Ashtavakra Gita 15.20 -

Ashtavakra Maharshi is relentless in denouncing one thing after another and lodging you in yourself, the Self, the ‘I’.

When the principle that the mind process is itself troublesome, is discerned, then why engage in meditation at all? Is not meditation another mental effort? Why chant a mantra and take up a thought and develop it? Is it not like indulging in and encouraging another thought? If thinking is itself to be dropped, one has to drop meditative thought as well!

‘Body’ is a word, hence denotes an idea. ‘Self’ is also a word, hence another idea. No thought or hence the idea it denotes, has an existence of its own. All arise and subside. How many thoughts have risen in you? Is one of them distinctly there, as existence, to be identified and gained?

If Self is also a thought, an idea, like any other thought, then are we not reaching a state of nothing? Not at all. Think of your sleep. Wakefulness completely vanishes, then alone you get into sleep. No thought or idea springs in sleep. Yet, the sleeper exists intact. He wakes up next morning with all fullness as before.

In sleep the body rebuilds itself, without which none can live and act. By leaving all thought and imagination, you indeed reach the very source of everything, of wakefulness, sleep and dream. In wakefulness your life is partial, disturbing and tormenting too.