Ashtavakra Gita

Wherever the mind of one who knows the truth happens to rest, that alone is the deepest and truest form of meditation

This redefines meditation away from a special posture or session and toward simple, unforced presence with whatever the mind is already doing.

Classical yoga treats meditation as a disciplined narrowing of attention onto a chosen object — a mantra, the breath, an image. Ashtavakra's eighteenth chapter proposes something closer to the opposite: for the person who has actually understood the self, wherever the mind happens to settle already is meditation, because the settling itself is witnessed by the same changeless awareness in every case. There's no better or worse object of focus once the observer is recognized as prior to all objects. This is one of the chapter's clearest statements that jnana, direct knowledge, replaces technique rather than perfecting it.

Ashtavakra Gita

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• Does the Ashtavakra Gita reject spiritual practice?

  Meditation is redefined. Instead of narrowing attention onto a chosen object, it becomes wherever the mind of someone who has understood happens to settle.