The mind has no use. Its only use is dreaming, it imagines things that don’t exist in reality and believes their existence, which gives rise to misery, suffering and never ending drama of the human life.

The brain’s use is predicting the environment. That’s what is called “thinking”. All animals think, not just humans. But humans have language, and are also capable of abstract conceptual thought. Our brains are very potent, so we have the capacity to learn and analyze our environment to a significantly greater degree than most animals do. But it doesn’t mean animals don’t think, they just don’t think in language. The brain also controls a large number of bodily functions, and, in itself, is an inseparable part of the body.

Thinking about the dream you’re having is what usually rises to the level of consciousness in the separated state. That gives the illusion, very common in spirituality, that all thought is bad thought. The reality is, only self-referential thought is the real culprit. You can think of the mind as the brain’s imagination run amok. The character of the dream, the persona, only exists in the mind, but it’s believed to be real, so the mind obsessively ruminates about yourself, your past, your future, how you could improve yourself, the meaning of life, what you must achieve, other people etc. This is heard as the voice in your head, the constant narrator of your own life, but the dreaming also runs much deeper than that.

Animals and enlightened people don’t dream, so they don’t think about those things. Most of the time, there’s nothing to think about, really. When you’re looking at a beautiful sunset, what is there to think about? What’s there to think about when you’re eating? Why? It just distracts you from the taste of the food. When it’s time to think, you think.

Contrary to the popular opinion, enlightenment has nothing to do with thought, and everything to do with emotion. In meditation, practicing to focus your attention on the body and not getting lost in the constant rumination of the mind is needed to start diving into the well of suppressed emotion, which you always carry with you under the layer of obsessive thinking. Even more importantly, disidentifying with thought may help you find the witness of the dream, and become it, rather than the dream character. Then the dream starts to slowly dissolve. That’s why trying to be the watcher of thoughts can be very productive. This witness of the dream often times is simply called “consciousness” or “awareness”.