Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 149
47. ‘Cultivating absolute content with any alms from any person, he
carries out his lonely life, indifferent to all feelings, meditating on the
holy books, and satisfied in himself.
48. ‘Then having seen how fear arises from passion and the highest
happiness from the absence of passion, he strives, by restraining all
the senses, to attain to tranquillity of mind.
49. ‘Then he reaches the first stage of contemplation, which is
separated from desires, evil intentions and the like, and arises from
discrimination and which involves reasoning.
50. ‘And having obtained this ecstatic contemplation, and reasoning
on various objects, the childish mind is carried away by the possession
of the new unknown ecstasy.
51. ‘With a tranquillity of this kind, which disdains desire or dislike,
he reaches the world of Brahman, deceived by the delight.
52. ‘But the wise man, knowing that these reasonings bewilder the
mind, reaches a (second) stage of contemplation separate from this,
which has its own pleasure and ecstasy.
53. ‘And he who, carried away by this pleasure, sees no further
distinction, obtains a dwelling full of light, even amongst the
Ābhāsura deities.
54. ‘But he who separates his mind from this pleasure and ecstasy,
reaches the third stage of contemplation ecstatic but without pleasure.