be slaughtered