(28) From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga, until impurity is worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment.

(2) What people call sacrifice (sattrâyana), that is really abstinence, for by abstinence he obtains from the Sat (the true), the safety (trâna) of the Self. What people call the vow of silence (mauna), that is really abstinence, for he who by abstinence has found out the Self, meditates (manute).

(29) The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments, the Rules, right Poise, right Control of the life-force, Withdrawal, Attention, Meditation, Contemplation.

(11) 'This, the firm holding back of the senses, is what is called Yoga. He must be free from thoughtlessness then, for Yoga comes and goes.'

(1) 'Consideration (kitta) is better than will. For when a man considers, then he wills, then he thinks in his mind, then he sends forth speech, and he sends it forth in a name. In a name the sacred hymns are contained, in the sacred hymns all sacrifices.

(5) And the renunciation of the divided, not only lives, but even imaginations, shews the most perfect love of wisdom in the Monks, which exercises itself in science of the unifying commandments. For it is, as I said, not of the middle Rank of the initiated, but of the higher than all.

(3) Mahakasyapa:

The Buddha then said to Mahakasyapa:

“Go to Vimalakirti to enquire after his health on my behalf.”

Mahakasyapa said:

“World Honoured One, I am not qualified to call on him to inquire after his health. The reason is that once when I went begging for food in a lane inhabited by poor people, Vimalakirti came and said:

“Hey, Mahakasyapa, you are failing to make your kind and compassionate mind all-embracing by begging from the poor while staying away from the rich. Mahakasyapa, in your practice of impartiality, you should call on your donors in succession (regardless of whether they are poor or rich). You should beg for food without the (ulterior) idea of eating it. To wipe out the concept of rolling (food into a ball in the hand), you should take it by the hand (i.e. without the idea of how you take it). You should receive the food given without the idea of receiving anything.

When entering a village, you should regard it as void like empty space. When seeing a form, you should remain indifferent to it. When you hear a voice, you should consider it (as meaningless as) an echo. When you smell an odor, take it for the wind (which has no smell). When you eat, refrain from discerning the taste. Regard all touch as if you were realizing wisdom (which is free from feelings and emotions). You should know that all things are illusory, having neither nature of their own nor that of something else, and that since fundamentally, they are not self-existent, they cannot now be the subject of annihilation. Mahakasyapa, if you can achieve all eight forms of liberation without keeping from the eight heterodox ways (of life), that is by identifying heterodoxy with orthodoxy (both as emanating from the same source), and if you can make an offering of your (own) food to all living beings as well as to all Buddhas and all members of the Sangha, then you can take the food. Such a way of eating is beyond the troubles (of the worldly man) and the absence of the troubles of Hinayana men); above the state of stillness (in which Hinayana men abstain from eating) and the absence of stillness (of Mahayana men who eat while in the state of serenity); and beyond both dwelling in the worldly state or in nirvana, while your donors reap neither great nor little merits, what they give being neither beneficial nor harmful. This is correct entry upon the Buddha path without relying on the small way of sravakas. Mahakasyapa, if you can so eat the food given you, your eating shall not be in vain.”

“World Honoured One, when I listened to his words which I had never heard before, I gave rise to profound reverence to all Bodhisattvas and thought, ‘His wisdom and power of speech being such, who will fail to develop a mind set on supreme enlightenment?’ Since then I have refrained from urging people to follow the practices of sravakas and pratyeka-buddhas. Hence, I am not qualified to call on him to inquire after his health.”

(1) What people call sacrifice (yagña), that is really abstinence (brahmakarya). For he who knows, obtains that (world of Brahman, which others obtain by sacrifice), by means of abstinence. What people call sacrifice (ishta), that is really abstinence, for by abstinence, having searched (ishtvâ), he obtains the Self.

(184) The Awakened call patience the highest penance, long-suffering the highest Nirvâna; for he is not an anchorite (pravragita) who strikes others, he is not an ascetic (sramana) who insults others.

(5) Man in his limitations had not power To satisfy, not having power to sink In his humility obeying then, Far as he disobeying thought to rise; And for this reason man has been from power Of satisfying by himself excluded. Therefore it God behoved in his own ways Man to restore unto his perfect life, I say in one, or else in both of them. But since the action of the doer is So much more grateful, as it more presents The goodness of the heart from which it issues, Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, Has been contented to proceed by each And all its ways to lift you up again; Nor 'twixt the first day and the final night Such high and such magnificent proceeding By one or by the other was or shall be; For God more bounteous was himself to give To make man able to uplift himself, Than if he only of himself had pardoned; And all the other modes were insufficient For justice, were it not the Son of God Himself had humbled to become incarnate.