Practice

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.

Even if you don't continually practice the technique?

Even if you don't practice it. Once you have come to a point in your being, it can never be lost unless it was simply a dream. Only a dream can be lost. Drugs cannot give you reality. They can only give you very beautiful dreams. Or even horrible dreams -- it depends on you, the dreamer. You can hypnotize yourself into a particular dream; there are hypnotic techniques. If you use them you will be in a state of autohypnosis, you will start feeling things, many things, but once you stop the technique, the whole thing will disappear. It was just a mental trick you were playing: you were dreaming, it was your imagination. If you really grow into awareness, it cannot be lost. That is the distinction between real methods and false methods. A real method is a growth method; it is not simply a vision. You grow…

Osho, even when I understand everything theoretically, why does it not come into practice? Please explain.

Someone told Mulla Nasruddin, “Stop smoking, otherwise you’ll die early. Scientists say it takes a year off your life.” Nasruddin said, “We’ll live sixty-nine instead of seventy—but to live one extra year at the cost of a whole life without the joy of cigarettes, that I don’t understand.” That’s the double-talk. He accepts that scientists are probably right: a year less. A doctor told him—because his illness kept worsening—“Brother, stop drinking, stop smoking; now you’re old—stop running after women, or you’ll die soon.” Nasruddin said, “What you say is fine, doctor. But if I stop all that, what would be the point of staying alive? Tell me that too. Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t chase women—then sit like a dummy! What would I live for?” And it isn’t only with men. I read a story: A man died—must have been a Christian. He reached the gates of heaven; Saint Peter…

It all sounds so great, as perfect as can be articulated. But what the hell do you do in the meantime?

You have missed. You have not understood what has been said to you. You have not heard. Again the greed has become a barrier. Listening to me you are listening through the greed. When you listen to me, if I am talking about enlightenment and the joy of it, you become greedy. You start thinking, "When am I going to become enlightened?" So you say it is great -- it all sounds great, "as perfect as can be articulated". Now, this greed creates a problem. You put whatsoever I am saying as a goal. Of course, the goal is far away. There is a distance between you and the goal, and the distance has to be traveled, so the second question arises: "What the hell do you do in the meantime?" But there is no meantime. I am not talking about the goal; I am talking about the way. And…