Is the night practice only for the night, and the morning practice only for the morning?

A friend has asked: Is the night practice only for the night, and the morning practice only for the morning?

It is not so. Whichever of the two practices takes you deeper, you can do it at any time. If you find the two practices to be complementary to each other, you can do both in the morning and in the evening, whenever it is convenient. If one of the two practices does not have meaning for you, you can drop it. A single practice will bring the same result; doing both together will also bring you to the same result. It depends on each individual to choose whatever suits their convenience.

Within three, four minutes you will feel that the body has relaxed; the breathing has come into a rhythm. Then with each outgoing breath, simply say, 'Osho' inside; not very loudly -- just a whisper, but inside so that you can hear it. When the breath comes in, just wait. When the breath goes out, you call, and when the breath comes out, allow me to come in. Don't do anything -- simply wait; so your work is only when the breath goes out. When the breath goes out, go into the universe. The outgoing breath is almost like dropping a bucket into a well. And when the breath comes in, it is like the bucket being pulled out of the well. This is only for twenty minutes. So four, five minutes to get into it, and then twenty minutes to remain in it.

Osho, you have described two kinds of methods. Earlier, in the practice you spoke about, you asked the seeker to be calm, relaxed, silent, alert, and a witness. Now, under intense breathing and the inquiry “Who am I?”, you ask the seeker to make every effort with total energy. When a seeker trained in the first kind of practice moves into the second type of experiment, after a short while the effort drops, the control slips. So which is the right approach—the former or the latter?

It is not a matter of good or bad here.

My own statement is this: sin is that which takes a person away from himself; virtue is that which brings him nearer to himself. There is no other meaning to sin and virtue. Keep this in mind. And keep another thing in mind: the awareness of your chitta will gradually increase. Whatever you do, you will do more consciously. You did it yesterday too, the day before as well, but not so consciously. If you eat, you will eat consciously. If you speak, you will speak consciously. If you walk on the road, you will walk consciously. An awareness, a wakefulness, will go on increasing. And thus the first difference will appear: the more awareness grows, the harder it becomes to err. How can a man full of awareness get angry? How can a man full of awareness quarrel? How can a man full of awareness steal?

Osho, before beginning practice we read in books that a seeker has such-and-such experiences, that this or that will happen, may happen. So when I prepare to practice on my own and I try to see where these colors show up—white, green, blue—and I sit right at the start to imagine them, even before a thought-free state arrives, don’t all these imaginations that we are taught become an obstacle to entering meditation?

In truth, for me there is no wrong and right. There are two paths and two kinds of people. And in each person both kinds of aspects exist. The complexity is great. Therefore for the masculine mind—not man, the masculine psyche—the positive path becomes easier, immediately easier, because there is aggression, a drive to conquer, to achieve, to grasp. The feminine mind is negativity, receptivity—let it come. It is not an attack but a waiting. So in those centuries where the masculine predominated—as in the past centuries, where woman had no influence—those were centuries of means, of methods. In the coming days woman is slowly becoming influential, and in the West, where woman has become very influential, a Krishnamurti-like view can have influence, because negativity has increased. But this is such a wavering matter—it wavers daily. Whatever of the two seems right to you, each person should decide within. If…