“Nigrodha, it’s when a mortifier goes naked, ignoring conventions. They lick their hands, and don’t come or wait when called. They don’t consent to food brought to them, or food prepared on their behalf, or an invitation for a meal. They don’t receive anything from a pot or bowl; or from someone who keeps sheep, or who has a weapon or a shovel in their home; or where a couple is eating; or where there is a woman who is pregnant, breast-feeding, or who lives with a man; or where there’s a hound waiting or flies buzzing. They accept no fish or meat or beer or wine, and drink no fermented gruel. They go to just one house for alms, taking just one mouthful, or two houses and two mouthfuls, up to seven houses and seven mouthfuls. They feed on one saucer a day, two saucers a day, up to seven saucers a day. They eat once a day, once every second day, up to once a week, and so on, even up to once a fortnight. They live committed to the practice of eating food at set intervals. They eat herbs, millet, wild rice, poor rice, water lettuce, rice bran, scum from boiling rice, sesame flour, grass, or cow dung. They survive on forest roots and fruits, or eating fallen fruit. They wear robes of sunn hemp, mixed hemp, corpse-wrapping cloth, rags, lodh tree bark, antelope hide (whole or in strips), kusa grass, bark, wood-chips, human hair, horse-tail hair, or owls’ wings. They tear out their hair and beard, committed to this practice. They constantly stand, turning down seats. They squat, committed to the endeavor of squatting. They lie on a mat of thorns, making a mat of thorns their bed. They make their bed on a plank, or the bare ground. They lie only on one side. They wear dust and dirt. They stay in the open air. They sleep wherever they lay their mat. They eat unnatural things, committed to the practice of eating unnatural foods. They don’t drink, committed to the practice of not drinking liquids. They’re devoted to ritual bathing three times a day, including at dusk. What do you think, Nigrodha? If this is so, is the fervent mortification in disgust of sin complete, or incomplete?” “Clearly, sir, if that is so the fervent mortification in disgust of sin is complete, not incomplete.” “But even such a completed mortification has many defects, I say.”

2.1. Defects “But how does the Buddha say that even such a completed mortification has many defects?” “Firstly, a mortifier undertakes a practice of mortification. They’re happy with that, as they’ve got all they wished for. This is a defect in that mortifier. Furthermore, a mortifier undertakes a practice of mortification. They glorify themselves and put others down on account of that. This too is a defect in that mortifier. Furthermore, a mortifier undertakes a practice of mortification. They become indulgent and infatuated and fall into negligence on account of that. This too is a defect in that mortifier.