Eventually Siddhartha came to the forest where the wise men lived. He studied first with Arada and then with Udraka. In a short time he mastered everything they had to teach him. But still he was not satisfied. “My teachers are holy people, but what they have taught me does not bring an end to all suffering. I must continue to search on my own.”

He continued his travels until he came to the Nairangana River, near the holy town of Gaya. He crossed the river and entered the forest on the other side. There he found a group of five men. Their life was extremely simple. They ate very little food, lived out in the open and sat perfectly still for many hours each day.

“Why are you doing such painful things to your bodies?” the prince asked these men.

“Most people in the world treat their bodies very gently,” they answered, “yet still experience much suffering. We feel that if we can learn to master pain, we shall have found the way to control all sufferings.”

Siddhartha thought to himself, for so many years he lived in those luxurious pleasure palaces. He was treated very gently, yet still my mind did not find peace. Perhaps these men are right. He joined them in their practices and see if this leads to the end of suffering.

And so he began these difficult and painful practices. He sat for hours and hours in the same spot. Even though his legs and back hurt very much, he would not move a muscle. He let himself be burned by the blazing summer sun and chilled by the winter winds. He ate barely enough food to remain alive. But no matter how difficult it was, he had to continue and discover the way out of all misery!’

The five men were amazed at Siddhartha. They said to amongst themselves, “Never have we seen anyone with as much determination as this man. He drives himself on and on and never quits. If anyone is ever going to succeed in these practices it will be Siddhartha. Let us stay near him so that when he discovers the true path we shall be able to learn it from him.”

Siddhartha treated his body more and more harshly. In the beginning, he slept only a few hours each night, but eventually he stopped going to sleep altogether. He stopped taking even the one meal a day that he used to eat, and would only eat the few seeds and berries that the wind blew into his lap.

He grew thinner and thinner. His body lost its radiance and became covered with dust and dirt. Eventually he looked like little more than a living skeleton. But still he did not give up his practices.

Six long years passed. Siddhartha was twenty-nine years old when he left his palaces and all their pleasures behind. At thirty-five, he spent the last six years with hardly any food, sleep, shelter, or decent clothing. One day he questioned whether he was any closer to his goal now than he was six years ago? Or is he still as ignorant as before? When he was a prince and lived in luxury, he had everything a person could desire. He wasted many years in those prisons of pleasure.

Then he left the palace and began his search and lived in forests and caves and lived on very little food. But he still did not learned how to put an end to suffering. He saw it is a mistake to punish his body like this, just as it was a mistake to have wasted so much time in those palaces. To find the truth he must follow a middle path between too much pleasure and too much pain.

He remembered that many years ago, after he saw the dead man, he had meditated under a rose-apple tree. After that meditation, he thought that his mind was very calm and still. He was able to see things clearly for the first time. He tried to meditate like that again now.

But when he looked at himself he realized he was sitting here for such a long time without food that he was so tired, dirty, and weak. He was so thin that his bones protruding through his skin. How could he meditate when he was so hungry and dirty even to think clearly?