Is it necessary to disidentify yourself from the mind as if it is outside you?

Isn't it necessary to disidentify yourself with the mind -- as if it is outside you?

No, it is not outside you. It is inside. If you say that it is outside then there is no inside and no outside. Then you are part of the universe. But then again, it is inside. Whatsoever is happening in you is happening in you. You have to throw it out. If you just go on watching, it is possible that meditation may result, but it is a very long process. I have seen people watching for thirty years. They become a little bit silent, but basically the mind continues. The mind seems infinite -- you go on creating more of it again and again. So to me, one must first throw out the accumulation and then watch. That throwing out, that catharsis, is miraculous. Then you can relax very easily, then you can witness very easily. First identifying with your madness, in throwing it, gives you the capacity…

Osho said that there was no need to try to still the mind, to stop the thoughts. He said that just as the traffic goes by and one remains on the sidewalk, unaffected, just a watcher, so one should simply witness the thoughts as they went by. We are not our thoughts, and recognising that we are the witness is enough. The very acceptance of the thoughts makes one more relaxed. The relaxation helps to create a distance, to separate oneself. To evaluate a thought as good or bad means that you are attached to your thoughts -- so one should not put labels on them.] ... put yourself aside, sit under a tree, and just watch the traffic. Soon, one day, the traffic disappears and the road is empty. Suddenly there is an interval and in that interval is meditation. But that interval cannot be created or cultivated.

By knowing oneself as the individual witnessing self of the intellect, and all its moods, and cultivating such feelings as "I am that," one should renounce any identification with all things except the self. After ceasing to follow others, one should create a distance with one's own body. Then one should stop following scriptures and give up one's identification with the self also.

WHEN A YOGI IS ROOTED IN THE SELF, HIS MIND IS DESTROYED BY FOLLOWING RIGHT METHOD, RIGHT LISTENING, AND HIS FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, AND BY SEEING OTHERS AS HIS OWN SELF. HE THEN, CONTEMPLATES THE SELF, INSIDE THE HEART, WITHOUT GIVING AN EAR TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY, WITHDRAWING HIS ATTENTION FROM THE OBJECTS OF THE SENSES: SOUND, TOUCH, SIGHT, TASTE AND SMELL COLLECTIVELY; AND HE DOES NOT GIVE IN TO SLEEP OR FORGETFULNESS OF THE SELF. The word "witnessing" is one of the most significant words, particularly in Eastern spiritual alchemy. This word is a key word. So we must understand what witnessing means. We act, we do something, and the moment we do it we become the doer -- you walk, you become the walker. But there is one more possibility -- to remain a witnesser, to remain a witness. Walk, eat, or do whatsoever; don't be identified with…

Why are we normally not able to feel disidentified with the body?

You are totally identified with your body because normally there is no gap between you and your body. What you are doing, your body is doing, and vice versa. You and the doings of your body are identified as one and the same. But when the body takes its own course, it becomes an automaton. Things begin to happen which you had never planned, which you never thought possible. "Am I doing this? Am I feeling this?" And you know that you are not doing it. You did not will it but still the dance goes on -- and vigorously, too. Then there is a gap. The gap between the doer and the doing is there: you are not doing it. Now the body has become an automaton. Consciousness cannot identify itself with an automaton. You cannot identify yourself with a machine unless the machine works according to your will.…

Beloved Osho, inside, there is something that I cannot look at, I can only be it. And then I am at the center of experiencing my mind, my body, and what comes to my senses. This feels ecstatic, yet is very subtle, and easily disappears when I again identify with what is experienced. Is this my mind entering by a back door, or am I going in the right direction?

Prem Vijen, the experience that you are going through happens to everyone when he first comes into contact with his being. Our whole experience of the past is of identification. When you are full of anger, you don't say, "I see anger in my mind," you say "I am angry." In fact you are not angry, you are just a watcher. The anger is on the screen of the mind. But identification is the greatest spiritual disease. We get very easily identified because for centuries that has been our habit. So when for the first time you get out of identification, you become centered, naturally you cannot see your being, just as you cannot see your eyes. To see your eyes you need a mirror and to see your being you need a master, or someone who is already totally centered. In his presence you may be able to see…