Transcending the Seven Bodies
1. The Physical Body
Begin from the physical. Then every other step opens for you. The
moment you work on the first body, you have glimpses of the second.
So begin from the physical. Be aware of it moment to moment. And not
only outwardly aware. You can become aware of your body from the
inside also. I can become aware of my hand as I have seen it from
the outside, but there is an inner feeling to it too. When I close
my eyes the hand is not seen, but there is still an inner feeling of
something being there. So do not be aware of your body as seen from
the outside. This cannot lead you inward. The inner feeling is quite
different.
When you feel the body from within, you will know for the first time
what it is to be inside the body. When you see it only from the
outside you cannot know its secrets. You know only the outer
boundaries, how it looks to others. If I see my body from the
outside, I see it as it looks to others, but I have not known it as
it is for me. You can see my hand from the outside and I can see it.
It is something objective. You can share the knowledge of it with
me. But my hand, looked at in that way, is not known inwardly. It
has become public property. You can know it as well as I.
Only the moment I see it from within does it become mine in a way
that is unsharable. You cannot know it; you cannot know how I feel
it from within. Only I can know it. The body that is known to us is
not our body. It is the body that is objectively known to all, the
body that a physician can know in a laboratory. It is not the body
that is. Only private, personal knowing can lead you inward; public
knowledge cannot. That is why physiology or psychology, which are
observations from without, have not led to a knowledge of our inner
bodies. It is only the physical body that they know about.
So many dilemmas have been created because of this. One may feel
beautiful from within, but we can force him to believe that he is
ugly. If we are collectively agreed upon it, he may also come to
agree. But no one feels ugly within. The inner feeling is always of
beauty.
This outer feeling is not really a feeling at all. It is just a
fashion, a criterion imposed from without. A person who is beautiful
in one society may be ugly in another; a person who is beautiful in
one period of history may not be in another. But the innermost
feeling is always of beauty, so if there were no outside criteria
there would be no ugliness. We have a fixed image of beauty that
everyone shares. That is why there is ugliness and beauty, otherwise
not. If we all become blind, no one will be ugly. Everyone will be
beautiful.
So the feeling of the body from within is the first step. In
different situations the body will feel different from within. When
you are in love, you have a particular inner feeling; when you
experience hate, the inner feeling is different. If you ask Buddha
he will say, "Love is beauty," because in his inner feeling he knows
that when he is loving he is beautiful. When there is hatred, anger,
jealousy, something happens inwardly that makes you begin to feel
ugly. So you will feel yourself to be different in different
situations, in different moments, in different states of mind,
When you are feeling lazy, there is a difference from when you are
feeling active. When you are sleepy, there is a difference. These
differences must be distinctly known. Only then do you become
acquainted with the inner life of your body. Then you know the inner
history, the inner geography of yourself in childhood, in youth, in
old age. The moment one becomes aware of his body from within, the
second body automatically comes into view.
2. The Etheric Body
This second body will be known
from the outside now. If you know the first body from the inside,
then you will become aware of the second body from the outside.
From outside the first body you can never know the second body, but
from inside it you can see the outside of the second body. Every
body has two dimensions: the outer and the inner. Just like a wall
has two sides - one looking outward and the other looking inward -
every body has a boundary, a wall. When you come to know the first
body from the inside, you become aware of the second body from the
outside.
You are now in between: inside the first body and outside the
second. This second body, the etheric body, is like condensed smoke.
You can pass through it without any hindrance, but it is not
transparent; you cannot look into it from the outside. The first
body is solid. The second body is just like the first as far as
shape is concerned, but it is not solid.
When the first body dies, the second remains alive for thirteen
days. It travels with you. Then, after thirteen days, it too is
dead. It disperses, evaporates. If you come to know the second body
while the first is still alive, you can be aware of this happening.
The second body can go out of your body. Sometimes in meditation
this second body goes up or down, and you have a feeling that
gravitation has no pull over you; you have left the earth. But when
you open your eyes, you are on the ground, and you know that you
were there all the time. This feeling that you have risen comes
because of the second body, not the first. For the second body there
is no gravitation, so the moment you know the second you feel a
certain freedom that was unknown to the physical body. Now you can
go outside of your body and come back.
This is the second step if you want to know the experiences of your
second body. And the method is not difficult. Just wish to be
outside your body and you're outside it. The wish itself is the
fulfillment. For the second body no effort has to be made because
there is no gravitational pull. The difficulty for the first body is
because of the gravitational force. If I want to come to your house,
I will have to fight with the gravitational force. But if there is
no gravitation, then the simple desire will be enough. The thing
will happen.
The etheric body is the body that is put to work in hypnosis. The
first body is not involved in hypnosis; it is the second body. That
is why a person with perfect vision can go blind. If the hypnotist
says that you have gone blind, you become blind just by believing
it. It is the etheric body that has been influenced; the suggestion
goes to the etheric body. If you are in a deep trance, your second
body can be influenced. A person who is alright can be paralyzed
just by suggesting to him that "you are paralyzed." A hypnotist must
not use any language that creates doubt. If he says, "It appears
that you have gone blind," it will not work. He must be absolutely
certain about it. Only then will the suggestion work.
So in the second body just say: "I am outside the body." Just wish
to be outside it, and you will be outside it. Ordinary sleep belongs
to the first body. It is the first body - exhausted by the day's
labor, work, tension - relaxing. In hypnosis, it is the second body
that is put to sleep. If it is put to sleep, you can work with it.
When you get any disease, seventy-five percent of it comes from the
second body and spreads to the first. The second body is so
suggestible that first year medical students always catch the same
disease that is being studied. They begin to have the symptoms. If
headache is being discussed, unknowingly everyone goes inside and
begins to ask, "Do I have a headache? Do I have these symptoms?"
Because going inward affects the etheric body, the suggestion is
caught and a headache is projected, created.
The pain of childbirth is not of the first body; it is of the
second. So through hypnosis, childbirth can be made absolutely
painless - just by suggestion. There are primitive societies in
which women do not feel labor pains because the possibility has
never entered their minds. But every type of civilization creates
common suggestions that then become part and parcel of everybody's
expectations.
Under hypnosis there is no pain. Even surgery can be done under
hypnosis without any pain because if the second body gets the
suggestion that there will be no pain then there is no pain. As far
as I am concerned, every type of pain, and every type of pleasure
too, comes from the second body and spreads to the first. So if the
suggestion changes, the same thing that has been painful can become
pleasurable, and vice versa.
Change the suggestion, change the etheric mind, and everything will
be changed. Just wish totally and it will happen. Totality is the
only difference between wish and will. When you have wished
something totally, completely, with your whole mind, it becomes
willpower.
If you wish totally to go outside of your physiological body, you
can go outside it. Then there is a possibility of knowing the second
body from within, otherwise not. When you go outside your physical
body, you are no longer in between: inside the first and outside the
second. Now you are inside the second. The first body is not.
Now you can become aware of your second body from the inside, just
as you became aware of your first body from the inside. Be aware of
its inner workings, its inner mechanism, the inner life. The first
time you try it is difficult, but after that you will always be
within two bodies: the first and the second. Your point of attention
will now be in two realms, two dimensions.
3. The Astral Body
The moment you are inside the second body you will be outside the
third, the astral. As far as the astral is concerned, there is no
need even of any will. Just the wish to be inside is enough. There
is no question of totality now. If you want to go in, you can go in.
The astral body is a vapor like the second body, but it is
transparent. So the moment you are outside, you will be inside. You
will not even know whether you are inside or outside because the
boundary is transparent.
The astral body is the same size as the first two bodies. Up to the
fifth body, the size is the same. The content will change, but the
size will be the same up to the fifth. With the sixth body the size
will be cosmic. And with the seventh, there will be no size at all
not even the cosmic.
4. The Mental Body
The fourth body is absolutely wall-less. From inside the third
body, there is not even a transparent wall. It is just a boundary,
wall-less, so there is no difficulty in entering and no need of any
method. So one who has achieved the third can achieve the fourth
very easily.
But to go beyond the fourth, there is as much difficulty as there
was in going beyond the first, because now the mental ceases. The
fifth is the spiritual body. Before it can be reached there is again
a wall, but not in the same sense as there was a wall between the
first body and the second. The wall is between different dimensions
now. It is of a different plane.
The four lower bodies were all concerned with one plane. The
division was horizontal. Now, it is vertical. So the wall between
the fourth and the fifth is bigger than between any two of the lower
bodies - because our ordinary way of looking is horizontal, not
vertical. We look from side to side, not up and down. But the
movement from the fourth body to the fifth is from a lower plane to
a higher plane. The difference is not between outside and inside but
between up and down. Not unless you begin to look upward can you
move into the fifth.
The mind always looks downward. That is why yoga is against the
mind. The mind flows downward just like water. Water has never been
made the symbol of any spiritual system because its intrinsic nature
is to flow downward. Fire has been the symbol of so many systems.
Fire goes upward; it never goes downward. So in moving from the
fourth body to the fifth body, fire is the symbol. One must look
upward; one must stop seeing downward.
How to look upward? What is the way? You must have heard that in
meditation the eyes must be looking upward to the ajna chakra. The
eyes must be focused upward as if you are going to see inside your
skull. Eyes are only symbolic. The real question is of vision. Our
vision, our faculty for seeing, is associated with the eyes, so eyes
become the means through which even inward vision happens. If you
turn your eyes upward, then your vision too goes upward.
Raja yoga begins with the fourth body. Only hatha yoga begins with
the first body; other yogas begin from somewhere else. Theosophy
begins from the second body, and other systems begin from the third.
As civilization goes on progressing to the fourth body, many persons
will be able to begin from there. But only if they have worked
through the three lower bodies in their past lives can the fourth be
used. Those who study raja yoga from scriptures or from swamis and
gurus without knowing whether or not they have worked through their
three lower bodies are bound to be disillusioned because one cannot
begin from the fourth. The three must be crossed first. Only then
does the fourth come.
The fourth is the last body that it is possible to begin from. There
are four yogas: hatha yoga for the first body, mantra yoga for the
second, bhakti yoga for the third, and raja yoga for the fourth. In
ancient days, everybody had to begin with the first body, but now
there are so many types of people: one has worked up to the second
body in a previous life, another up to the third, et cetera. But as
far as dreaming is concerned, one must begin from the first body.
Only then can you know the whole range of it, the whole spectrum of
it.
So in the fourth body, your consciousness must become like fire -
going upward. There are many ways to check this. For example, if the
mind is flowing toward sex it is just like water flowing downward,
because the sex center is downward. In the fourth body one must
begin directing the eyes up, not down.
If consciousness is to go upward, it must begin from a center that
is above the eyes, not below the eyes. There is only one center
above the eyes from which the movement can be upward: the ajna
chakra. Now the two eyes must look upward toward the third eye.
The third eye has been remembered in so many ways. In India, the
distinction between a virgin and a girl who is married is made by a
color mark on the third eye of the married one. A virgin is bound to
look downward toward the sex center, but the moment she is married
she must begin to look upward. Sex must change from sexuality to
beyond sexuality. To help her to remember to look upward, a color
mark, a tilak, is used on the third eye.
Tilak marks have been used on the foreheads of so many types of
persons: sannyasins, worshippers - so many types of color marks.
Or, it is possible to use chandan - sandalwood paste. The moment
your two eyes look upward toward the third eye, a great fire is
created at the center; a burning sensation is there. The third eye
is beginning to open and it must be kept cool. So in India,
sandalwood paste is used. It is not only cool; it also has a
particular perfume that is concerned with the third body and the
transcendence of it. The coolness of the perfume, and the particular
spot where it is placed, becomes an upward attraction, a remembrance
of the third eye.
If you close your eyes and I place my finger at your third eye spot,
I am not really touching your third eye itself, but you will still
begin to feel it. Even this much pressure is enough. Scarcely a
touch, just a gentle fingering. So the perfume, the delicate touch
of it and its coolness, is enough. Then your attention is always
flowing from your eyes to the third eye.
So to cross the fourth body there is only one technique, one method,
and that is to look upward. Shirshasan, the headstand, the reverse
position of the body, was used as a method to do this because our
eyes are ordinarily looking downward. If you stand on your head you
will still be looking downward, but now the downward is upward. The
flow of your energy downward will be converted into an upward flow.
That is why in meditation, even without knowing it, some persons
will go into reverse positions. They will begin to do shirshasan
because the flow of energy has changed. Their minds are so
conditioned to the downward flow that when the energy changes
direction they will feel uncomfortable. When they begin to stand on
their heads they will feel at ease again, because the flow of energy
will again be moving downward. But it will not really be moving
downward. In relation to your centers, your chakras, the energy will
still be moving upward.
So shirshasan has been used as a method to take you from the fourth
body to the fifth. The main thing to be remembered is to be looking
upward. This can be done through tratak - staring at a fixed
object, through concentration on the sun, through so many objects.
But it is better to do it inwardly. Just close the eyes!
But first, the first four bodies must be crossed. Only then can it
be helpful, otherwise not. Otherwise it may be disturbing, it may
create all sorts of mental diseases, because the whole adjustment of
the system will be shattered. The four bodies are looking downward,
and with your inner mind you are looking upward. Then, there is
every possibility that schizophrenia will result.
To me, schizophrenia is the result of such a thing. That is why
ordinary psychology cannot go deeply into schizophrenia. The
schizophrenic mind is simultaneously working in opposite directions:
standing outside and looking inside; standing outside and looking
upward. Your whole system must be in harmony. If you have not known
your physical body from the inside, then your consciousness should
be facing downward. That will be healthy; the adjustment is right.
You must never try to turn the outward moving mind upward or
schizophrenia, division, will be the result.
Our civilizations, our religions, have been the basic cause for
humanity's split personality. They have not been concerned with the
total harmony. There are teachers who teach methods to move upward
to persons who are not even inside their own physical body. The
method begins to work and part of the person remains outside his
body while a second part moves upward. Then there will be a split
between the two. He will become two persons: sometimes this,
sometimes that; a Jekyll and Hyde.
There is every possibility that a person can become seven people
simultaneously. Then the split is complete. He has become seven
different energies. One part of him is moving downward, clinging to
the first body; another is clinging to the second; another to the
third. One part is going upward; another is going somewhere else. He
has no center in him at all.
Gurdjieff used to say that such a person is just like a house where
the master is absent, and every servant claims he is the master. And
no one can deny it, because the master himself is absent. When
anybody comes to the house and knocks on the door, the servant who
is nearby becomes the master. The next day, another servant answers
the door and claims to be the master.
A schizophrenic is without any center. And we are all like that! We
have adjusted ourselves to society, that's all. The difference is
only of degrees. The master is absent or asleep, and every part of
us claims ownership. When the sex urge is there, sex becomes the
master. Your mortality, your family, your religion - everything
will be denied. Sex becomes the total owner of the house. And then,
when sex has gone, frustration follows. Your reason takes charge and
says, "I am the master." Now reason will claim the whole house and
will deny sex a home.
Everybody claims the house totally. When anger is there, it becomes
the master. Now there is no reason, no consciousness. Nothing else
can interfere with the anger. Because of this, we cannot understand
others. A person who was loving becomes angry and suddenly there is
no love. We are at a loss now to understand whether he is loving or
not loving. The love was just a servant, and the anger too is just a
servant. The master is absent. That is why you cannot ordinarily
rely on anybody else. He is not master of himself; any servant can
take over. He is no one; he is not a unity.
What I am saying is that one should not experiment with techniques
of looking upward before crossing the first four bodies. Otherwise a
split will be created which will be impossible to bridge, and one
will have to wait for one's next life to begin again. It is better
to practice techniques that begin from the beginning. If you have
passed your first three bodies in past births, then you will pass
them again within a moment. There will be no difficulty. You know
the territory; you know the way. In a moment, they come before you.
You recognize them - and you have passed them! Then you can go
further. So my insistence is always to begin from the first body.
For everyone!
To move from the fourth body is the most significant thing. Up to
the fourth body you are human. Now you become superhuman. In the
first body you are just an animal. Only with the second body does
humanity come into being. And only in the fourth does it flower
completely. Civilization has never gone beyond the fourth. Beyond
the fourth is beyond the human. We cannot classify Christ as a human
being. A Buddha, a Mahavira, a Krishna, are beyond the human. They
are superhuman.
The upward look is a jump from the fourth body. When I am looking at
my first body from outside it, I am just an animal with the
possibility of being human. The only difference is that I can become
human and the animal cannot. As far as the present situation is
concerned, we are both below humanity, subhuman. But I have a
possibility to go beyond. And from the second body onward, the
flowering of the human being happens.
Even someone in the fourth body looks superhuman to us. They are
not. An Einstein or a Voltaire looks superhuman, but they are not.
They are the complete flowering of the human being and we are below
human, so they are above us. But they are not above the human. Only
a Buddha, a Christ or a Zarathustra is more than human. By looking
upward, by raising their consciousness upward from the fourth body,
they have crossed the boundary of the mind; they have transcended
the mental body.
There are parables worth our understanding. Mohammed, looking
upward, says that something has come to him from above. We interpret
this above geographically, so the sky becomes the abode of the gods.
For us, upward means the sky; downward means the layer below the
earth. But if we interpret it in this way, the symbol has not been
understood. When Mohammed is looking upward he is not looking toward
the sky; he is looking toward the ajna chakra. When he says that
something has come to him from above, his feeling is right. But,
′up' has a different meaning for us.
In every picture, Zarathustra is looking upward. His eyes are never
downward. He was looking upward when he first saw the divine. The
divine came to him as fire. That is why the Persians have been fire
worshippers. This feeling of fire comes from the ajna chakra. When
you look upward, the spot feels fiery, as if everything is burning.
Because of that burning, you are transformed. The lower being is
burnt, it ceases to be, and the upper being is born. That is the
meaning of "passing through fire."
5. The Spiritual Body
After the fifth body you move into still another realm, another
dimension. From the first body to the fourth body the movement is
from outside to inside; from the fourth to the fifth it is from
downward to upward; from the fifth it is from ego to non-ego. Now
the dimension is different. There is no question of outside, inside,
upward or downward. The question is of "I" and "non-I." The question
is now concerned with whether there is a center or not.
A person is without any center up to the fifth - split in different
parts. Only for the fifth body is there a center: a unity, oneness.
But the center becomes the ego. Now this center will be a hindrance
for further progress. Every step that was a help becomes a hindrance
for further progress. You have to leave every bridge you cross. It
was helpful in crossing, but it will become a hindrance if you cling
to it.
Up to the fifth body, a center has to be created. Gurdjieff says
this fifth center is the crystallization. Now there are no servants;
the master has taken charge. Now the master is the master. He is
awakened; he has come back. When the master is present, the servants
subside; they become silent.
So when you enter the fifth body, crystallization of the ego
happens. But now, for further progress, this crystallization must be
lost again. Lost into the void, into the cosmic. Only one who has
can lose, so to talk about egolessness before the fifth body is
nonsense, absurd. You do not have an ego, so how can you lose it? Or
you can say that you have many egos, every servant has an ego. You
are multi-egoistic, a multi-personality, a multi-psyche, but not a
unified ego.
You cannot lose the ego because you do not have it. A rich man can
renounce his riches, but not a poor one. He has nothing to renounce,
nothing to lose. But there are poor people who think about
renunciation. A rich person is afraid of renunciation because he has
something to lose, but a poor one is always ready to renounce. He is
ready, but he has nothing to renounce.
The fifth body is the richest. It is the culmination of all that is
possible for a human being. The fifth is the peak of individuality,
the peak of love, of compassion, of everything that is worthwhile.
The thorns have been lost. Now, the flower too must be lost. Then
there will simply be perfume, no flower.
6. The Cosmic Body
The sixth is the realm of perfume, cosmic perfume. No flower, no
center. A circumference, but no center. You can say that everything
has become a center, or that now there is no center. Just a diffused
feeling is there. There is no split, no division - not even the
division of the individual into the "I" and the "non-I," the "I" and
"the other." There is no division at all.
So the individual can be lost in either of two ways: one,
schizophrenic, splitting into many subpersons; and another, cosmic
- lost into the ultimate; lost into the greater, the greatest, the
Brahma; lost into the expanse. Now the flower is not, but the
perfume is.
The flower too is a disturbance, but when only the perfume is, it is
perfect. Now there is no source, so it cannot die. It is undying.
Everything that has a source will die, but now the flower is not, so
there is no source. The perfume is uncaused, so there is no death
and no boundary to it. A flower has limitations; perfume is
unlimited. There is no barrier to it. It goes on and on, and goes
beyond.
So from the fifth body the question is not of upward, downward,
sideways, inside, outside. The question is whether to be with an ego
or without an ego. And the ego is the most difficult thing of all to
lose. The ego is not a problem up to the fifth body because progress
is ego-fulfilling. No one wants to be schizophrenic; everyone would
prefer to have a crystallized personality. So every sadhaka, every
seeker, can progress to the fifth body.
There is no method to move beyond the fifth body because every type
of method is bound with the ego. The moment you use a method, the
ego is strengthened. So those who are concerned with going beyond
the fifth, talk of no-method. They talk of methodlessness, of
no-technique. Now there is no how. From the fifth, there is no
method possible.
You can use a method up to the fifth, but then no method will be of
use because the user is to be lost. If you use anything, the user
will become stronger. His ego will go on crystallizing; it will
become a nucleus of crystallization. That is why those who have
remained in the fifth body say there are infinite souls, infinite
spirits. They think of each spirit as if it were an atom. Two atoms
cannot meet. They are windowless, doorless; closed to everything
outside themselves.
Ego is windowless. You can use a word of Leibnitz: ′monads′. Those
who remain in the fifth body become monads: windowless atoms. Now
you are alone, and alone, and alone.
But this crystallized ego has to be lost. How to lose it when there
is no method? How to go beyond it when there is no path? How to
escape from it? There is no door. Zen monks talk about the gateless
gate. Now there is no gate, and still one has to go beyond it.
So what to do? The first thing: do not be identified with this
crystallization. Just be aware of this closed house of "I." Just be
aware of it - don′t do anything - and there is an explosion! You
will be beyond it.
They have a parable in Zen....
A goose egg is put in a bottle. The goose comes out of the egg and
begins to grow, but the mouth of the bottle is so small that the
goose cannot come out of the bottle. It grows bigger and bigger, and
the bottle becomes too small to live in. Now, either the bottle will
have to be destroyed to save the goose, or the goose will die.
Seekers are asked: "What is to be done? We do not want to lose
either. The goose is to be saved and the bottle also. So what to
do?" This is the question of the fifth body. When there is no way
out and the goose is growing, when the crystallization has become
consolidated, what to do now?
The seeker goes inside a room, closes the door and begins to puzzle
over it. What to do? Only two things seem to be possible: either to
destroy the bottle and save the goose, or to let the goose die and
save the bottle. The meditator goes on thinking and thinking. He
thinks of something, but then it will be cancelled because there is
no way to do it. The teacher sends him back to think some more.
For many nights and many days the seeker goes on thinking, but there
is no way to do it. Finally a moment comes when thinking ceases. He
runs out shouting, "Eureka! The goose is out!" The teacher never
asks how, because the whole thing is just nonsense.
So to move from the fifth body, the problem becomes a Zen koan. One
should just be aware of the crystallization - and the goose is out!
A moment comes when you are out; there is no "I." The
crystallization has been gained and lost. For the fifth,
crystallization - the center, the ego - was essential. As a
passage, as a bridge, it was a necessity; otherwise the fifth body
could not be crossed. But now it is no longer needed.
There are persons who have achieved the fifth without passing
through the fourth. A person who has many riches has achieved the
fifth; he has crystallized in a way. A person who has become
president of a country has crystallized in a way. A Hitler, a
Mussolini, are crystallized in a way. But the crystallization is in
the fifth body. If the four lower bodies are not in accordance with
it, then the crystallization becomes a disease. Mahavira and Buddha
are crystallized too, but their crystallization is different.
We all long to fulfill the ego because of an innermost need to reach
the fifth body. But if we choose a shortcut, then in the end we will
be lost. The shortest way is through riches, power, politics. The
ego can be achieved, but it is a false crystallization; it is not in
accordance with your total personality. It is like a corn that forms
on your foot and becomes crystallized. It is a false
crystallization, an abnormal growth, a disease.
If the goose is out in the fifth, you are in the sixth. From the
fifth to the sixth is the realm of mystery. Up to the fifth,
scientific methods can be used, so yoga is helpful. But after that
it is meaningless, because yoga is a methodology, a scientific
technique.
In the fifth, Zen is very helpful. It is a method to go from the
fifth to the sixth. Zen flowered in Japan but it began in India. Its
roots came from Yoga. Yoga flowered into Zen.
Zen has had much appeal in the West because the Western ego is, in a
sense, crystallized. In the West, they are the masters of the world;
they have everything. But the ego has become crystallized through
the wrong process. It has not developed through the transcendence of
the first four bodies. So Zen has become appealing to the West but
it will not help because the crystallization is wrong. Gurdjieff is
much more helpful to the West because he works from the first body
to the fifth. He is not helpful beyond the fifth. Only up to the
fifth, to the crystallization. Through his techniques, you can
achieve a proper crystallization.
Zen has been just a fad in the West because it has no roots there.
It developed through a very long process in the East, beginning with
hatha yoga and culminating in the Buddha. Thousands and thousands of
years of humbleness: not of ego but of passivity; not of positive
action but of receptivity - through a long duration of the female
mind, the receptive mind. The East has always been female, while the
West is male: aggressive, positive. The East has been an openness, a
receptivity. Zen could be of help in the East because other methods,
other systems, worked on the four lower bodies. These four became
the roots, and Zen could flower.
Today, Zen has become almost meaningless in Japan. The reason is
that Japan has become absolutely Western. Once the Japanese were the
most humble people, but now their humbleness is just a show. It is
no longer part of their innermost core. So Zen has been uprooted in
Japan and is popular now in the West. But this popularity is only
because of the false crystallization of the ego.
From the fifth body to the sixth, Zen is very helpful. But only
then, neither before nor beyond. It is absolutely useless for the
other bodies, even harmful. To teach university level courses in the
primary school not only does not help; it may be harmful.
If Zen is used before the fifth body you may experience satori, but
that is not samadhi. Satori is a false samadhi. It is a glimpse of
samadhi, but it is just a glimpse. As far as the fourth body - the
mental body - is concerned, satori will make you more artistic,
more aesthetic. It will create a sense of beauty in you; it will
create a feeling of well-being. But it will not be a help in
crystallization. It will not help you to move from the fourth body
to the fifth.
Only beyond crystallization is Zen helpful. The goose is out of the
bottle, without any how. But only at this point can it be practiced,
after so many other methods have been used. A painter can paint with
closed eyes; he can paint as if it is a game. An actor can act as if
he is not acting. In fact, the acting becomes perfect only when it
does not look like acting. But many years of labor have gone into
it, many years of practice. Now the actor is completely at ease, but
that at-easeness is not achieved in a day. It has its own methods.
We walk, but we never know how we do it. If someone asks you how you
walk you say, "I just walk. There is no how to it." But the how
takes place when a child begins to walk. He learns. If you were to
tell the child that walking needs no method - "you just walk!"
-
it would be nonsense. The child would not understand it.
Krishnamurti has been talking this way, talking with adults who have
children′s minds, saying, "You can walk. You just walk!" People
listen. They are charmed. Easy! To walk without any method. Then,
everyone can walk.
Krishnamurti too has become attractive in the West, and just because
of this. If you look at hatha yoga or mantra yoga or bhakti yoga or
raja yoga or tantra, it looks so long, so arduous, so difficult.
Centuries of labor are needed, births and births. They cannot wait.
Some shortcut, something instantaneous must be there. So
Krishnamurti appeals to them. He says, "You just walk. You walk into
God. There is no method." But no-method is the most arduous thing to
achieve. To act as if one is not acting, to speak as if one is not
speaking, to walk effortlessly as if one is not walking, is based on
long effort.
Labor and effort are necessary; they are needed. But they have a
limitation. They are needed up to the fifth body, but they are
useless from the fifth to the sixth. You will go nowhere; the goose
will never be out.
That is the problem with Indian yogis. They find it difficult to
cross the fifth because they are method-enchanted,
method-hypnotized. They have always worked with method. There has
been a clear-cut science up to the fifth and they progressed with
ease. It was an effort - and they could do it! No matter how much
intensity was needed, it was no problem to them. No matter how much
effort, they could supply it. But now in the fifth, they have to
cross from the realm of method to no-method. Now they are at a loss.
They sit down, they stop. And for so many seekers, the fifth becomes
the end.
That is why there is talk of five bodies, not seven. Those who have
gone only to the fifth think that it is the end. It is not the end;
it is a new beginning. Now one must move from the individual to the
non-individual. Zen, or methods like Zen, done effortlessly, can be
helpful.
Zazen means just sitting, doing nothing. A person who has done much
cannot conceive of this. Just sitting and doing nothing! It is
inconceivable. A Gandhi cannot conceive of it. He says, "I will spin
my wheel. Something must be done. This is my prayer, my meditation."
Non-doing to him means doing nothing. Non-doing has its own realm,
its own bliss, its own adjustment, but that is from the fifth body
to the sixth. It cannot be understood before that.
7. The Nirvanic Body
From the sixth to the seventh, there is not even no-method.
Method is lost in the fifth, and no-method is lost in the sixth. One
day you simply find that you are in the seventh. Even the cosmos has
gone; only nothingness is. It just happens. It is a happening from
the sixth to the seventh. Uncaused, unknown.
Only when it is uncaused does it become discontinuous with what went
before. If it is caused then there is a continuity and the being
cannot be lost, even in the seventh. The seventh is total nonbeing:
nirvana, emptiness, non-existence.
There is no possibility of any continuity in moving from existence
to non-existence. It is just a jump, uncaused. If it were caused
there would be a continuity, and it would be just like the sixth
body. So to move from the sixth body to the seventh cannot even be
talked about. It is a discontinuity, a gap. Something was, and
something now is - and there is no connection between the two.
Something has just ceased, and something has just come in. There is
no relationship between them. It is as if a guest has left from one
door and another guest has entered from the other side. There is no
relationship between the going of one and the coming of the other.
They are unrelated.
The seventh body is the ultimate, because now you have crossed
even the world of causation. You have gone to the original source,
to that which was before creation and that which will be after
annihilation. So from the sixth to the seventh there is not even
no-method. Nothing is of any help; everything can be a hindrance.
From the cosmic to nothingness there is just a happening: uncaused,
unprepared for, unasked for.
It happens instantaneously. Only one thing is to be remembered: you
must not cling to the sixth. Clinging will prevent you from moving
to the seventh. There is no positive way to move to the seventh, but
there can be a negative hindrance. You can cling to the Brahma, the
cosmos. You can say, "I have reached!" Those who say they have
reached cannot go to the seventh.
Those who say, "I have known," remain in the sixth. So those who
wrote the Vedas remained in the sixth. Only a Buddha crosses the
sixth because he says, "I do not know." He refuses to give answers
to the ultimate questions. He says, "No one knows. No one has
known." Buddha could not be understood. Those who heard him said,
"No, our teachers have known. They say Brahma is." But Buddha is
talking of the seventh body. No teacher can say he has known about
the seventh because the moment you say it you lose touch with it.
Once you have known it, you cannot say. Up to the sixth body symbols
can be expressive, but there is no symbol for the seventh. It is
just an emptiness.
There is a temple in China that is totally empty. There is nothing
in it: no image, no scriptures, nothing. It is just bare, naked
walls. Even the priest resides outside. He says, "A priest can only
be outside the temple; he cannot be inside." If you ask the priest
where the deity of the temple is, he will say, "See it!" - and
there is emptiness; there is no one. He will say, "See! Here! Now!"
and there is only a naked, bare, empty temple.
If you look for objects then you cannot cross the sixth to the
seventh. So there are negative preparations. A negative mind is
needed, a mind that is not longing for anything - not even moksha,
not even deliverance, not even nirvana, not even truth; a mind that
is not waiting for anything - not even for God, for Brahma. It just
is, without any longing, without any desire, without any wish. Just
is-ness. Then, it happens... and even the cosmos is gone.
So you can cross into the seventh by and by. Begin from the physical
and work through the etheric. Then the astral, the mental, the
spiritual. Up to the fifth you can work and then, from the fifth on,
just be aware. Doing is not important then; consciousness is
important. And finally, from the sixth to the seventh, even
consciousness is not important. Only is-ness, being. This is the
potentiality of our seeds. This is our possibility.