(19) Manjusri asked: “What is the root of the body?”

Vimalakirti replied: “Craving is the root of the body.”

(10) The body hungereth and thirsteth after the father of nature, viz. the stars and the elements, and that father feedeth and nourisheth the body.

(83) The body taketh its food from the seed of the seven spirits of God in the body of the great deep, which [body] is fire, air, water and earth.

(6) Speech said: ' Verily, wherein I am the most excellent, therein are you the most excellent/ ' Verily, wherein I am a firm basis therein are you a firm basis/ said the eye. c Verily, wherein I am attainment, therein are you attain- ment,' said the ear. said the mind. ( Verily, wherein I am procreation, therein are you procrea- tion/ said the semen. f If such I anij what is my food? what is my dwelling? ' flying insects — that is your food. Water is your dwelling/ Verily, what is not food is not eaten; what is not food is not taken by him who thus knows that [i.e. water] as the food (anna) of breath (ana). Those who know this, who are versed in sacred learning (srotriya), when they are about to eat, take a sip; after they have eaten, they take a sip. So, indeed, they think they make that breath (ana) not naked (anagna).

(35) Behold, thou reasonable Soul, to thee I speak, and not to the Body, thou only apprehendest it:- When the Birth is thus continually generated, then every Form has a Center to the Regeneration; for the whole divine Essence [or Substance] stands in continual and in eternal P Generating (but unchangeably) like the Mind of Man, the Thoughts being continually generated out of the Mind, and the Will and Desiring out of the Thoughts. Out of the Will and Desirousness [is] the Work [generated] which is made a Substance, in the Will, and then the Mouth and Hands, go on to perform what was substantial in the Will.

(2) These two [sense-organs] here [i. e. the ears] are Gotama and Bharadvaja. This is Gotama and this is Bharadvaja. These two here [i. e. the eyes] are VisVamitra and Jamadagni. This is VisVamitra. This is Jamadagni. These two here[L e. the nostrils] are Vasishtha and Kas"yapa. This is Vasishtha. This is Kas"yapa. The voice is Atri, for by the voice food is eaten (*/ad). Verily, eating (at~ti) is the same as the name 1 A very similar stanza is found at AV. 10. 8. 9. Atri. He who knows this becomes the eater of everything; everything becomes his food.

(108) I. First, there is the power, from which a body comes to be, whether wood, stone or herbs. II. After that, there is a sap in that thing, which is the heart of the thing. III. Thirdly, there is in it a springing, flowing power, smell or taste, which is the spirit of the thing, whereby it grows and increaseth. Now if any of these three fail, the thing cannot subsist.

(1) In the beginning nothing whatsoever was here. This [world] was covered over with death, with hunger — for hunger is death. Then he made up his mind (manas): ' Would that I had a self!' So he went on (acarat) praising (arcau). From him, while he was praising, water was produced. 'Verily, while I was praising, I had pleasure (ka) \ ' thought he, This, indeed, is the tfTv&tf-nature of what pertains to brightness (arkya). Verily, there is pleasure for him who knows thus that ar/ca-naturc of what pertains to brightness. 2* The water, verily, was brightness. That which was the froth of the water became solidified. That became the earth. On it he [i.e. Death] tortured himself ( Vsram}. When he had tortured himself and practised austerity, his heat (tejas) and essence (rasa) turned into fire.

(112) But seeing the sound of God's word must rise up through the astringent bitter death, and generate a body in the half-dead water, thereupon that body is good, and also evil, dead and also living; for it must instantly attract the sap of fierceness and the body of death, and stand in such a body and power, as does the earth, its mother.

(24) Therefore we say now, according to our high Knowledge, that the Source [or active Desire] of all the three Principles does imprint itself together with the Child's Incarnation [or becoming Man,] in the Mother's Body. For after that Man is figured [or shaped] from the Stars and Elements, by the Fiat, so that the Elements have taken Possession of their Regions, [Kingdoms, or Dominions,] viz. the Heart, Liver, Lungs, Bladder, and Stomach, wherein they have their Regions, then must the there stands now the Image of God, and the Image of this World, and there also is the Image of the Devil. Now there must be Wrestling and Overcoming, and there is Need of the Treader upon the Serpent, even in the Mother's [Womb or] Body.

(92) But when the body begins to be too strait or narrow for it, that it can extend or stretch it no more, and that the contention is too great, then the bitter must yield itself captive. Yet, for all that, the astringent cannot kill the bitter, but only holds it captive, and so the strife in them is so great that the bitter breaks out of the body in strings [fibres] like threads, and taketh some of the son's sap or body along with it. And this now is the vegetation or growing, and incorporating or embodying of a root in the earth. Now thou askest, How can God be in that birth or geniture? Answer.

(49) For the human flesh is and resembleth nature in the body of God, which is generated from the other six qualifying or fountain spirits, wherein the qualifying or fountain spirits generate themselves again, and shew forth themselves infinitely, wherein forms and images rise up, and wherein the heart of God, or the holy clear Deity in the middle or central seat, generateth itself above nature, in that centre wherein the light of life riseth up.

(7) In nearly all the sacred books of the world can be traced an anatomical analogy. This is most evident in their creation myths. Anyone familiar with embryology and obstetrics will have no difficulty in recognizing the basis of the allegory concerning Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the nine degrees of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Brahmanic legend of Vishnu's incarnations. The story of the Universal Egg, the Scandinavian myth of Ginnungagap (the dark cleft in space in which the seed of the world is sown), and the use of the fish as the emblem of the paternal generative power--all show the true origin of theological speculation. The philosophers of antiquity realized that man himself was the key to the riddle of life, for he was the living image of the Divine Plan, and in future ages humanity also will come to realize more fully the solemn import of those ancient words: "The proper study of mankind is man."

(3) < You idiot,' said Yajfiavalkya, * that you will think that it could be anywhere else than in ourselves! for if it were any- where else than in ourselves, the dogs might eat it or the birds might tear it to pieces.' The Soul, the Person taught in the Upanishads 26, ' On what are you and your soul (dtman) based? ' e On the in-breath (fraud)? ' And on what is the out-breath based? ' ' On the diffused breath (vyana)! ' On the up-breath (ndana)? f And on what is the up-breath based * ' c On the middle [or equalizing] breath (samana)? ( That Soul (Atman) is not this, it is not that (neti, neti). It is unseizable, for it is not seized. It is indestructible, for it is not destroyed. It is unattached, for it does not attach itself. It is unbound. It does not tremble. It is not injured. These * are the eight abodes, the eight worlds, the eight gods, the eight persons. He who plucks apait and puts together these persons and passes beyond them — that is the Person taught in the Upanishads about whom I ask you. If him to me ye \\ill not tell, Your head indeed will then fall off.' But him £akalya did not know, And so indeed his head fell off. Indeed, robbers carried off his bones, thinking they were some- thing else. Man, a tree growing from Brahma

(2) While man is in this world, two things are necessary for him: first, the protection and nurture of his soul; secondly, the care and nurture of his body. The proper nourishment of the soul, as above shown, is the knowledge and love of God, and to be absorbed in the love of anything but God is the ruin of the soul. The body, so to speak, is simply the riding animal of the soul and perishes while the soul endures. The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind; and he will perish in the desert.

(11) But the soul thirsteth after the heavenly holy Father, and he giveth meat and drink to it, feeding it with his holy Spirit, and the spring, source or fountain of joy.

(18) Manjusri asked: “What is the root of good and evil?”

Vimalakirti replied: “The body is the root of good and evil.”

(1) 'When the Father produced by intellect and austerity seven kinds of food' — truly by intellect and austerity the Father did produce them. ' One of his [foods] was common to all.' That of his which is common to all is the food that is eaten here. He who worships that, is not turned from evil, for it is mixed [i.e. common, not selected]. 'Of two he let the gods partake/ They arc the tmta (fire-sacrifice) and thtfra/mta (offering). For this reason one sacrifices and offers to the gods. People also say that these two are the new-moon and the full-moon sacrifices. Therefore one should not offer sacrifice [merely] to secure a wish first both men and animals live upon milk. Therefore they either make a new-bom babe lick butter or put it to the breast. Likewise they call a new-born calf 'one that does not eat grass ' what does not ' — for upon milk everything depends, both what breathes and what does not. This that people say, cBy offering with milk for a year one escapes the second death ' — one should know that this is not so, since on the very day that he makes the offering he who knows escapes the second death, for he offers all his food to the gods. eaten all the time?' Verily, the Person is imperishableness, for he produces this food again and again. ' He who knows this imperishableness ' — verily, a person is imperishableness, for by continuous meditation he produces this food as his work. Should he not do this, all the food would perish. ( He eats food with his mouth (pratlkd)' The prattka is the mouth. So he eats food with his mouth.

(52) But it is the body of God, and has all power as the whole geniture has, and the generating spirits take their strength and power out of or from the body of nature, and continually generate again, and the astringent spirit continually compacteth or draweth together again, and drieth up; and thus the body subsisteth, and the generating spirits also.

(101) Then thou seest that the body upon the root is dead also; for when the virtue is gone out of the root, then the body is but a dead carcass and can operate or effect nothing at all. And that is because the astringent spirit and the bitter have killed or destroyed the body of the water and attracted the fatness or unctuosity thereof to themselves; and thus they have drawn or sucked up the spirit thereof into the dead body.