You fully stop thoughts on the fifth level; on the fourth you only glimpse the quiet gaps between them.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
On which plane does the meditator reach the no-thought state? Are thoughts possible without identifying the consciousness with objects or is identity essential for thought?
This you will experience only in the fifth body, and you will be surprised to see the way thoughts come and go. The thought comes, then it goes; it catches hold of you, then it leaves you alone. There are a thousand kinds of thoughts -- and very contradictory ones too; therefore, there is confusion in our minds. Every single person is confused. If thoughts were entirely yours there would be no question of confusion. Your one hand catches hold of Genghis Khan and the other catches hold of Krishna, so there is bound to be confusion. Both of these sets of thought waves lie in wait for you, and as soon as you show your readiness they enter within. They are present all around you. All this you will come to know when your identification with thoughts breaks completely. The biggest change will be that until this time you…Read the full discourse →
And in the sixth body? In the sixth body even contemplation is no longer needed. Up to the fourth body there is need of thought; on the fifth body there is contemplation, thinking, prajna; on the sixth body even that ends. Because in the sixth body you are where no need remains at all—you become cosmic; you become one with Brahman; there is no other left.
In truth, all thinking is a relating with the other. The thinking before the fourth body is an unconscious relating—with the other. On the fifth body, thought is a conscious relating, but still with the other. After all, why is thought needed? Thought is needed because one has to relate to the other. Up to the fourth there is unconscious relating; on the fifth there is wakeful relating; on the sixth there is no one left to relate to—no related ones remain. You have become cosmic; you and I are one. So no question remains now; there is no place left where thought can stand. In the sixth body only knowledge remains Therefore the sixth is the Brahman body; there is no thought there. In Brahman there is no thought. So, to be precise, we can say: in Brahman there is knowing. In fact, thought—as it is up to the…Read the full discourse →
Thus, by meditation, they achieve the ultimate reality , which is unthinkable, unmanifest; the one of endless forms, the ever-auspicious, the peaceful, the immortal, the origin of the creator, the one without a beginning, a middle and an end; the only one, the non-dual, the all-pervading, the consciousness, the bliss, the formless, the wonderful.
To use a name as a repetition has its own difficulties. It is easy to throw out all else, but then it is difficult to throw out itself. If you have used "Rama" to throw out all other thoughts, it will become rooted in you, and then you cannot throw it out. It will be very difficult and very painful. Then something else will be needed to throw it out. As far as I am concerned, I never suggest this method. It is better to begin with no word. Then how to begin? Take the total energy of your body and mind as the beginning. Let you total body-mind energy be involved in it. Make it so active -- let your body energy, your mind energy becomes so active, so active at the peak -- that thoughts dissolve, because thoughts cannot exist at the peak. When your energy is moving…Read the full discourse →
When the self -- living inside the food body -- and the vital body thinks through the instrumentality of the fourteen organs like mind, et cetera, about objects like sound, smell, touch, et cetera it is called the manomaya koshu or the mental body.
WHEN THE SELF, UNITED WITH THESE THREE BODIES, KNOWS THROUGH INTELLIGENCE, IT IS CALLED THE VIGYANMAYA KOSHA OR THE KNOWING BODY. WHEN THE SELF, IN UNION WITH THESE FOUR BODIES -- FOOD BODY, VITAL BODY, MENTAL BODY AND THE KNOWING BODY -- DWELLS IN ITS PRIMEVAL AND CAUSATIVE IGNORANCE IT IS CALLED THE ANANDAMAYA KOSH OR THE BLISS BODY. And when there is no experience, only the experiencer remains. When there is no known object, only the knower remains. When there is nothing to be witnessed, but only the witness is, then you are centered in yourself -- then you ARE; otherwise, you belong to this body or that. This is not a body. This is the original nature. This is the existential source of all being. Two or three things more. When you transcend the bliss-body, you transcend individuality also. When you transcend the bliss-body, you transcend life and…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, will you please indicate something about the fifth stage in active meditation.
Do not do anything. You are not going to die! Even if the sneeze is coming and you do not sneeze for ten minutes, you will not die. If you feel like coughing, if you feel an irritation in the throat and you do not do anything, you are not going to die. Do not be afraid: no one has ever died. Remain DEAD as far as the body is concerned so that the energy can move in one flow. When the energy moves upward you become more and more silent. Silence is the by-product of energy moving upward and tension is the by-product of energy moving downward. You will be more and more in anxiety when energy moves down; you will be more and more silent, quiet, calm and cool as energy moves upward and inward. And these words downward and outward are synonymous, and inward and upward are…Read the full discourse →