The other thing which has helped me see all this clearer, to see the role that the blind instinctual passions play is having a dog.
A dog does not have the ability to be intelligent and so his reactions perfectly demonstrate how ‘I’ function deep down.
We have been trying to train poncho out of his separation anxiety and when he is experiencing those panic attacks when we leave it is so clear that these affective mechanisms take no note of any intelligent reasons, any factual information etc, they are simply wired to fire at a certain stimulus, and so if the stimulus is present the passions are triggered, once they are triggered the threat is ‘real’.
I can see this with poncho, he might spot a shadow somewhere and all of a sudden he is on high alert, there is ‘danger’, of course he is not aware of this happening but I can see that this organism is currently perceiving a ‘real threat’, whereas I am looking at this shadow and giggling.
But it is not so different in us humans, these passions are indeed blind, and they do not respond to reasons and facts. They need to be exposed and seen for what they are, I can never talk ‘myself’ out of ‘being’ with ‘good reasons’, these things happen on a level that simply does not respond to reasoning, to attempt to do so is to perform what we call intellectualising/psychologising/philosophising (I think pseudo-actualising should be added to the list too!). But they do respond to something, to the ability of this brain to be aware of its own functioning and as such to progressively see these passions for what they are - blind aka silly.