Ashtavakra Gita

The question of whether the world exists or does not exist troubles only the ignorant; the wise have gone beyond the question itself

The very question of whether the world is real or illusory is reframed as a symptom of incomplete understanding rather than something that needs a final answer.

A great deal of philosophical energy, in both Indian and Western traditions, gets spent debating whether the external world truly exists independent of perception. Chapter nineteen sidesteps that debate rather than settling it: the question of whether the world exists or not is said to trouble only someone who still assumes existence and non-existence are the only two available categories, a framework the wise have simply moved past. This is characteristic of the Ashtavakra Gita's approach throughout — it treats certain questions not as unanswerable mysteries but as malformed, dissolving once the underlying assumption is seen through. The wise aren't described as having a better answer, but as no longer needing to ask.

Ashtavakra Gita