End Of Knowledge

Category: Ashtavakra Samhita

  • A Conversation with Ashtavakra Pt. 22

    Read Part 21 / Ask a Question / Support End of Knowledge
    CHAPTER 15: Part 1
    Ashtavakra said:
    15:1 – One of pure intellect realizes the self even by instruction casually imparted.  One of impure intellect is bewildered in trying to realize the self even after enquiring throughout life.

    A pure intellect—meaning a clear, focused mind—is an essential component in self-inquiry. For some, this comes naturally.  For others a bit of work is required.  In that case, Vedanta recommends meditation and various spiritual practices.  But while meditation etc. are extremely helpful tools for improving the mind’s ability to inquire, they aren’t necessarily mandatory (as some teachers and texts make them out to be). I personally know several self-realized people who didn’t meditate or have a formal spiritual practice while they did self-inquiry (I am not one of them). 

    They key is not to assume you’re such a person right off the bat.  Be open to the idea that your mind may need work and save yourself the grief of inquiring—sometimes for years—to no avail (I know several people like this as well).  Inquire, and if it comes to you easily then it’s a sign that your mind is properly prepared.  If it doesn’t, then work is needed.  The practices for preparing the mind for inquiry don’t fall under the scope of an advanced text like the Ashtavakra Samhita, so I won’t go into them here.      

    15:2 – Non-attachment for sense-objects is liberation; love for sense-objects is bondage. This is knowledge.  Now do as you please.

    Being attached to sense-objects can certainly be unpleasant.  But it isn’t true bondage.  True bondage is to believe that you’re the body-mind.  Therefore liberation is to divest yourself of that notion.  Because anyone can rid themselves of desire for certain sense-objects and increase their peace of mind.  But being unattached to sense-objects doesn’t mean you know you’re really consciousness-existence, the self. That’s true liberation because it shows you that regardless of whether the mind is attached or non-attached to sense objects, you’re always the ever-free self, beyond both attachment and non-attachment. 

    15:3 – Knowledge of truth makes an eloquent, wise and hardworking person mute, inert and idle.  Therefore it is shunned by those who want to enjoy the world.

    Or it doesn’t you make mute, inert and idle.  Why?  Because since self-knowledge shows you that you’re not the body-mind then whether the body-mind is eloquent, wise and hardworking or mute, inert and idle is immaterial.  The action or inaction of the body-mind says absolutely nothing about you.  This is good because self-knowledge is about freedom, not about accepting another set of rules and regulations—from either family, society or scriptures—about how the body-mind should or should not be.  So if you know who you are and you want to do something, then do it.  Or don’t do it.  Just remember that as the self you’re not involved one way or the other.  Identifying with the actions of the body-mind is the problem self-knowledge aims to fix, not specifically what the body-mind does or does not do.  

    However, taken in a less literal sense this verse means that self-knowledge makes the normal aims of life seem less important or altogether unimportant. Because if you realize that you already are what you’re seeking, you don’t have to feel so compelled to accomplish things in life for the sake of feeling fulfilled.  As the self, you’re always full.    

    15:4 – You are not the body, nor is the body yours; you are not the doer nor the enjoyer. You are consciousness, the ever-free witness.  Go about your life happily.
    15:5 – Like and dislike belong to the mind.  But the mind does not belong to you.  You are consciousness, changeless and free of thought.  Go about your life happily.

    I have a dog.  While it’s clear that me and the dog are two different entities, I still feel like the she ‘belongs’ to me.  And because of that I sometimes take credit for her good behavior and feel responsible for her bad behavior.  But really, the actions of the dog—good or bad—have absolutely nothing to do with me. 

    In the same way, while Vedanta makes it clear that you’re not the body-mind you may still be tempted to identify with it thinking it somehow belongs to you.  But Ashtavakra is quick to point out that it doesn’t.  You aren’t the self that owns a body-mind.  You’re the self that appears as a body-mind.  But that appearance doesn’t affect you in the same way that the appearance of waves doesn’t affect water.  So you can relax.  Or not, as long as you remember that the state of the body-mind doesn’t have anything to do with you either way.   

    15:6 – Realizing the self in all and that all is in the self, free from egoism and free from the sense of ‘mine,’ be happy.

    Understanding that everything is you helps you to shift from a very particular, personal perspective of yourself—the perspective of the “I” e.g. the ego—to a universal, impersonal perspective.  At first this can be daunting because of the habitual conditioning to value one’s personal sense of self.  But what does identifying with this personal self, the ego, have to offer?  Nothing, other than the feeling that you’re disconnected from everything around you and that you’re completely defined by the ideas of “I am this” and “I am not that.”  If you can see the value in that, then seeking self-knowledge is for you.        

    15:7 – You are indeed that in which the universe manifests itself like waves on the ocean. You are consciousness; be free from the fever of the mind.

    Like waves in the ocean, the world arises and resolves in you.  And just as the fundamental nature of water is unchanged by the appearance of waves, your fundamental nature as consciousness-existence is unaffected by the appearance of the world. 

    15:8 – Have faith child, have faith. Never confuse yourself in this. You are knowledge itself, you are the lord.  You are the self and you are beyond the material world.

    No faith is actually required in Vedanta because it gives you the tools to investigate its claims for yourself, allowing you to validate them with reason and personal experience. You can see firsthand that you’re knowledge itself—consciousness-existence.  As consciousness-existence you’re the ‘lord’ insofar as the appearance of the world depends on you to exist and not the other way around.  But because you have no location in time or space—and furthermore because there’s nothing other than you that exists—you can’t literally be ‘beyond’ the appearance of the world as if it were something separate from you existing in a different place.  So in this context, ‘beyond’ means that you’re always unaffected by the appearance of the world.         

    15:9 – The body, composed of matter, comes, stays for a while and goes. The self neither comes nor goes. Why, then, do you mourn it?
    15:10 – Let the body last to the end of the universe or let it go even today. Where is there any increase or decrease in you who are pure consciousness?

    The body is a temporary collection of matter. This is plain to see whether or not you know you’re the self.  But when you do know that you’re the self that never comes and goes, you can take the transient nature of the body in stride knowing that its presence, absence or current state neither adds nor takes anything away from you. 

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  • A Conversation with Ashtavakra Pt. 21

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    CHAPTER 14
    Janaka said:
    14:1 – One who is void of mind, whose thoughts of sense objects are spontaneous and who remains awake while sleeping has their recollections of worldly life exhausted. 

    In Swami Nityaswarupananda’s excellent translation of the Ashtavakra Samhita he interprets “void of mind” to mean that the mind of one with self-knowledge is devoid of desires, habitual mental tendencies and knowledge of objects.  Unless I’m misunderstanding his words, I politely but heartily disagree.  Because how could a self-realized person write, teach—or do anything else for that matter—without the desire to do so?  How could they have a personality without habitual mental tendencies?  How could they function in the world without knowledge of objects?  Either self-realized people do have desires, habitual tendencies and knowledge of objects or those with the desire to teach self-knowledge, using their personality and knowledge of objects to do so, aren’t actually self-realized. 

    The latter scenario is problematic, seeing as there would be no living proof that enlightenment is possible.  So I contend—and I think Vedanta supports this contention—that “void of mind” means despite the fact that self-realized people have desire etc. in their minds, they are void of the belief that the contents of their minds either belong to them or affect them.  

    The idea that a self-realized person’s thoughts of sense objects are “spontaneous,” meaning they simply come to that person’s mind rather than being the product of a deliberate desire-based thought process is rooted in the theory that a self-realized person is free from the karmic cycle of cause and effect.  In other words, once they give up the notion of being the doer, the body-mind, they’re passively reaping the effects of past karma created by the doer rather than actively creating new karma. 

    If the theory of karma is true, then perhaps this is correct.  But if self-knowledge clearly demonstrates that you’re not the body-mind—and therefore never involved in the cycle of karma in the first place—what does it matter?  The fact is that regardless of self-knowledge, the body-mind is going to keep functioning as it always has until it dies.  The key is to know it has nothing to do with you either way. 

    To “remain awake while sleeping” can mean two things: 1) A self-realized person is ‘awake’ to the knowledge of their true nature even while appearing to still be ‘asleep,’ meaning while appearing to still be a regular person ignorant of who they really are and 2) A self-realized person knows that they’re always ‘awake’ as consciousness-existence, even though the body-mind may be asleep. 

    To have your “recollections of worldly life exhausted” is not to develop amnesia upon gaining self-knowledge.  Rather, it’s to no longer identify with the sum of your past actions, thinking they somehow define or affect you.   

    14:2 – When desire has melted away, where are my riches, where are my friends, where are the robbers in the form of sense-objects, where are the scriptures and where is knowledge?

    Self-knowledge puts things in perspective.  It demonstrates that money, relationships and sense objects—while they all have relative value in the everyday world—don’t offer any lasting happiness, owing to their transient nature.  For those who eschew such mundane pleasures and instead seek peace in so-called spiritual things such as scriptures, Janaka is quick to point out that they too have no lasting value.  Even though the scriptures can be useful guideposts on the path to self-knowledge, once you’ve ‘arrived’ at the goal, they no longer serve a purpose, the same way a map is useless once you’ve reached your destination.     

    “Knowledge” here can be taken in two ways.  The first is as worldly knowledge, which suffers the same drawback as money etc.  The second is as indirect knowledge of the self obtained from either the scriptures or a teacher.  “Indirect” means you’re told about the self.  But once you understand that you are the self, these indirect statements are no longer useful.      

    14:3 – Realizing I am the self, the witness and the lord, I have become indifferent to both bondage and liberation and I no longer think of my own emancipation.

    Bondage and liberation are dualistic concepts that only apply when you think you’re the body-mind.  But when you know you’re consciousness-existence you understand that the desire for liberation—although a necessary component in the process of self-inquiry—is ultimately irrelevant seeing as you were always the self, the witness of the body-mind seeking liberation, and therefore never bound in the first place.   

    14:4 – The state of one inwardly free of doubts but who outwardly moves about at their own pleasure like a deluded person can only be understood by others like them. 

    Self-knowledge doesn’t dictate certain behavior precisely for the fact that it demonstrates you’re not the doer in the first place.  So just because someone’s body-mind goes about their life in a completely normal way, just like those without self-knowledge, doesn’t mean they don’t know who they really are.  Although this fact can be used by unscrupulous individuals to justify their bad behavior, it’s nonetheless true.  So if you know who you are, your body-mind can still act like an asshole.  But I certainly don’t recommend it.  Because if you truly know that everyone is actually yourself and that you’ve got nothing to gain or lose, what’s to be accomplished by abusing or taking advantage of ‘others’? 

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  • A Conversation with Ashtavakra Pt. 20

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    CHAPTER 13
    Janaka said:
    13:1 – The tranquility born of the knowledge that there is nothing but the self is rare even for one who wears but a loin-cloth. Therefore giving up renunciation and acceptance, I live happily.

    Gaining self-knowledge is no easy task, even for hardcore monks who renounce everything (except, thankfully, their underwear). But the good new is it’s not as difficult as it’s often made out to be.  With a clear mind and a bit of persistence, self-knowledge is attainable for anyone whether they’re an average Joe with a family, a day job and a proper pair of pants or a half-naked monk who meditates in the woods all day.  One of the greatest obstacles to self-knowledge is simply believing that it isn’t possible for you.  Guess what?  It is. 

    To give up renunciation and acceptance is to 1) Understand you’re not the one who accepts or rejects e.g. the body-mind and 2) Know that acceptance and rejection are ultimately irrelevant seeing as everything is actually yourself. 

    13:2 – There is trouble of the body here, trouble of the tongue there, and trouble of the mind elsewhere. Having renounced the idea of being the body-mind, I live happily.

    Trouble belongs to the body-mind alone.  So by giving up the idea that you’re the body-mind, you relinquish ownership of the problems associated with it.  Then, when problems arise, you’re able to take whatever steps are necessary to deal with them, all the while keeping in mind that they never actually affect you.     

    13:3 – Fully realizing that nothing whatsoever is really done by the self, I do whatever presents itself to be done and live happily.

    I once knew a very intelligent computer programmer who was apprehensive about gaining self-knowledge because he thought it meant he’d have to quit his day job—which he really enjoyed—and become a Vedanta teacher.  His fear was based on the all too common idea that gaining self-knowledge means you have to only do so-called spiritual actions while minimizing or entirely avoiding everyday activities. But since self-knowledge shows that you’re never actually involved in the actions of the body-mind, you can let the body-mind do whatever it needs to do—whether spiritual or mundane—and rest easy.      

    13:4 – The yogis who are attached to the body insist upon action or inaction.  Owing to the absence of association and dissociation, I live happily.

    Yoga—meaning spiritual discipline—can be an exceptionally useful supporting practice when doing self-inquiry.  How so?  Yoga leads to increased mental concentration, an essential ingredient in the recipe for self-knowledge.  But since yoga is based on purification and control of the body-mind, it comes with the perpetually burdensome notion of doership.  This means when the yoga practice goes well, you associate with that state and feel good.  But when it doesn’t, you associate with that state instead and feel frustrated. But when self-inquiry yields the knowledge that you’re not associated with the body-mind at all, you can find peace regardless of its state.    

    Classical yoga, based on the philosophy of Samkhya, posits two eternal realities, purusha and prakriti, which can be loosely translated as spirit (your true nature) and matter (the fundamental building blocks of the body-mind and world).  It says you, the spirit, are suffering because of your association with matter.  But if you can disassociate with prakriti by permanently ceasing the functioning of the mind through meditation, prakriti and its tribulations will disappear forever and you’ll be able to rest happily as an isolated spirit. 

    The rub here is twofold:  One, it’s entirely hypothetical that you can meditate enough that your mind completely stops and never restarts.  Two, a non-functioning mind isn’t necessarily desirable.  Because in that case, the joys of life disappear right alongside the problems. 

    Luckily, Vedanta is non-dual.  It asserts that instead of there being two realities, there’s only one reality (yourself, consciousness-existence) appearing as two.  That means there’s no body-mind or world to literally disassociate with.  You only have to ‘disassociate’ from the body-mind and world by understanding that they’re merely appearances that don’t affect you.  Essentially, you get to have your cake and eat it to, meaning the body-mind and world can stay as they are and you can appreciate them for whatever they’re worth without the feeling that they’re real entities that define or restrict you in any way.       

    13:5 – No good or evil accrues to me by staying, going or sleeping. So, whether I stay, go or sleep, I live happily.

    As the self you’re untouched by the actions of the body.  So while good and evil may accrue to the body, it never accrues to you. 

    13:6 – I do not lose by sleeping or gain by striving. So giving up thoughts of loss and elation, I live happily.

    Whether the body sleeps or strives, you, the self, remain the same.  In other words, you’re always okay no matter what the body gains or loses. 

    13:7 – Observing again and again the inconstancy of pleasure and pain under different circumstances, I have renounced good and evil, and I live happily.

    Pleasure and pain come and go.  So what’s the point of being excessively concerned about gaining pleasure or avoiding pain, especially seeing as you’re the self, unaffected by both?  Granted, keeping this perspective in mind is no easy task and it’s certain that the minds of those with self-knowledge can still be overwhelmed by joy, saddened by loss and frustrated by adversity.  But by continually bringing the mind back to knowledge that you’re really the unaffected self, these reactions will lessen in intensity over time.  This illustrates a critically important point:  self-knowledge isn’t about having a perpetually pacified mind.  Peace is only a secondary byproduct while the primary goal is to see you aren’t the mind in the first place.  

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  • A Conversation with Ashtavakra Pt. 19

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    CHAPTER 12
    Janaka said:
    12:1 – First I became averse to physical action, then to extensive speech, then to thought.  In this way I abide in my own nature.

    Self-inquiry is a contemplative journey, one that requires you to progressively withdraw your attention from external things in order to look inward and investigate your true nature.  This withdrawal is the natural consequence of seeing that physical action, speech and thought, being transient in nature, can’t bring about a permanent solution to existential angst.  Once you come to this understanding, it’s not as if you completely stop acting, speaking or thinking.  That’s impossible, unless the body-mind is dead.  Rather, you’re able to prioritize your actions, words and thoughts, focusing on the ones that work towards your goal of self-knowledge to the exclusion of those that don’t.  In this way you ‘abide’ in your own nature.

    12:2 – Having no attachment for sound and other sense objects, and by virtue of the fact that I am not an object of perception, my mind is freed from distraction and is one pointed. In this way I abide in my own nature.

    Seeing the impermanence of sense objects allows you to reduce your attachment to them.  After all, what’s the point of attachment to sense objects if none of them last?  When this is known, distraction caused by sense objects decreases, freeing up attention to inquire into what is permanent:  consciousness-existence, your true self. But this isn’t an inquiry into yet another object because your self is never an object.  Instead, it’s the essence of all objects without being an object itself, the way water is the essence of all waves without itself being a wave.

    12:3 – An effort has to be made for concentration when there is distraction of mind owing to superimposition (self-ignorance).  Seeing this to be the rule, I abide in my true nature.

    During self-inquiry the mind has to be continually brought back to the contemplation of consciousness-existence when it gets distracted by sense objects and thoughts contrary to the inquiry itself.  But when self-inquiry bears fruit you clearly understand that you’re consciousness-existence regardless of whether your mind is distracted, concentrated or otherwise.  You see that you’re always ‘abiding’ in your true nature—consciousness-existence—because you always are consciousness-existence.

    12:4 – Having nothing to accept and nothing to reject, and having neither joy nor sorrow, I abide in my true nature.

    You’re consciousness-existence and consciousness-existence is non-dual.  This means there’s only you, so there’s nothing outside of yourself that’s available for acceptance or rejection.  This doesn’t mean you’ll stop preferring one flavor of ice cream over another or that you’ll just sit back and let an unhealthy situation in your personal life slide.  It just means that you gain perspective on life through the knowledge that everything, good or bad, is in reality just yourself.  So when that irritating co-worker comes up to your desk yet again to talk to tell you their asinine views on politics it’s not as if you won’t tell them that you’re not interested.  But you can do it with the empathy, informed by the understanding that both of your body-mind’s are but appearances of the exact same self, consciousness-existence.

    12:5 – A stage of life or no stage of life, meditation, control of mental functions—finding that these cause distractions to me, I abide in my true nature.

    Observing your duty, renouncing your duty, meditating and controlling your mind—when properly applied—can be invaluable practices on the path to self-knowledge.  But once self-inquiry negates the idea that you’re the doer of said practices, they become distractions to simply ‘abiding’ in the knowledge that you’re consciousness-existence regardless of the actions of the body-mind.  But caution must be exercised here.  To dismiss spiritual practice as a distraction before gaining self-knowledge is a mistake that will likely hinder self-knowledge because a mind undisciplined by spiritual practice is usually unable to muster up the concentration necessary for sustained inquiry.

    12:6 – Refraining from action is as much the outcome of ignorance as the performance action. Knowing this truth fully well, I abide in my true nature.

    Thinking both, “I will do this” or “I will not do this” stems from the same erroneous belief:  that you’re the doer of action, the body-mind.  When you know that you’re consciousness-existence, you realize that you’re not involved with the body-mind, regardless of what it does or doesn’t do.

    12:7 – Thinking of the unthinkable (consciousness-existence) is not possible without thought itself.  Therefore giving up that thought, I abide in my true nature.

    Conceptualizing the self as this or that is a necessity in the process of self-inquiry because you can’t inquire into something that you can’t think about.  But in the end inquiry shows you 1) That you, the self, aren’t and object and 2) That you’re not the thinker, the mind.  At that point you can stop trying to think of yourself as one thing or the other and you can simply rest easy in the knowledge that you are the self.

    12:8 – Blessed is the one who has accomplished this. Blessed is he who is such by nature.

    Om. Amen. Word.

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  • A Conversation with Ashtavakra Pt. 18

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    CHAPTER 11
    Ashtavakra said:
    11:1 – One who knows for certain that existence, non-existence and change are the nature of everything in the universe easily comes to peace, unaffected by affliction.

    Anything that changes or that can be classified in dualistic terms such as existence* and non-existence is unreal. So when you see that the entire universe is unreal like a dream, you can rest easy in the knowledge that it can’t harm you. When I say “you,” do I mean the body-mind? No. The body-mind can always be harmed. It can always be affected by affliction. But “you,” meaning consciousness-existence, cannot.

    *“Existence” here means that something is perceptible. It’s not to be confused with the “existence” in consciousness-existence which refers to the imperceptible essence of everything i.e. your true nature.

    11:2 – One who knows for certain that nothing exists but Isvara, the creator of all, has their inner desires swallowed up in peace. To what can they be attached?

    The literal translation of Isvara is “lord” and in this sense it denotes the creator and ruler of the universe. But in the classic Vedanta expounded by Shankara—Vedanta’s most prominent teacher—Isvara is taken in a broader sense to mean consciousness-existence. So the verse is saying that when you know everything in the universe is consciousness-existence—your own self—the desires of your mind are swallowed up.

    Does this literally mean that if you know you’re consciousness-existence that you’ll never want to eat a sandwich, find a new relationship or get a new job? No. It just means that when needed, you can put your desires in check from these two perspectives: 1) If everything is your own self, you already have everything you want. 2) If everything in the universe is only an appearance of your own self, there is nothing to want, at least nothing of real substance.

    At the initial stages of Vedanta it is fine to think of consciousness-existence as a creator god, especially for the purpose of purifying devotional practices. But ultimately, consciousness-existence is no creator or god. Why? Because it’s non-dual. If there’s only consciousness-existence, there can’t be a second thing over and above it, such as a creation*. And if there’s no creation, then consciousness-existence can’t be a creator i.e. god.

    *Vedanta doesn’t deny the appearance of a creation, which is a plain fact of our everyday experience. But it says that the appearance of a creation is in reality just consciousness-existence, similar to the way that the appearance of a wave is really just water.

    11:3 – One who knows for certain that fortune and misfortune come in their own time abides in their own self with senses under control, neither desiring nor grieving.

    You can never be certain what the day will bring, good or bad. And while it’s a positive and healthy practice to believe that everything happens for a reason, when things go wrong it’s helpful to abide in your own self, meaning you fall back on the knowledge that as the changeless self you are always okay. Does falling back on that knowledge necessarily fix the situation? No. Constructive action is still required. But you can work toward solutions for your relative problems from the stable platform of self-knowledge rather than being overcome with the desire and grief caused by the false belief that you’re the body-mind.

    11:4 – One who knows for certain that happiness, misery, birth and death are due to fate alone does not see anything to be accomplished. They are free from action and attachment, even while acting.

    Things change. Shit happens. The universe operates according to laws that you have no control over. When you come to this conclusion, it can be taken in the negative sense that fate controls your destiny. But this only applies if you’re the body-mind, the doer of action and the recipient of the results of action. When you know that you’re the self you can relax in the knowledge that you’re not subject to the cycle of action (karma), even if it feels like you are. From that standpoint, there’s nothing to be accomplished in the sense that as the self you’re never actually doing anything, despite the continued appearance that the body-mind is acting. This is how you’re free from action and attachment, even while acting.

    11:5 – One who knows for certain that suffering is caused by thought alone becomes free from it. They are happy, peaceful and everywhere rid of desires.

    The thought, “I am the body-mind” causes identification with the source of suffering, the body-mind. But you can rid yourself of that thought by seeing you’re really consciousness-existence. When this happens, does the body-mind cease suffering? No. But by correctly identifying with consciousness-existence, you know that the suffering doesn’t apply to you.

    11:6 – One who knows for certain, “I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am consciousness” attains kaivalya and does not remember what they have done or not.

    By dis-identifying with the body-mind and subsequently identifying with consciousness-existence, you attain kaivalya. While this term has various meanings in other schools of Indian philosophy such as yoga, in the context of Vedanta it refers to liberation, the clear understanding that you’re non-dual, changeless consciousness-existence rather than the body-mind. In other words, it’s the realization that you’re always okay, no matter what happens to the body-mind. When you no longer view yourself as the body-mind, you don’t remember what you’ve done or not done. This doesn’t mean you literally forget. You simply see that all action or lack of action never has and never will have anything to do with your true self, consciousness-existence.

    11:7 – One who knows for certain, “I alone am everything, from Brahma (the creator) down to a clump of grass (the lowliest creation)” turns away from what is attained or unattained and becomes pure, peaceful and free from thought.

    To know, “I alone am everything” is to know that you’re the non-dual self. And when you understand that there’s only yourself, then despite appearances to the contrary, you know that nothing is ever attained or unattained because you’re free from action and change. It’s hyperbole to say that this knowledge makes you (meaning the body-mind) completely pure, peaceful and free from thought. In truth, the body-mind will always have impurity. The mind will periodically be subject to anxiety. And being its very nature, the mind will always have thought. Only as the self are you totally pure, peaceful and free of thought. Regardless, knowing “I alone am everything” is a powerful tool for increasing purity and peace of mind and reducing thoughts, at least thoughts of anxiety.

    11:8 – One who knows for certain that the curious appearance of the universe is but a non-existent manifestation becomes peaceful and free of desires as if nothing exists.

    “Non-existent” here means “unreal.” When you take the typical viewpoint that the universe is a real entity, it’s a genuine cause for distress and desire. But when it’s seen as being unreal, anxiety and desire can be reduced. Because what sense is there in worrying about something or desiring something that doesn’t truly exist? As Biggie Smalls famously says, “It was all a dream.”

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