Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 156
98. ‘This is not the way to passionlessness, nor to perfect knowledge,
nor to liberation; that was certainly the true way which I found at the
root of the Jambu tree.
99. ‘But that cannot be attained by one who has lost his strength’, – so
resuming his care for his body, he next pondered thus, how best to
increase his bodily vigour:
100. ‘Wearied with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, with his mind no
longer self-possessed through fatigue, how should one who is not
absolutely calm reach the end which is to be attained by his mind
101. ‘True calm is properly obtained by the constant satisfaction of
the senses; the mind’s self-possession is only obtained by the senses
being perfectly satisfied.
102. ‘True meditation is produced in him whose mind is self-possessed
and at rest, – to him whose thoughts are engaged in meditation the
exercise of perfect contemplation begins at once.
103. ‘By contemplation are obtained those conditions through which is
eventually gained that supreme calm, undecaying, immortal state,
which is so hard to be reached.’
104. Having thus resolved, ‘this means is based upon eating food,’ the
wise seer of unbounded wisdom, having made up his mind to accept
the continuance of life,