◎Jade Tablets -11-4
◎Atman -4
◎The Relationship Between the Sixth Body Atman and the Seventh Body Nirvana -3
◎The Part of Meditation Without Utility -3
◎Nothing Can Be Said
Osho Bhagwan explains the relationship between the sixth body, Atman, and the seventh body, Nirvana, in the most detail.
"Moving from the sixth to the seventh is the ultimate death. You will be surprised to know that in the old days, an acharya meant one who taught the last death. There is a saying, 'The teacher (acharya) is death.' So when Nachiketa reached the god of death, he reached an acharya. The god of death cannot teach anything except death. Acharya is the name for one who can only talk about death, disintegration, disappearance.
(Omission)
When you move from the sixth to the seventh, renunciation happens. There you have to throw yourself – because you have nothing else. You literally have to throw your very being.
The only meaningful renunciation is to move into the seventh dimension from the sixth. Before that, whatsoever you talk about renunciation is all childish. A person who says, 'This is mine,' is foolish. A person who says, 'I have renounced all my things,' is also foolish, because he is still claiming to be the owner. Only you yourself are your own – but people don't understand this.
So you come to know who you are from the fifth to the sixth, and from the sixth to the seventh you become capable of renouncing that which you are.
The moment you renounce that which you are, nothing is left to be achieved and nothing is left to be renounced. And no question remains either. There is infinite silence, eternal silence. Afterwards, one cannot even say that there is bliss or peace. One cannot even say that there is truth or untruth, light or darkness. Nothing can be said. This is the world of the seventh dimension."
(The Quest for the Miraculous, Vol. 2: The Mystery of the Seven Bodies / Osho / Shimin Publishing, pp. 367-368, quoted)
The story of Nachiketa appears in the ancient Indian Katha Upanishad. Nachiketa learns various things from the god of death, but ultimately his individual self dies, and he reaches Atman.
Next, "that which you are" refers to the sixth body, Atman, which is not an individual but the entire universe, the entire world, including the individual. Based on this, moving from the sixth to the seventh involves renouncing that which you are. This is the secret of secrets. One rarely encounters texts that explain this.
Furthermore, in the seventh body, there is only infinite silence, eternal silence; there is no bliss, no peace, no truth, no untruth, not even light or darkness.
In this regard, religions that place bliss, peace, truth, untruth, light, and darkness as the ultimate need to be reconsidered, I believe.
Osho Bhagwan is merely tentatively referring to the ultimate Nirvana as infinite silence, eternal silence. However, in popular religions, world religions, if one were to say, "The ultimate is something we don't really understand," it would lead to chaos and make it difficult to maintain organizational control. Nevertheless, Zen has continued to do just that.
