I got to that kind of a state a few years ago, it's kind of like like accepting there is no 'good' or 'bad' (Not exclusively in the moral sense,), as those things are things I create to escape from pain (and your ego ceates an ientity of all th 'good' things) - necessary, yet something that can go too far, and if you 'don't worry' and just 'relax' then living can become a whole lot more bareable.
I'd think to myself 'what's wrong? It's okay, you're not being stabbed in the face by acrazy axe murderer. What
is 'wrong' anyway? And what's bad
about this 'wrong', or being so? Your 'self' is in no way static; it's an ever changing fluid thing, there's no 'good' or 'bad' in here, just 'you'; and a true unrefined self is everything and nothing it is neither 'good' nor 'bad' (as there is no good or bad when it comes to a self) it just 'is'. Shadow selves come from the restriction and categorizing that comes with thought; from not acepting there is no true 'good' or 'bad''
This is why the things we're unable to put into words are normally the most powerful, real things to us; we can't seperate the bad parts from the good parts; can't define it - each thing a concept is made up from has associations for us, one's mind cannot help but think, and associate. If we can't define it, we can't take it apart, we just accept that 'it' 'is'.
If you stop thinking of yourself as a thing that's temporal it also helps. You are this constantly morphing set of reactions to your perceptions of your reality - in the 'right now that is forever' the author was talking about.
We distinguish good and bad for self preservation -
socially - a 'good' person will fit in with the 'group',
presently - my immediate circumstances, physical discofort, needs and so on.
When the author talks about the mind, I think of it as the thing that categorizes things, on one hand to help you comprehend in a way that makes sense to you - in this respect thinking is limiting; as, as the author says, we all have our own way of thinking, of percieving.
On the other we categorize according to our own sense of 'good' and 'bad', and so on.
The ego needs to exist in order for us to function, and for it and us to function we need a solid identity; a solid 'good' we continually define and attempt to move towards. The more solid an identity we have, the stronger our ego becomes - and the stronger our shadow becomes.
It's good to have an identity, but it's okay to 'relax'
.
Sorry for the waffle, I get carried away with that...just my 2 cents...
