When you are witnessing, the mind remains, but not constantly working.
Your identity is broken.
You are the watcher; the mind is the watched.
It is a beautiful mechanism, one of the most beautiful mechanisms that nature has given to you.
So you can use it when needed for factual memory — for phone numbers, for addresses, for names, for faces….
It is a good tool, but that's all it is.
It need not sit upon you continuously twenty-four hours a day.
Even while you are sleeping, it is sitting on your chest torturing you, giving you nightmares.
All kinds of relevant and irrelevant thoughts go on and on.
It does two harms.
One: you lose your purity of witnessing, you don't remain a mirror.
Your mirror becomes so covered with the dust of thoughts
that you start becoming closed to existence, you cannot reflect existence.
The full moon is there, but your mirror does not reflect it.
How many people are there who see the full moon?
Even if they see it, they don't SEE — their seeing is not of any value.
They don't rejoice, they don't dance.
How many people are there who see the flowers?
The birds are singing,
but how many people are there
who are aware of the birds and the wind passing through the trees?
When the mind is no longer hovering over you continuously,
you become aware of infinite beauty, of truth, of the celebration
that goes on and on in existence.
But the mind is there,
put aside — you can put it on when needed.
OSHO