Humans have big problems.
And at the center of all of those problems is Sem or Mind.
What is mind? Mind is the eight to nine separate parts of the brain that light up when Self is active. Mind is the egotistic, self-glorying manager that lets you know how wonderful you are, how pretty you are, and if irony is in vogue, just how attached mind is to the evolutionary schema.
Self on Facebook and Tik-Tok is a going thing. Any female or male desiring attention makes clips. Some like to pose in gyms, some like to talk shit as they put on makeup. All is nothing but a vainglorious display. They remind me to the Australian jewel beetle. The males of the species used to hump brown beer bottles, thinking the bottles were the big rumps of females desiring procreation. They almost humped themselves into extinction. Same really. Tik-Tok is the new Self humping application.
But what else is there but Self?
One Dzogchen exercise this bag of neurons likes to do is remembering that Self claims consciousness as its own product. But in skill-based applications like Advaita Vedanta and Dzogchen (as well as in the evolutionary philosophy of Donald Hoffman), consciousness is ancient, and consciousness is primary. We bags of neurons are caught in it like flies in amber. But I digress. Back to the exercise. First, realize that the true status of mind is emptiness. It’s clear like space. Apps like thoughts float through it, begging for attention. In order to rid yourself of thoughts, treat them like drifting clouds. However, if thoughts possess “you,” then the following is suggested.
Dzogchen teacher Jackson Peterson teaches that “we” should always remember that “we” are the “knowing in all circumstances.” Let me break that down. Pure consciousness, gnosis, knowing, is like a transparent corkboard you place notes on (notes are thoughts here). To see only the notes, forgetting that the board (or knowing) exists, you lose sight of reality. Knowing, like the example in the above paragraph, is the clear dynamic that thoughts are trapped within. To be the “knowing in all circumstances” trumps mind/Sem. Likewise, in Advaita Vedanta, you are the Universal Consciousness.
So, if you are having emotional trouble with thoughts, just be the “knowing” the thoughts depend upon in the real scheme of things.