Sage Teachings
Wisdom from enlightened sages
79 dialogues
Final Teaching on Liberation
Ashtavakra & Janaka
Liberation cannot be achieved, known, or transmittedâit is simply the recognition that bondage was never real. There is no one to be liberated because the Self was always free.
You Are Already Free
Janaka & Ashtavakra
Liberation is not an achievement but a recognition - the Self is already free and only imagines itself bound.
The Self Alone Exists
Ashtavakra & Janaka
The Self alone truly exists; the world, body, and mind are appearances within awareness like waves in the oceanânever separate from their source, never diminishing its infinite nature.
The Body is Not the Self
Ashtavakra & Janaka
The body appears within awareness like a dream; the Self witnesses the body but is not confined to or defined by it.
Bondage and Liberation are Illusions
Janaka & Ashtavakra
Both bondage and liberation are concepts in the mind; the Self is beyond all such dualities and was never in either state.
Bondage is Desire for Experience
Janaka & Ashtavakra
Bondage is nothing but desiring experience to be different from what it is; liberation is not gaining something new but recognizing that the Self is already complete and lacks nothing.
Indifference to Liberation
Ashtavakra & Janaka
True liberation is not gaining freedom but becoming indifferent to both bondage and liberation, recognizing that the Self was never bound and needs no release.
I Am Infinite Like the Ocean
Janaka & Ashtavakra
The Self is like the infinite ocean - thoughts and experiences are waves that arise and dissolve without affecting the boundless nature of awareness.
Janaka's Awakening
Janaka & Ashtavakra
True awakening is not learning something new but recognizing what was always present - the Self discovers it was never lost.
Rest in Your Own Nature
Ashtavakra & Janaka
True rest is simply abiding as awareness itself, without effort to maintain or achieve anything - this is natural freedom.
Test of the Realized One
Ashtavakra & Janaka
The realized one is marked by natural freedom from attachment, fear, and ego - not by withdrawal from life but by clear seeing.
The Liberated One's Way
Ashtavakra & Janaka
The liberated one transcends both enjoyment and renunciation, living naturally without method or effort, responding to life spontaneously.
There is Only Brahman
Nidagha & Ribhu
Reality is not divided into the spiritual and materialâthere is only one seamless Brahman appearing as everything, including the apparent seeker and the apparent search.
The World is Brahman
Nidagha & Ribhu
True renunciation is not leaving the world but seeing through its apparent separatenessârecognizing that the world was never other than Brahman.
Beyond Meditation
Nidagha & Ribhu
Meditation serves to quiet the mind that believes it is separate, but ultimate realization comes when even the meditator-meditation-meditated structure is seen through.
The Non-Dual Reality
Nidagha & Ribhu
The trinity of individual soul, world, and God is not three realities in relationship but one Brahman appearing as the drama of three.
Silence is the Ultimate Teaching
Nidagha & Ribhu
The highest truth cannot be spokenâsilence is not the absence of teaching but its fullest expression, for Brahman is beyond all words yet intimately present as the silence from which they arise.
Nothing Ever Happened
Nidagha & Ribhu
In ultimate truth, no creation, bondage, or liberation ever occurredâBrahman has eternally been what it is, and the appearance of a journey is itself part of the dream.
All Paths Lead Nowhere
Nidagha & Ribhu
No path leads to Brahman because you are already Brahmanâall paths are not journeys to truth but exhaustions of the illusion that you are somewhere else.
Song of Perfect Contentment
Janaka & Ashtavakra
Perfect contentment is not an achievement but a recognition that nothing was ever lacking; the Self is naturally at peace, and all seeking was simply the Self temporarily forgetting its completeness.