The Body is Not the Self

Janaka: "Yet I cannot deny this body. It ages, it hungers, it will one day die. How can I separate myself from it?"

Ashtavakra: "You already are separate. The body is made of the elements—earth, water, fire, air, space. You are the witness of these elements. Were you ever made of clay?"

Janaka: "I observe the body, yes, but—"

Ashtavakra: "Then you are not the body. That which is observed cannot be the observer. The seen cannot be the seer. This is not philosophy—it is direct experience. Look now. Is the hand looking at itself, or are you looking at the hand?"

Janaka: "I am looking at the hand."

Ashtavakra: "Then you are not the hand. Extend this understanding to the whole body. You are not skin, not bone, not blood, not flesh. You are that which knows all these."

Janaka: "But when the body is injured, I feel pain—"

Ashtavakra: "Pain appears in you. Pleasure appears in you. Neither affects you any more than a dream affects the sleeper. The sleeper wakes and the dream is gone. You are the waking that is always present."

Janaka: "And when the body dies?"

Ashtavakra: "When a pot breaks, does the space within it die? The space was never confined by the pot, only appeared to be. You are that unlimited space. The body appeared in you; you did not appear in the body."

Janaka: "I have heard sages speak of the soul departing the body—"

Ashtavakra: "Departing where? You are everywhere. The infinite cannot travel. Only the limited moves from place to place. You are that which has no location because you are the space in which all locations appear."

Janaka: "This is like hearing the truth for the first time, though I have heard thousands of teachings—"

Ashtavakra: "Because this teaching points directly, without giving the mind something to do. The mind wants a journey. I am showing you that you have already arrived—that there was never anywhere to go."

Janaka: "Then what use is the body?"

Ashtavakra: "What use is the pot to the space inside it? None. Yet the pot appears. Let it appear. Let it serve its function. You are not diminished when it breaks, nor were you enhanced when it was formed. Know this and be free of the body while still appearing to inhabit it."