How to rise above thoughts?

We are addicted to out minds. If you disagree with me… try and stop your mind… sit back and think of nothing… is it possible? is it uncomfortable?… of course it is…The reality is that our minds create a lot of falsehoods. For addicts it gives a false sense of pleasure that usually culminates in pain and sadness. So what can we do about?

It is, at least in my opinion, not surprising that what we believe about ourselves (our self image) is formed based on our personal and cultural conditioning. This creates an alter-personality, driven by superficiality (like the outer layer of an onion https://path2presence.com/2019/04/15/day-to-day-fight-with-compulsion/). This phenomenon has also been described by Eckhardt Tolle as the phantom self or ‘ego’. The consistent chatter of the mind that results over years of conditioning a false self, created by the unconscious identification with the mind. Mind believes that by focusing on the past and future, wealth, etc etc that it protects us. This is derived from the primitive fact that we once had to hunt and gather and protect ourselves from predators. So the mind had to be functioning at all times for self-preservation. But using our higher cortical abilities we evolved, hunting and gather occurs at the supermarket, and there is no prehistoric tiger or other creature coming to eat us in our sleep. Sadly, some of us the reptilian brain (the driver of mind for most of us) may not have evolved along the same lines and instead creates a lot of noise. So what is the key to seeing mind? According to Tolle, being present. I think a step towards is just stopping and accepting that the present is all you can really change. The past is gone and the future is not written. The future is only influenced by the choices and actions we make in the present- its all we control….. Accepting the presence for what it is sounds stupid on the surface. However, if you stop and close your eyes and just breath- letting go of all thought– there is a liberation that can occur. I have felt this only a few times… and the goal is to try and be in this place everyday…