Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 88
26. ‘If the mortification of the body here is religion, then the body’s
happiness is only irreligion; but by religion a man obtains happiness
in the next world, therefore religion here bears irreligion as its fruit.
27. ‘Since it is only by the mind’s authority that the body either acts
or ceases to act, therefore to control the thought is alone befitting, –
without the thought the body is like a log.
28. ‘If merit is gained by purity of food, then there is merit also in the
deer; and in those men also who live as outcasts from all enjoyments,
through being estranged from them by the fault of their destiny.
29. ‘If the deliberate choice of pain is a cause of merit, why should
not that same choice be directed to pleasure If you say that the
choice of pleasure carries no authority, is not the choice of pain
equally without authority
30. ‘So too those who for the sake of purifying their actions, earnestly
sprinkle water on themselves, saying, "this is a sacred spot," – even
there this satisfaction resides only in the heart, – for waters will not
cleanse away sin.
31. ‘The water which has been touched by the virtuous, – that is the
spot, if you wish for a sacred spot on the earth; therefore I count as a
place of pilgrimage only the virtues of a virtuous man’, – water
without doubt is only water.’