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Nirvan SutraNirvan Dham

From Nirvan Dham

Nirvan Sutra

A quiet journey from inquiry toward direct seeing

This is not an ordinary course. Over seventeen stages, the journey slowly examines what you have assumed about yourself — from ignorance to inquiry, from the witness to self-inquiry, and from silence to natural living.

Enter the journeySee the seventeen stages

The whole course — lessons, questions and the voice of the films — will be in your language. You can change it later; no progress is lost.

17stages
170deep questions
4checkpoints
12weeks of Nididhyāsana
11languages

What you search for outside — is it already with you?

Stage 1 · Ajñāna — Ignorance

Glossary

17 stages · PDF

Glossary →

The journey has two parts

Jñāna Yātrā — the knowledge journey

Śravaṇa + Manana

Seventeen stages of teaching films, written essence, experiments in seeing for yourself and checks of understanding — at your own pace, without hurry.

Nididhyāsana Saṅga

Three months of guided integration

Once the knowledge journey is complete, twelve weeks of guided Nididhyāsana: a pointer each week, private reflection and sessions with a guide.

Inside every stage

Every stage has a main teaching film, a written essence, a small experiment, an understanding check and ten deep questions.

  1. Main teaching filmA main teaching film that opens the subject simply and directly.
  2. EssenceThe written essence of the film and its key distinctions, to read again and again.
  3. See for yourselfA short experiment in which the point is checked in your own experience.
  4. Understanding checkThree questions you answer in your own words; no right or wrong here, only honest looking.
  5. Go deeperTen deep questions that take the inquiry further inward.

The journey of seventeen stages

Four movements, seventeen stages. Each stage carries one central inquiry.

Movement 1

Preparing for the search

Recognising ignorance, waking inquiry, preparing the mind with discernment and dispassion

  1. 01
    Ajñāna — IgnoranceNot knowing one's own natureWhat you search for outside — is it already with you?
  2. 02
    Jijñāsā — InquiryA true longing to know the truthIs there a question sleeping inside you too?
  3. 03
    Viveka — DiscernmentTelling what changes from what knowsGlitter and truth — which touchstone tells them apart?
  4. 04
    Vairāgya — DispassionInner freedom from clingingDoing it wholeheartedly — and staying free of the result?
Movement 2

Understanding and self-examination

Listening, examining, abiding — and turning from the seen toward the witness

  1. 05
    Śravaṇa — ListeningLetting the teaching look at youHearing and truly listening — what is the difference?
  2. 06
    Manana — ReflectionWhat was heard becomes one's own understandingHow does what was heard become one's own understanding?
  3. 07
    Nididhyāsana — Contemplative AbidanceAbiding in the understood truthHow does an understood truth become natural?
  4. 08
    Neti-Neti — Not This, Not ThisSetting aside what is not oneselfKnowing oneself — by adding, or by removing?
  5. 09
    Sākṣībhāva — WitnessingThe awareness in which everything appearsIs someone in you quietly watching, too?
Movement 3

From experience to the experiencer

Experience, the one who experiences, ‘Who am I?’ — and the one reality of all

  1. 10
    Anubhava — ExperienceWhat appears, and goesExperiences come and go — and the knower?
  2. 11
    Anubhavakartā — The ExperiencerThe sense of ‘it is happening to me’To whom does experience happen?
  3. 12
    Ātma-vicāra — Self-InquiryTurning back to the source of ‘I’Who am I?
  4. 13
    Ātma-jñāna — Self-KnowledgeRecognising what was always presentWhat was never lost — what is ‘finding’ it?
  5. 14
    Brahma-jñāna — Knowledge of BrahmanThe one reality of all names and formsEverything — made of one?
Movement 4

From silence to natural living

The limit of knowing, silence, and an ordinary life settled in understanding

  1. 15
    Ajñeyatā — The UnknowableThe knower is not an objectThe seer — never seen, yet not unknown?
  2. 16
    Śūnyatā / Mauna — Emptiness / SilenceEmpty of objects, full of awarenessSilence — the absence of sound, or that in which sound is?
  3. 17
    Sthitaprajña Life / Sahaja — Natural LivingLiving naturally, settled in understandingAfter knowledge — what is life like?
12 · weeks of Nididhyāsana

Nididhyāsana Saṅga

Three months of guided integration

How to begin

  1. 1Create your Nirvan Dham account, or log in.
  2. 2Tell us your name. Your language is already chosen.
  3. 3Begin the journey with the teaching film of the first stage.

This course promises no attainment of any state. It is a quiet, disciplined opportunity to look carefully at yourself.

The first stage is waiting for you

Enter the journey
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