Three Stages For Overcoming Mental Afflictions

                                          First, the unwholesome must be averted.
                                          In the middle, the self must be averted.
                                          Last, all the views are averted.
                                          Wise is the one who knows this.

                                                              ---Aryadeva, 

in Four Hundred Verses on the Middle Way 

(Third Century C.E.)---