The Self, seeing the Supreme Self, awakens by itself.

This is perhaps the most radical formulation in the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha: there is no process of enlightenment, no transmission of knowledge, no graduality. The ātman—the individual self, the particular consciousness that seems to inhabit this body—and the paramātman—the supreme Self, universal consciousness—are not two entities that meet. They are a single reality seen from two perspectives: that of identification (ahaṅkāra) and that of freedom (mukti). Bodha—awakening—is not an event in time: it is the recognition that there was never any sleeping. The svayam—by itself—eliminates all mediation: there is no guru to bestow it, no technique to produce it, no effort to accumulate it. Awakening is the very nature of the ātman, not its consequence. Just as the sun needs no kindling, consciousness needs no illumination. The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā (I.12) states: muktābhimānī muktas tu viṣṭabhyātmānam ātmanā—“One who considers oneself liberated is liberated; one condemns the self by the self.” This consideration is not self-deception: it is the act of recognition that the ātman performs upon itself, not as an act but as its nature. Stillness is not the result of awakening: it is awakening itself seen from the perspective of the mind that ceases to seek it.