[185] Sāriputta, there are some ascetics and brahmins whose doctrine and view is this: 'Purity comes about through food.' They say: 'Let us subsist on jujubes (kola).' They eat jujubes, they eat jujube powder, they drink jujube water, and they consume many kinds of jujube preparations. Sāriputta, I recall having eaten just a single jujube as my food. Sāriputta, you might think: 'Surely the jujube at that time must have been large.' But, Sāriputta, it should not be seen thus: the jujube then was at most the very same size as it is now. Sāriputta, as I fed on just a single jujube, my body reached a state of extreme emaciation. Because of that very scantiness of food, my limbs, major and minor, became like the jointed stems of the āsītika creeper or the kāla creeper. Because of that very scantiness of food, my backside became like a camel's hoof. Because of that very scantiness of food, my spine stood out, protruding and hollowed, like a string of beads. Because of that very scantiness of food, my ribs jutted out, broken and sagging, just as the rafters of an old hall are broken and sagging. Because of that very scantiness of food, the gleam of my eyes, sunk deep in their sockets, appeared just as the gleam of water in a deep well appears sunk deep down. Because of that very scantiness of food, the skin of my head became shriveled and withered, just as a bitter gourd, cut off unripe and touched by wind and sun, becomes shriveled and withered. Sāriputta, when I thought, 'I shall touch the skin of my belly,' it was my backbone that I took hold of; and when I thought, 'I shall touch my backbone,' it was the skin of my belly that I took hold of — for, Sāriputta, because of that very scantiness of food, the skin of my belly clung to my backbone. Sāriputta, when I thought, 'I shall pass excrement or urine,' I fell over face down right there, because of that very scantiness of food. Sāriputta, seeking to ease that same body, I rubbed my limbs with my hand; and, Sāriputta, as I rubbed my limbs with my hand, the hairs, rotted at their roots, fell from my body — because of that very scantiness of food.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.