Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 155
91. And thinking, ‘this may be the means of abolishing birth and
death,’ he at once commenced a series of difficult austerities by
fasting.
92. For six years, vainly trying to attain merit, he practised selfmortification,
performing many rules of abstinence, hard for a man to
carry out.
93. At the hours for eating, he, longing to cross the world whose
farther shore is so difficult to reach, broke his vow with single jujube
fruits, sesame seeds, and rice.
94. But the emaciation which was produced in his body by that
asceticism, became positive fatness through the splendour which
invested him.
95. Though thin, yet with his glory and his beauty unimpaired, he
caused gladness to other eyes, as the autumnal moon in the beginning
of her bright fortnight gladdens the lotuses.
96. Having only skin and bone remaining, with his fat, flesh and
blood entirely wasted, yet, though diminished, he still shone with
undiminished grandeur like the ocean.
97. Then the seer, having his body evidently emaciated to no purpose
in a cruel self-mortification; – dreading continued existence, thus
reflected in his longing to become a Buddha: