Ashtavakra Gita

The self, unchanging, unaffected by any state, does not become impure by contact with the impure, as the sky is not stained by clouds passing through it

Uses the sky-and-clouds image to argue that the self's purity cannot be damaged by anything that happens to the body or mind, since it was never actually in contact with them.

The sky-and-clouds comparison in chapter 15 addresses a question that non-dual teaching has to answer sooner or later: if the self is present through every experience, including painful or morally compromised ones, does it get stained by them? The chapter's answer is that clouds pass through the space of the sky without ever touching or altering the sky itself, because sky and cloud are not made of the same kind of stuff — one is substance, the other is empty space that never resists or absorbs anything. Applied to the self, this means changing states of body and mind — illness, error, emotion — pass through awareness without becoming properties of awareness itself. This is a purity that requires no protection or purification, since it was never actually at risk.

Ashtavakra Gita

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• What the Ashtavakra Gita says about illness and the body failing

  Chapter 15 answers the obvious objection: if awareness is present all the way through the illness, does the illness stain it? Clouds pass through sky without marking it, because sky is not the kind of thing that absorbs anything. This is a purity needing no protection, since it was never at risk.