◎Jade Tablets -11-1
◎Atman -1
◎Emptiness, Original Self, Holy Grail, Moon, Mirror, Immortality, Imperishable, Eternity
The sixth body being called Atman is a concept in Kundalini Yoga systems. While some translate Atman as the True Self, it is also expressed as Emptiness, Original Self, Holy Grail, Moon, Mirror, Immortality, Imperishable, Eternity, and so on. Furthermore, it is not an individual psychological state, nor a spiritual status, nor a thought, nor a philosophy, but rather all of everything in the world, encompassing all time and space, including the past, present, and future.
For humans, individuality exists up to the causal body, and the Atman, considered the sixth body, is no longer on the human side. It is the all-encompassing Oneness that unifies the entire phenomenon, and its designation is Atman. Therefore, the term "body" itself is unsuitable.
Moreover, what lies beyond the causal body is Atman, which is "Being."
Atman is the original self, the true self, the principal image of devotion, the Holy Grail, the moon, the full moon, and a mirror. And it is immortality, eternity, incorruptibility, imperishability, and the cessation of perception.
Atman is a term from ancient Indian thought, and from Atman—that is, Atman and Nirvana, although their names differ—comes one piece of evidence that the essence of all religions is equally common. In other words, Atman is the designation for the entirety of the phenomenal side, including matter and spirit, time and space, and its symbols include woman, Great Mother, earth, cow, and boar. On the other hand, Nirvana refers to something beyond the entire phenomenon that cannot be expressed in words.
Central Sun, Brahman, Nothingness, Nirvana. Its opposite pole is Atman.
Humans struggle in search of enlightenment, but the human drama cannot unfold without Atman. However, the human drama does not begin with Atman alone.
Furthermore, Atman and Nirvana are not exactly a pair. Their relationship is depicted in the literature with a writing style that suggests an extremely subtle positioning.
This view that there is something common to all religions is not a recent discovery but has been known since ancient India. In any religion that is conscious of the depths and heights of meditation, something corresponding to Atman will invariably appear. This naturally leads to assertions such as the common root of all religions and meditation without sectarianism.
Atman is not something that belongs to an individual or a human being, but why must humans, even after enlightenment, earn money, do laundry, and do housework? Ultimately, it is because humans live harboring what is called Atman, the cause of desires in this world. Atman is not a mass of desires, but the entity that drives the physical body, prana, and thoughts to live is, in essence, Atman.
And in the Kundalini rising process, it is not the individual human being but Atman that enters the Central Sun.
Beyond Atman is God/the Whole, and below the causal body is the human being, but meditation is what adjusts this imbalance. In the Ten Bulls of Zen, seeing the bull that is Atman is the Third Picture, "Seeing the Bull," which is also one aspect of enlightenment.
In Plato's theory of Forms, the realm of Forms is where the eternal and imperishable archetypes of Goodness, Beauty, and Justice exist. This realm of Forms is Atman (True Self, Original Self), but Atman encompasses all of everything in the phenomenon, a seamless continuity of all time (past, present, future), space, and matter.
There, time exists only in the here and now, but the fact that phenomena are constantly fluctuating yet Atman is eternal and unchanging is a complete contradiction and something that cannot be understood by the everyday sense of us ordinary people.
The key to understanding this was found in D. T. Suzuki's meditation notebook:
"[The Realm of the Divine]
Absolute Itself, Perfect Itself.
Love, Wisdom, Power, Freedom Itself.
Cosmic Consciousness, Nirvana Itself.
There is no universe outside the Realm of the Divine. The phenomenal world and the spiritual world are merely expressions of the Realm of the Divine.
It is that which all living beings ceaselessly seek, and it is the original form of all living beings.
Meditation meditating on meditation.
If meditation has a purpose, it is solely to touch the Realm of the Divine, to become one with the Realm of the Divine, and to realize that one was originally the Realm of the Divine.
And here in the Realm of the Divine,
where the drama of you the divine and I the divine celebrating the Dharma ends,
the drama of the Divine begins."
(Quoted from Meditation Way Memo by D. T. Suzuki)
The Realm of the Divine refers to Atman and Nirvana. What Atman unfolds becomes the phenomenal world and the spiritual world. Therefore, the Realm of the Divine does not mean heaven.
The illustration on pages 101-102 of "The Process and Technique of Nirvana / D. T. Suzuki" depicts the scene of Atman entering Brahman.
In this illustration, Atman "Being," which is all of everything like a giant cosmic egg, does not collide with the incomprehensible Central Sun Brahman as if concrete objects were colliding.
This is because the explanation of the scene just before entry is, "Awakening to the fact that all of everything is myself" (quoted from the above book, p. 102).
In addition, the scene just before entry is Savikalpa Samadhi, which is "a state in which a slight sense of difference remains between God and oneself" (quoted from the above book, p. 108), whereas after entry, it is Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which is "to awaken to the fact that oneself and God are completely identical" (quoted from the above book, p. 108).
In other words, the key point is awakening and realizing.
That is, Atman is "all of everything is myself," and Brahman (Nirvana) is "oneself and God are completely identical," but the emphasis is not on that fact itself but on awakening and realizing it. Therefore, it is a complete reversal and inversion.
This is a point to be careful about in the theory of the seven bodies.
Based on that premise, it is possible to "celebrate the Dharma with you the divine and I the divine here in the Realm of the Divine."
This is because this phenomenal world and spiritual world, filled with unreasonableness, disgrace, suffering, and difficulties, are merely expressions of the Realm of the Divine. There is no universe outside the Realm of the Divine.
※Osho Bhagwan classifies Atman on the individual side, which is reasonable. However, does that mean that the Atman that has "awakened to the fact that all of everything is myself" can be classified as individual?
